To the victor, the potatoes!

[duffmensch]

For those of you still mourning the death of DFW, you may find comfort--as I have--in the discovery of a (until recently) relatively unknown genius writer by the name of Machado de Assis. I cannot be enthusiastic enough in this recommendation; it's like Fielding, Twain, Kafka and Nabokov all got together and had a baby... in 19th century Brazil.

Comments

[soulofajedi]

Wow, sweet! Any recommendations on what to start with? My craptastic library only has Don Casmurro. I want to know the specifics about Fielding/Twain/Kafka/Nabokov love child.

[duffmensch]

Apparently, he wrote some not-so-remarkable books early on, but anything after 1880 or so is a masterpiece, starting with Epitaph for a Small Winner. So far I have read Philosopher or Dog?, which is the source of my appraisal, so I don't know if the novel's structure (Fielding) or intrusive, "genteel" narrator (Twain) are as characteristic of his other books as this one. From what I gather, the "below-the-surface" qualities I attribute to Kafka and Nabokov are a constant in his work; despite his stories' relatively placid exteriors, you can mine out fucked up psychological, symbolic, philosophical and linguistic artifacts as long as you care to.
So, Don Casmurro falls well within Machado's "genius" period, which means it's bound to be amazing, if not exactly in the way that I've described. I plan on devouring the rest of his oeuvre as soon as I have a break in my reading schedule (what a burden it is to read 5-6 books a week for a living!), so do tell me what you think if you end up reading it.

[duffmensch]

Here's a link to a recent NY times article on Machado:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/13/books/13mach.html?_r=1&ei=5070&emc=eta1&oref=slogin