Mommy, am I cult?

Review to come.

pending review

pending review

I like that it's not just about boys, it's about family and friendship too.

The love triangle though, I thought it was a cheap plot device.

Vampyre with a Y, I do not like you.

Author seems too distracted by words to build a compelling writing. The sentences are stuck, they don't flow, they don't have life. Paragraphs are too long, pace is not very good for such a short novella.

I was surprised, since this is a classic.

review to come

Review to come.

A young orphan woman is manipulated into marriage into a young hot billionaire CEO by his billionaire father, that uses money, employment and the fact that she is orphan to make her feel "in family". Even the hot young CEO, who is also being manipulated, is a prick who ignores her free will and threatens her into marriage.

I thought the manipulation would be the great problem to be solved at the climax, but there was just a misunderstanding that you can find in any soup opera out there.

If the protagonist wouldn't be such bland goody two shows, I'd bother more.

Let's just remember, guys, it's not abusive if he is a billionaire. Have you never heard of 50 Shades of Grey?

I gave two stars for the dog.

I want a Gavin for myself, so obviously I have a problem! Damn, you sexy villain!

Useful tips. Very down to earth and objective.

Abandoned at 31%.

Eça is a great writer, and you should read [b:Cousin Bazilio: A Domestic Episode|716282|Cousin Bazilio A Domestic Episode|Eça de Queirós|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348632344s/716282.jpg|702533], [b:The Maias|99243|The Maias|Eça de Queirós|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348543067s/99243.jpg|1238374] or, my favorite, [b:The Crime of Father Amaro|1008335|The Crime of Father Amaro|Eça de Queirós|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348332174s/1008335.jpg|1064530]. I don't care if you have to forage the land for old editions, learn Portuguese or make a pact with the devil: if you are serious about getting acquainted with books worth reading, [a:Eça de Queirós|6913270|Eça de Queirós|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1360063685p2/6913270.jpg] is a name you can't ignore .


Of course, that doesn't mean I'd love every single thing he wrote. [b:A Cidade e as Serras|1092477|A Cidade e as Serras|Eça de Queirós|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1244543352s/1092477.jpg|1079192] is an incomplete work, sold like it was a finished work. Not to diminish Eça's merits: he died mid-editing the book, and we can't blame the guy for dying. So what we have in hands is a narrative that is not even half polished, since by the page 20 I could already see that his prose became prolix and lacked the certain bite and hilarity that the beginning had.


I know there is some interesting criticism in this book, but the way it's delivered put me off (again, not the guy's fault, it is a first draft). And I have to confess, I'm not a fan of this lyric, sensory Eça. I like my Eça ruthless, mocking and uncomfortably empathetic. I see a little bit of this Eça in [b:A Cidade e as Serras|1092477|A Cidade e as Serras|Eça de Queirós|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1244543352s/1092477.jpg|1079192], but not enough.

This book is too much for my poor politically correct heart. In fact, it is so sexist, even your sexist friend will find it extremely sexist.

We have a protagonist, a bookworm of the sea and a zen Buddhist, who gets called a nerd by one of his colleagues. Offended, he decides to freak out around the world with Zorba, a sensual, vivid, ignorant man who plays the part of unexpected mentor.

I don’t know if I have seen too much afternoon movies, but the premise seems old. But this was written in 1946, so let’s forgive any occasional clichet.
That’s not my issue with this book.

Let’s say a black person reads a book with a character that says racist things all the time. And more: the racist character is the main portal to “life lessons” at the story, a kind of indirect mentor whose actions make the protagonist think and reach to life changing conclusions. By the time the black reader would finish the book, he would probably dislike the book for its racism. And almost everyone would understand.

So here we go, the mentor in question is Zorba, who might not be racist, but is an avowed rapist and makes an offensive remark towards women… every time he can.

And this reviewer right here happens to be a woman.

I won’t be able to transcript the passages, since I read the book in Portuguese, but it all boils down to:


Women are full of tricks. They can even trick God.
Women are also the devil, by the way. When you touch a woman, you touch the horns of the devil.
Women don’t want to be free. So they are obviously not human.

“Oh, but the book was written in the 1940s, Amanda! The author only meant to show misogyny, not defend it!”

Hmmmm, would that be true? Keep Reading.

When he mentions his war experience, Zorba told how he and his Russian fellows used to rape: at the beginning the women cried and fought, for what Zorba calls them mean– of course, because women that resist rape are totally mean!)… then, slowly they’d stop resisting and start moaning. – Yes, you read that right. Zorba actually descripted women as enjoying being raped.

Not outraged yet? Let’s keep reading.



THE CASE OF THE PERV OLD MAN:
You are a cute girl walking down the streets, when an old man, who you never saw in your entire life, sitting down at the streets just so he could stare at pretty girls like you. What do you think of him?
( ) He is a creep
( ) He is a perv
( ) He is a pervert with too much time on his hands
(X) He is a beautiful complex soul that just wants to absorb all the beauty of life!

In the other day, the same perv old man asks you to come closer and, against your better judgement, you approach him. The old man then touches your face. Out of nowhere. What do you do?
( ) Call him an old perv and tell him to do that thing with himself.
( ) You’re a lady, so you immediately excuse yourself and leave, but you mentally call him an old perv and tell him to do that thing with himself.
(X) Ask him what is going on, because if he is touching your face out of nowhere it’s obviously because he is passing through a deep existential crisis.

Talking to the perv, you discover his great existential crisis is the fact that he is old and won’t be able to have sex with all the pretty women in the planet. What do you think of such a creature?
( ) He is a pervert
( ) He is an egomaniac pervert
( ) He is an egomaniac pervert with too much time on his hands
(X) He is a beautiful complex soul who just wants to absorb all the beauty in the world

If you didn’t check the answers of the last spot, I regret to inform that you, just like me, are a normal person with a brain that is incapable of understanding over sophisticated works of art.

I get it, I get it, that passage is about the pain of being mortal. However, couldn’t he pass the message some other way?

Such misogyny even contaminates the wise nerd Buddhist protagonist. He wishes he would stop being so respectful to women, and would barge into a woman house and just take her. That’s what being a man means to him.

So, invading women’s houses and raping women = being a man. Not invading women’s houses and not raping women = Not being a man.
So, fellow simple minded person, do we agree on that?

But the worst is about to come. And here is the ultimate proof that the book in itself is misogynist: it not just shows misogyny, but validates it. There is spoilers, but honestly, I wouldn’t recommend reading the book anyway.



THE CASE OF THE HOT WIDOW
We have a hot widow at a small village. She is the local muse. Some boy fell in love with her, but she wasn’t interested. At the desperate pitfalls of the friendzone, the boy decides to kill himself.
And the village punishes her for it.

Ok, blame it on the simple-minded villagers. The author is not at fault, right?!
So, what happens? SHE IS DECAPITATED.
I MEAN IT. SHE IS DECAPITATED FOR NOT BEING INTERESTED IN SOME GUY.

And what is the protagonist take on this?

A woman gets decapitated for not being interested in a boy. What do you think of the whole thing?
( ) WHAT A HELL
( ) THAT’S MESSED UP
( ) YEAH, LET’S GET OUT OF HERE
(X) OMG THAT WAS SO FAIR AND NECESSARY

So, are you still not outraged?

P.S.: In despite of everything, Kazantzakis does have some interesting thoughts. Being raised in a politically hostile environment, he had some good quotes on freedom. And his writing style is fantastic.

Definitely the less impressive of Machado's works. None of the things I like about him is present in this novel: no humor, no acute critique, no spirited characters, no language playings... None of it. I couldn't care much for the characters. Feels like Machado burned all of his best in previous works and there was nothing left to make up for this.

"I’ve never believed in women toning down their skills to make themselves more palatable to men. When you pretend diamonds are glass, they end up in the hands of those who cannot appreciate them.”

Amen, romantic hero. Amen.

THERE ARE TWO TYPES OF WRITERS. The first one writes for his public, and the last writes for himself.

Clarice is the kind that writes for herself, and it shows in her works. Specially in this novella.



But it's okay, because it's Clarice Lispector, a woman who looks like an old Hollywood sexy villain, the embodiment of a mid-century sophistication that we, poor modern selfie-crazed creatures will never have the power to emulate. And feminism has never been so efortless as in Gertrudes.

AND SHE PUBLISHED HER FIRST BOOK WHEN SHE WAS JUST 22 YEARS OLD. Let's try not to die in envy.

The Hour of the star begins with a mysterious narrator fixated for a woman. He begins saying that he will tell his story in "simple words"... and, in a 10-page poetic lucubration follows, repeats that 100 thousand times, along with how he intended to write the story.

The story per se only begins at page 26. So much for "simple story telling".

The woman in question is a Northeastern immigrant. And, like any Northeastern Brazilian in XX-century literature, she suffered a lot with famine and poverty. (Graciliano Ramos can provide fantastic exceptions. Or Lygia Fangundes Telles.)

So in the beginning it is reaaally slow, but the pace picks up fast and suddenly we can't just stop reading. Figures of speech are interesting, but not too overwhelming like they are in the first half.

I recommend for the ones who enjoy "poetic" writing. But, if you are a poor little analytical mind, like me, who enjoys clinical phrasing a la Herman Hesse, consider skipping a few pages from the start.