The book has been written like a first person memoir narrated by bentinho santiago or as his friends call him “don casmurro” aka “sir grumpy”.
Story starts from when teenage bentinho realize that he is totally in love with his friend and neighbour capitu and from there we follow him through the years as he marries capitu, finds a best friend in escobar, becomes a father and feel like the happiest man the world right before his life crashing down right infront of his eyes.
Story is simple but not boring, writing style is quite humorous, especially in parts where old bentinho’s grumpiness comes out. But what makes this book imo especial is that it does an amazing job of showing us unreliablity of bentinho as narrator. Throughout the book he forgets things, confuses stuff and some times even outright lies. Without spoiling(if spoiler even matters for a book published more that two hundred years ago) something happens near the end where depending on your interpretation of it bentinho can comes across as a tragic figure betrayed by those closest to him or a cruel man that made his and his loved one’s life miserable just because he couldn’t let go of his jealousy.
If you like classics or books with unreliable narrators please do yourself a favour and read it, you wont regret it.
by danialnaziri7474
4 Comments
He’s so good! Also recommend The Alienist, Brás Cubas and Esau & Jacob.
Dom Casmurro is very often a mandatory read for Brazilian students. Machado de Assis is regarded as the best Brazilian author of all time (not the most known, unfortunately)
Thanks, I need something to listen to today. I see the following stories for free via librivox in English: The Attendant’s Confession, The Fortune Teller, Life. Anyone read all three, can recommend?
Do yourself a favor and stop telling people to do themselves a favor. It’s a pretentious, patronizing expression that reads even worse than it sounds out loud.