TITLE – A CHAPTER OF HATS AND OTHER STORIES BY MACHADO DE ASSIS .
SOURCE – LIBRARY
Machado Assis is considered the godfather of south american fiction been born in 1839 he was born in to a poor family and eventually rising to become a civil servant and respect writer in his own lifetime the first writer to develop a unique style of writing with influences from the european writing of the time Maupassant ,Chekov .Now the stories are all based in and around Rio in the late 1800’s ,what seems an emerging city and vibrant characters appear from the pages ,the main title story is of a wife and her attempts to get her husband to change his hat ,in other stories there are students drink rats blood ,a love triangle sailors on shore leave .
the choice of hat is not an indifferent act ,as you might suppose ;its is governed by a metaphysical principle .don’t imagine that a person buying a hat is committing a free,voluntary act;the truth id there obeying an obscure determinism .the illusion of freedom is rooted in the purchaser .
a brief description of buy a hat
Now I want to love this book when I ordered it from the library ,in parts I did but in other places I found his prose hard to connect with ,I have at time struggled with other prose of the era by other writers .But the stories I did connect with shone through and Machado humour and laconic wit shone through ,he is a bit like a brazilian Saki at times with the stories poking and highlighting the middle classes and the foibles ,in this exotic capital as it was finding it feet in the world ,It was a great introduction to a writer who I will try again Kinna at Kinna reads suggest I try one of his novels, so I will at some point ,the translation by John Gledson is neat and functional ,the book may suffer from a little stiffness at times whether that iz due to translation or the writing is hard to say .so a real up and down journey for me through this book but that is sometimes the case with short stories collection .
WINSTONS SCORE –
IS A SLOTH VERY BRAZILIAN AND LIKE THIS BOOK NEEDS TO BE READ SLOWLY AND ABSORBED LIKE A SLOTH IT TOOK ME A WHILE TO WORK THROUGH THIS COLLECTION .
Interesting thoughts Stu, as you know I am on a quest (well I was until TGCP) to read much more Brazilian works before I head off there for a month or two. Assis is one of the authors I have gotten a few books of on the TBR pile and am really looking forward to. I will make sure I take them slowly though on your advice. (I will also be giving some of his books away in the next few weeks too!!)
I haven’t read Saki, should I?
oh I ll watch out for the quiz ,yes saki he is drly funny and well written ,all the best stu
Psst! You mean HAT-TRICK
I did kevin will change it ,thanks stu
Interesting, I think I’ll avoid this one if it is just hit and miss, for now anyway. I’ll be watching to see what you think of his novels though 🙂
yes kinna seemed to like his novel she read the other week ,all the best stu
Hey Stu, which of the stories did you like best? I’ve only read one book by a Brazilian author and did not like it. I need a palate cleanser:)
By the way, I like the scoring system!
the title story was the best also one about some sailors ,all the best stu
Stu, Machado de Assis’ Dom Casmurro and The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas are great favorites of mine–novels that are both witty and very playful in terms of the role of the narrator (the latter is narrated from beyond the grave, in fact) but kind of wistful at the same time somehow. I think you will like them given your appreciation of the metafiction and storytelling devices in Don Quixote, though of course they are a lot shorter at about only 200 pages each!
thanks richard I shall look them up all the best stu