Hello!! I have been away because I’ve been slowly writing posts when I feel like it, but it seems like even after almost two months, I only have five posts. But I thought I’d share them anyway, because if I procrastinate, I might not be posting on this blog until 2027!

Incidentally, I have been trying an experiment on my substack, where I’m posting some attempts at poetry and personal essays. If you’re interested, the first post is here and I was thinking about the order everything should be posted, but I’m not sure it works. I’d love to hear your thoughts if this is something you’re interested in.

After listening to a wonderful In Our Time episode on the works of Machado de Assis, I was inspired to pick up one of his works. Epitaph of a Small Winner was mentioned in the episode and since the library had a copy, I figured it was time to pick it up.

While I often find classics to be intimidating, Epitaph of a Small Winner was such a fun read. The premise is novel – the author is penning his autobiography after his death. As he puts it: “I am a deceased writer not in the sense of one who has written and is now deceased, but in the sense of one who has died and is now writing, a writer for whom the grave was really a new cradle”. After the unbelievable premise, the book ignores any aspect of the supernatural and proceeds to relate the death and life of its supposed-author, Braz Cubas.

There is, unfortunately, not much to like in Braz Cubas. While he is on the unlikeable side of unlikeable narrators, it’s not so much because he is repulsive but more because he doesn’t seem to have much positive qualities. He’s lucky to be born into a wealthy family, but he pretty much squanders that, although he does seem to retain a desire for success that is never fulfilled. If I were to go into a lot of detail on the plot, you might think this book is quite boring, but in fact it was a fun read because of the writing style. Cubas is an author who will comment on his work as he is writing it, and there are a lot of asides they help to dress up the plot and make it engaging.

Although this book was published in 1881, the translation I read had a very fresh tone and I wouldn’t have been surprised it if was published in the last couple of years! The short, punchy chapters also help to move things along and I finished the book in a couple of days.

There is a lot to uncover in this book which I’ve not even touched upon (also, I’ve forgotten a lot of the podcast content so it’s not like I can refer back to it), and I think I might return to it if I were ever in the mood to delve deep into the work. But even if you’re intending to read it purely for fun and not for literary analysis, Epitaph of a Small Winner is a great read and worth picking up.