Dom Casmurro (Library of Latin America)
The unreliable narrator and the fictional memoir are long-standing literary  traditions. Nineteenth-century Brazilian author Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis uses  both to brilliant effect in his novelDom Casmurro. Narrated by Bento Santiago,  this memoir looks back over a life filled with the suspicion of betrayal: Bento is  convinced that his wife had an affair with his best friend, and that his son was the result  of it. Though he has no real evidence to support this belief, Bento becomes so obsessed  with it that, in the end, he commits crimes far worse than the suspected adultery to  avenge himself. The memoir itself is a kind of justification for his actions; Bento, now  alone, recreates the environment of his childhood and attempts to rewrite the facts of his  life--in essence, reconstructing the past.Among readers familiar with Latin American literature, Machado is considered a master.  His novels blend black comedy with deadly accurate social commentary and an unerring  perception of human psychology to create works that are brilliant, complex without being  opaque, and joys to read. The Oxford University Press edition is ably translated by John  Gledson and accompanied by critical essays that will help orient readers unfamiliar with  Machado's work.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.