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Chronicle of the Murdered House
Lúcio Cardoso’s 1959 novel—a true modern classic—tells the story of a traditional family’s slippage into social and moral decline. Employing a variety of narrative devices—including letters, diaries, memoirs, statements, confessions, and accounts penned by the various characters—the author weaves a complex and thoroughly engaging tale, hauntingly brought to life by a prose style unique in Brazilian literature.
592 pages, Paperback
First published January 31, 1959
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About the author
Lúcio Cardoso
36 books39 followersJoaquim Lúcio Cardoso Filho, known as Lúcio Cardoso (Curvelo, Minas Gerais, Brazil, August 14, 1912 – Rio de Janeiro, September 22, 1968), was a Brazilian novelist, playwright, and poet.
The son of an impoverished but prominent family in Minas Gerais, Lúcio Cardoso was the brother of Adauto Lúcio Cardoso, a congressman for the center-right União Democrática Nacional and later justice of the Supreme Federal Court; and of Maria Helena Cardoso, who became a respected writer herself as a memorialist, including the editing of the posthumous memoirs of her brother Lúcio (Por onde andou meu coração, 1967; Vida-vida, 1973; and Sonata perdida: Anotações de uma velha dama digna, 1979).
At an early age, after attending school in Belo Horizonte, Cardoso moved to Rio de Janeiro, where he got a job in the Equitativa insurance company. He soon came to the notice of the group of writers around the wealthy industrialist (and a poet himself) Augusto Frederico Schmidt, who published his first works. Many of these writers, including Otávio de Faria and Cornélio Penna, were, like Cardoso, Catholic - and, in the twin case of Cardoso and Otávio de Faria, both Catholic and homosexual. In a time when Brazilian literature was dominated by leftist, regionalist themes, these writers were less interested in the then-dominant political concerns of Brazilian writing than in inner experience and themes of human redemption and personal tragedy. This paramount value placed upon the subjective character of writing was a characteristic Cardoso shared also with his younger contemporary Clarice Lispector, who fell in love with Cardoso when she was a young woman, and who remained a close friend until his death.
Cardoso's first novel, Maleita (Malaria) - the story of an engineer stranded in a backwater in Minas Gerais - did not stray far from the dominant regionalist themes, which, however, he forsook after 1936, with his third novel Luz no Subsolo, in favour of psychological introspection.
Cardoso was enormously prolific in several genres, including the theater, where, together with the Afro-Brazilian activist Abdias do Nascimento, he started the Teatro Experimental do Negro, Brazil's first black theater company. With Paulo César Saraceni, he was responsible for the first feature-length film of the nascent Cinema Novo, Porto das caixas - based on a true story about a crime in the municipality of Itaboraí, then a backwater rural community in the State of Rio de Janeiro. Perhaps his most famous novel is Crônica da casa assassinada (Chronicle of the Murdered House), 1959, a Faulknerian saga of a decaying patriarchal family in Minas Gerais. In this novel, one of the chief characters, Timóteo, is the family's gay scion, who lives secluded in the ancestral mansion, always dressed in his mother's old clothes, and who stands for the unravelling of the traditional order embodied in the mansion.
A famous figure in the bohemian milieu of Rio de Janeiro—"Ipanema should be called Lúcio Cardoso," according to one friend—his health deteriorated because of his alcoholism and dependence on prescription drugs. On December 7, 1962, at the height of his creativity, he suffered a debilitating stroke that left him partially paralyzed. He struggled unsuccessfully to recover his ability to speak and write, and when that failed he turned to painting.
On September 22, 1968, following another stroke, he died in Rio de Janeiro.
The son of an impoverished but prominent family in Minas Gerais, Lúcio Cardoso was the brother of Adauto Lúcio Cardoso, a congressman for the center-right União Democrática Nacional and later justice of the Supreme Federal Court; and of Maria Helena Cardoso, who became a respected writer herself as a memorialist, including the editing of the posthumous memoirs of her brother Lúcio (Por onde andou meu coração, 1967; Vida-vida, 1973; and Sonata perdida: Anotações de uma velha dama digna, 1979).
At an early age, after attending school in Belo Horizonte, Cardoso moved to Rio de Janeiro, where he got a job in the Equitativa insurance company. He soon came to the notice of the group of writers around the wealthy industrialist (and a poet himself) Augusto Frederico Schmidt, who published his first works. Many of these writers, including Otávio de Faria and Cornélio Penna, were, like Cardoso, Catholic - and, in the twin case of Cardoso and Otávio de Faria, both Catholic and homosexual. In a time when Brazilian literature was dominated by leftist, regionalist themes, these writers were less interested in the then-dominant political concerns of Brazilian writing than in inner experience and themes of human redemption and personal tragedy. This paramount value placed upon the subjective character of writing was a characteristic Cardoso shared also with his younger contemporary Clarice Lispector, who fell in love with Cardoso when she was a young woman, and who remained a close friend until his death.
Cardoso's first novel, Maleita (Malaria) - the story of an engineer stranded in a backwater in Minas Gerais - did not stray far from the dominant regionalist themes, which, however, he forsook after 1936, with his third novel Luz no Subsolo, in favour of psychological introspection.
Cardoso was enormously prolific in several genres, including the theater, where, together with the Afro-Brazilian activist Abdias do Nascimento, he started the Teatro Experimental do Negro, Brazil's first black theater company. With Paulo César Saraceni, he was responsible for the first feature-length film of the nascent Cinema Novo, Porto das caixas - based on a true story about a crime in the municipality of Itaboraí, then a backwater rural community in the State of Rio de Janeiro. Perhaps his most famous novel is Crônica da casa assassinada (Chronicle of the Murdered House), 1959, a Faulknerian saga of a decaying patriarchal family in Minas Gerais. In this novel, one of the chief characters, Timóteo, is the family's gay scion, who lives secluded in the ancestral mansion, always dressed in his mother's old clothes, and who stands for the unravelling of the traditional order embodied in the mansion.
A famous figure in the bohemian milieu of Rio de Janeiro—"Ipanema should be called Lúcio Cardoso," according to one friend—his health deteriorated because of his alcoholism and dependence on prescription drugs. On December 7, 1962, at the height of his creativity, he suffered a debilitating stroke that left him partially paralyzed. He struggled unsuccessfully to recover his ability to speak and write, and when that failed he turned to painting.
On September 22, 1968, following another stroke, he died in Rio de Janeiro.
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December 27, 2023
Chronicle of the Murdered House is a tale of deterioration and dilapidation and in many ways it echoes the style of such known singer of decline as William Faulkner. The novel is also consonant with the later masterpieces Conversation in the Cathedral by Mario Vargas Llosa and The Inquisitors' Manual by António Lobo Antunes.
The narration comprises diaries, letters and confessions of partakers and accounts and reports of the witnesses of events.
And one fine day a femme fatale enters the scene…
Outwardly, everything might seem as cool and calm as life in the mire but inwardly everyone was torn apart with inner passions and fatal lusts. And every secret love was pernicious so the world of all the participants began to disintegrate…
Hell is what we ourselves create around us with our unreasonable doings.
The narration comprises diaries, letters and confessions of partakers and accounts and reports of the witnesses of events.
You will find us, immutable, at our posts, and the house exactly where it has always been. As time goes by, many things may get lost along the way without us even noticing, but others will grow and gather strength within us…
For us there remains, like weeds clinging desperately to a ruined wall, the nostalgia for what might have been, had we not destroyed it through our own weakness or negligence.
And one fine day a femme fatale enters the scene…
…she seemed like an island, complete and inaccessible, swept by winds that were not of our world. She could get up, talk, and even laugh as others laughed, but some force separated her from other people and created around her a troubling field of light from which she was constantly reaching out to those who passed.
Outwardly, everything might seem as cool and calm as life in the mire but inwardly everyone was torn apart with inner passions and fatal lusts. And every secret love was pernicious so the world of all the participants began to disintegrate…
Then, breaking free of all constraints, he suddenly burst out: “Father, what is hell?” This was not the question I was expecting and I stayed silent for a few moments, looking at the sun beating down on the tiles of the verandah. As if in the grip of some superior force, I was filled with an overwhelming desire to reply: “Hell is this: this house, this verandah, this homogenizing sun.” However, I did not and turned to look at him: “Ah, my son. Hell by its very nature is the most changeable of things. When all’s said and done, it is the manifestation of all of man’s passions.”
Hell is what we ourselves create around us with our unreasonable doings.
September 11, 2024
Wow. This novel is an utterly lush, hyperventilating, humid, and vividly rendered story, of people tearing one another apart. I loved it. It's ridiculously emotional and yet it never tips into the merely melodramatic, because the language is so gorgeous, and because the happenings, well, they just keep happening--one unexpectedly vivid and tumultuous scene after another.
Quite apart from the story, the novel approaches greatness because of the very different voices in which the story reveals itself--in fragments of letters and diaries and accounts, told from the points of view of many characters, each with his or her own prejudices and gaps in knowledge. The voices range from the meticulous and somewhat timid voice of "the pharmacist," to the over-the-top, gothic proclamations of Andre'. Each voice is unique and each adds to the story in unexpected ways.
Quite apart from the story, the novel approaches greatness because of the very different voices in which the story reveals itself--in fragments of letters and diaries and accounts, told from the points of view of many characters, each with his or her own prejudices and gaps in knowledge. The voices range from the meticulous and somewhat timid voice of "the pharmacist," to the over-the-top, gothic proclamations of Andre'. Each voice is unique and each adds to the story in unexpected ways.
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October 20, 2023Poucos livros terão produzido em mim o abalo que este produziu. Não ouso recomendar, a menos que o(a) leitor(a)esteja ciente de que irá defrontar-se com o pior da natureza humana. Os ciúmes, o orgulho, o pecado, a culpa, a falta de remorso, o suicídio, o incesto, a agonia e a morte são temas escalpelizados com um pormenor tal que fere e angustia. Uma ânsia de fugir destas páginas assaltou-me deveras. Certos relatos resgataram memórias de momentos maus que preferia manter na penumbra. Mas não posso negar a genialidade com que eles são descritos.
O desconforto acentuou-se ainda mais com os preconceitos, datados, é certo, que aqui pululam. Incomodam-me particularmente os que se associam ao cancro como um castigo purulento.
Quem se atrever nestas páginas deve fazer pelo menos o favor a si mesmo de ir até ao fim, que é surpreendente. Pelo menos para mim foi.
Não me atrevo a dar estrelas a esta obra. Sinto-a tão fora da órbita das classificações que não consigo de todo decidir-me entre um dois, pelo sofrimento que me incutiu, e um cinco, pela perícia da tormenta.
O desconforto acentuou-se ainda mais com os preconceitos, datados, é certo, que aqui pululam. Incomodam-me particularmente os que se associam ao cancro como um castigo purulento.
Quem se atrever nestas páginas deve fazer pelo menos o favor a si mesmo de ir até ao fim, que é surpreendente. Pelo menos para mim foi.
Não me atrevo a dar estrelas a esta obra. Sinto-a tão fora da órbita das classificações que não consigo de todo decidir-me entre um dois, pelo sofrimento que me incutiu, e um cinco, pela perícia da tormenta.
October 24, 2021
Não sei se vos diga para o lerem ou fugirem dele. Se forem pela primeira opção, saibam que vão entrar no mais sombrio dos cenários e conhecer uma história tenebrosa vivida por gente destruída, infeliz e solitária. Se forem pela segunda opção, então tenham noção de estar a perder um livro extraordinário, que vale o risco de demência, ainda que ao terminá-lo sintam necessidade de abraçar alguém, de ver e tocar coisas bonitas, de fazer algo que vos resgate do mundo opressivo onde mergulharam.
February 11, 2020
"Lúcio, estou com saudade de você, corcel de fogo que você era, sem limite para o seu galope"
— Clarice Lispector, A Descoberta do Mundo
O meu interesse em ler Lúcio Cardoso (1912-1968, Minas Gerais) surge através de Clarice Lispector — nas badanas das edições da Relógio D'Água há uma pequena biografia de Clarice onde refere que conheceu Lúcio Cardoso, por quem se apaixonou e a quem tentou em vão "salvar" da homossexualidade
Crónica da Casa Assassinada conta a história da uma família de Minas Gerais, outrora rica e conceituada, cujos descendentes estão em decadência — económica, social e moral — espelhada na própria casa, também ela em ruínas.
Os três irmãos Meneses:
— Demétrio, o irmão mais velho, tenta manter a imagem de grandeza dos velhos tempos. É casado com Ana, uma mulher apagada que vagueia pela casa, atormentada por sentimentos de inveja, raiva, paixão...
— Timóteo, o irmão homossexual, vive trancado no quarto há anos. Maquilha-se, usa as roupas e jóias da mãe e, na sua solidão voluntária, alimenta o ódio pela família e espera pela oportunidade de a destruir totalmente.
— Valdo é casado com Nina, que conhece numa viagem ao Rio de Janeiro e seduz com promessas de riquezas inexistentes.
A história é contada através de cartas, páginas de diário, confissões, depoimentos, etc, — não datados e em que passado, presente e futuro se confundem — de várias personagens, que são, supostamente, compilados por alguém que está a reconstituir a história da família.
Em resposta a um crítico literário, que classificou Crónica da Casa Assassinada como um romance imoral, por descrever um incesto, Lúcio Cardoso disse que o referido crítico não leu o livro até ao fim, porque incesto não há. Na minha opinião, Lúcio mente dizendo a verdade. Nina tem um relacionamento sexual com André; ele acredita que ela é sua mãe, ela acredita, ou não. O leitor, caso queira sentir-se menos desconfortável, apenas tem de confiar numa das personagens, que pode não ser sincera.
É também por esta ambiguidade — o romance não se esgotar ao termo da última página — que ele é, para mim, uma obra extraordinária. Não é fácil de ler; pela estrutura, que não segue uma ordem cronológica; pelas descrições da agonia de Nina — com um cancro que a vai apodrecendo em vida —; e por tanto sofrimento a que Lúcio Cardoso condena as suas personagens.
É esta a única liberdade que possuímos: a de sermos monstros para nós mesmos.
— Clarice Lispector, A Descoberta do Mundo
O meu interesse em ler Lúcio Cardoso (1912-1968, Minas Gerais) surge através de Clarice Lispector — nas badanas das edições da Relógio D'Água há uma pequena biografia de Clarice onde refere que conheceu Lúcio Cardoso, por quem se apaixonou e a quem tentou em vão "salvar" da homossexualidade
Crónica da Casa Assassinada conta a história da uma família de Minas Gerais, outrora rica e conceituada, cujos descendentes estão em decadência — económica, social e moral — espelhada na própria casa, também ela em ruínas.
Os três irmãos Meneses:
— Demétrio, o irmão mais velho, tenta manter a imagem de grandeza dos velhos tempos. É casado com Ana, uma mulher apagada que vagueia pela casa, atormentada por sentimentos de inveja, raiva, paixão...
— Timóteo, o irmão homossexual, vive trancado no quarto há anos. Maquilha-se, usa as roupas e jóias da mãe e, na sua solidão voluntária, alimenta o ódio pela família e espera pela oportunidade de a destruir totalmente.
— Valdo é casado com Nina, que conhece numa viagem ao Rio de Janeiro e seduz com promessas de riquezas inexistentes.
A história é contada através de cartas, páginas de diário, confissões, depoimentos, etc, — não datados e em que passado, presente e futuro se confundem — de várias personagens, que são, supostamente, compilados por alguém que está a reconstituir a história da família.
Em resposta a um crítico literário, que classificou Crónica da Casa Assassinada como um romance imoral, por descrever um incesto, Lúcio Cardoso disse que o referido crítico não leu o livro até ao fim, porque incesto não há. Na minha opinião, Lúcio mente dizendo a verdade. Nina tem um relacionamento sexual com André; ele acredita que ela é sua mãe, ela acredita, ou não. O leitor, caso queira sentir-se menos desconfortável, apenas tem de confiar numa das personagens, que pode não ser sincera.
É também por esta ambiguidade — o romance não se esgotar ao termo da última página — que ele é, para mim, uma obra extraordinária. Não é fácil de ler; pela estrutura, que não segue uma ordem cronológica; pelas descrições da agonia de Nina — com um cancro que a vai apodrecendo em vida —; e por tanto sofrimento a que Lúcio Cardoso condena as suas personagens.
É esta a única liberdade que possuímos: a de sermos monstros para nós mesmos.
November 3, 2024
It was easy to see what they had once been, this country nobility, with their crystal gleaming gently in the darkness, their dusty silverware attesting to a faded splendour, their ivories and their opals - yes, one certainly had a sense of comfort there, and yet it was merely a survival of things long gone. In this slowly disintegrating world, there seemed to be am evil gnawing away inside it, a latent tumour deep in its guts.
Chronicle of the Murdered House tells the tale of the the last dregs of the Meneses family, three brothers from a once proud family from the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, now in decline. The marriage of the youngest son Valdo to Nina, a sensuous, fashionable and captivating young woman from Rio, at first seems to breath life into the family, only in practice to accelerate its demise.
The story is told by the different family members, and those connected with them - servants, a priest, doctor and pharmacist - via letters, diaries, written reports and confessions.
The housekeeper Betty's first impression of the new mistress Nina reflects the impression she makes on everyone:
She wasn't just beautiful, she was intensely, violently seductive. She emerged from the car as if nothing existed outside the aura of her fascination - this was not were charm, it was magic.
She arrives with boxes of expensive dresses purchased from Rio at her husband's expense, expecting a hectic social life and that she has married into money. But the elder brother Demetrio immediately disillusions Nina, and indeed has to remind Valdo, as to the family's financial state:
"You know perfectly well what we are: a bankrupt family living in the south of Mines Gerais, a family that no longer has any cattle to graze, that lives from renting out the pasture it owns, although only when they're not parched dry, a family that produces nothing, absolutely nothing, to replace sources of income that long ago dried up. Our one hope is that we simply disappear very quietly here under this roof, unless of course someone generous soul" - and here he shot a quick glance at the mistress - "comes to our rescue."
Indeed Demetrio already borrows money from his own wife Ana's family. Ana came from a richer but less prestigious background and had soon realised that she made a mistake marrying Demetrio, settling for a loveless marriage, a dull and withdrawn life. But Nina's arrival, and Demetrio's immediate fascination with her, causes Ana to re-evaluate her own situation:
Ever since I came to this house like a fruit picked when still green, I had remained green and slightly hard, with a few bruises and lacerations here and there, but intact, preserved - and, for me, the world was stuck fast in that permanent state of coldness and deceit. Until the moment where, standing in front of the mirror, I suddenly saw my husband's look and understood the disdain he felt for me.
Demetrio is initially attracted to Nina, but soon strongly rejects her presence with the family, as she threatens to disrupt the established routine that is so important to him ,the facade that the family (their relatively poor financial state notwithstanding) is still a prestigious and enduring one:
It was in his nature to repel any abnormal occurrence, and even death itself, which, for others, was a decisive, unalterable fact, was for him an outrage and an affront against which he sternly set his face ... It was not mere fastidiousness, but rather a deep loathing of any kind of disturbance not only to his daily domestic routines, but to the rigid, solitary principles that were his refuge.
And the house also contains the decadent third-brother, Timoteo, who dresses in women's clothes (in a reversal of Maria Sinha, a matriach from the earlier generation, who dresses and behaved as a man). Timoteo is now confined to his room, on his brothers' orders, on pain of forfeiting his inheritance: even the servants are not supposed to deal with her, although the long-established housekeeper Betty, who at least in her mind is closer to one of the family than one of the servants, disregards this edict. Timeteo tells her:
There was a time when I believed I should follow the same path as other people. It seemed criminal, almost foolish to obey my own law. The law was a shared domain from which none of us could escape. I wore throttlingly tight ties, mastered the art of banal conversations, imagined I was the same as everyone else. Until one day, I felt I couldn't possibly go on like that: why follow ordinary laws when I was far from ordinary, why pretend I was like everyone else when I was totally different? Ah, Betty, don't look at me dressed as I am as a mere allegorical figure, I want to present others with an image of the courage I lack. I wear what I like and I go where I like, alas in a cage of my own making. That is the only freedom that is entirely ours, to be monsters to ourselves.
The story that follows contains adultery, illegitimacy, incest, suicide (deliberately induced by others), decadence and deception, taking us over almost 20 years, as Nina becomes pregnant, flees to Rio, then returns over a decade later to meet her son Andre, who the family took back to the family home after his birth. Andre's account opens the story and his relationship with his mother is more like that of a lover than a son.
But actually the plot is not that key to the novel and, stretched over c600 pages, the developments are actually quite limited. Instead the emphasis is on the psychological torment of the different family members, as Nina's presence disrupts everyone's established lives: indeed, in some respects, her husband Valdo seems the least impacted.
In terms of negatives, there are perhaps two minor ones:
- the epistolary format is at times I little contrived: characters putting on paper things in far more detail than they would in practice
- similarly to the otherwise very different The Essex Serpent, it is not always clear from what we read why the central character (Nina / Cora) is so captivating to every other character.
Nevertheless this is a powerful and fascinating novel.
The English translation is by Margaret Jull Costa, three-times Oxford-Weidenfeld translation prize winner and the most-ever longlisted translator for the Best Translated Book Award, and her mentee Robin Patterson. This is, per Goodreads, the 34th Jull Costa translation I have read (I suspect there are more than GR doesn't pick up), and the translation is to her usual excellent standard, and the English language edition was a worthy winner of the 2017 Best Translated Book Award.
Chronicle of the Murdered House tells the tale of the the last dregs of the Meneses family, three brothers from a once proud family from the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, now in decline. The marriage of the youngest son Valdo to Nina, a sensuous, fashionable and captivating young woman from Rio, at first seems to breath life into the family, only in practice to accelerate its demise.
The story is told by the different family members, and those connected with them - servants, a priest, doctor and pharmacist - via letters, diaries, written reports and confessions.
The housekeeper Betty's first impression of the new mistress Nina reflects the impression she makes on everyone:
She wasn't just beautiful, she was intensely, violently seductive. She emerged from the car as if nothing existed outside the aura of her fascination - this was not were charm, it was magic.
She arrives with boxes of expensive dresses purchased from Rio at her husband's expense, expecting a hectic social life and that she has married into money. But the elder brother Demetrio immediately disillusions Nina, and indeed has to remind Valdo, as to the family's financial state:
"You know perfectly well what we are: a bankrupt family living in the south of Mines Gerais, a family that no longer has any cattle to graze, that lives from renting out the pasture it owns, although only when they're not parched dry, a family that produces nothing, absolutely nothing, to replace sources of income that long ago dried up. Our one hope is that we simply disappear very quietly here under this roof, unless of course someone generous soul" - and here he shot a quick glance at the mistress - "comes to our rescue."
Indeed Demetrio already borrows money from his own wife Ana's family. Ana came from a richer but less prestigious background and had soon realised that she made a mistake marrying Demetrio, settling for a loveless marriage, a dull and withdrawn life. But Nina's arrival, and Demetrio's immediate fascination with her, causes Ana to re-evaluate her own situation:
Ever since I came to this house like a fruit picked when still green, I had remained green and slightly hard, with a few bruises and lacerations here and there, but intact, preserved - and, for me, the world was stuck fast in that permanent state of coldness and deceit. Until the moment where, standing in front of the mirror, I suddenly saw my husband's look and understood the disdain he felt for me.
Demetrio is initially attracted to Nina, but soon strongly rejects her presence with the family, as she threatens to disrupt the established routine that is so important to him ,the facade that the family (their relatively poor financial state notwithstanding) is still a prestigious and enduring one:
It was in his nature to repel any abnormal occurrence, and even death itself, which, for others, was a decisive, unalterable fact, was for him an outrage and an affront against which he sternly set his face ... It was not mere fastidiousness, but rather a deep loathing of any kind of disturbance not only to his daily domestic routines, but to the rigid, solitary principles that were his refuge.
And the house also contains the decadent third-brother, Timoteo, who dresses in women's clothes (in a reversal of Maria Sinha, a matriach from the earlier generation, who dresses and behaved as a man). Timoteo is now confined to his room, on his brothers' orders, on pain of forfeiting his inheritance: even the servants are not supposed to deal with her, although the long-established housekeeper Betty, who at least in her mind is closer to one of the family than one of the servants, disregards this edict. Timeteo tells her:
There was a time when I believed I should follow the same path as other people. It seemed criminal, almost foolish to obey my own law. The law was a shared domain from which none of us could escape. I wore throttlingly tight ties, mastered the art of banal conversations, imagined I was the same as everyone else. Until one day, I felt I couldn't possibly go on like that: why follow ordinary laws when I was far from ordinary, why pretend I was like everyone else when I was totally different? Ah, Betty, don't look at me dressed as I am as a mere allegorical figure, I want to present others with an image of the courage I lack. I wear what I like and I go where I like, alas in a cage of my own making. That is the only freedom that is entirely ours, to be monsters to ourselves.
The story that follows contains adultery, illegitimacy, incest, suicide (deliberately induced by others), decadence and deception, taking us over almost 20 years, as Nina becomes pregnant, flees to Rio, then returns over a decade later to meet her son Andre, who the family took back to the family home after his birth. Andre's account opens the story and his relationship with his mother is more like that of a lover than a son.
But actually the plot is not that key to the novel and, stretched over c600 pages, the developments are actually quite limited. Instead the emphasis is on the psychological torment of the different family members, as Nina's presence disrupts everyone's established lives: indeed, in some respects, her husband Valdo seems the least impacted.
In terms of negatives, there are perhaps two minor ones:
- the epistolary format is at times I little contrived: characters putting on paper things in far more detail than they would in practice
- similarly to the otherwise very different The Essex Serpent, it is not always clear from what we read why the central character (Nina / Cora) is so captivating to every other character.
Nevertheless this is a powerful and fascinating novel.
The English translation is by Margaret Jull Costa, three-times Oxford-Weidenfeld translation prize winner and the most-ever longlisted translator for the Best Translated Book Award, and her mentee Robin Patterson. This is, per Goodreads, the 34th Jull Costa translation I have read (I suspect there are more than GR doesn't pick up), and the translation is to her usual excellent standard, and the English language edition was a worthy winner of the 2017 Best Translated Book Award.
June 24, 2020
4.5 stars
I have been reading this book off and on for about 6 weeks, but it feels more like 6 months.
Long and overly dramatic, most of the action (and I use this term extremely loosely) happens in or within the grounds and smaller buildings of "the murdered house". It slowly peels back the layers of small secrets and yearnings and ponderings that somehow manage to fill the days of these idle, privileged, entitled few Menses family members. On the most part I really enjoyed this writing style, the various voices and journals, and confessions of the family and the villagers really worked for me. I am very glad that I made this journey through the decades that this story traverses through. A shorter novel would have worked a litltle better for me, I confess that a few times I did wish an early and unfortunate accidental end, to not just Nina, but to Valdo, André and Ana as well. I found them all to be self absorbed and insecure and simply had too much time on their hands, as did, obviously, the author? A good day of hard work would have knocked some sense into all of them. I am going to round this up to 5 stars because it was rewarding, despite some of these irritations.
Under non-pandemic reading conditions, I would have flown through this and enjoyed it more as a 5 star reading experience. I will add also, that I liked this translation and didn't spend too much time pondering what it would have been like to be reading it in it's original language.
Thanks to my Goodreads friends who brought this book to my attention as I am fairly certain that I would not have come to it on my own!
I have been reading this book off and on for about 6 weeks, but it feels more like 6 months.
Long and overly dramatic, most of the action (and I use this term extremely loosely) happens in or within the grounds and smaller buildings of "the murdered house". It slowly peels back the layers of small secrets and yearnings and ponderings that somehow manage to fill the days of these idle, privileged, entitled few Menses family members. On the most part I really enjoyed this writing style, the various voices and journals, and confessions of the family and the villagers really worked for me. I am very glad that I made this journey through the decades that this story traverses through. A shorter novel would have worked a litltle better for me, I confess that a few times I did wish an early and unfortunate accidental end, to not just Nina, but to Valdo, André and Ana as well. I found them all to be self absorbed and insecure and simply had too much time on their hands, as did, obviously, the author? A good day of hard work would have knocked some sense into all of them. I am going to round this up to 5 stars because it was rewarding, despite some of these irritations.
Under non-pandemic reading conditions, I would have flown through this and enjoyed it more as a 5 star reading experience. I will add also, that I liked this translation and didn't spend too much time pondering what it would have been like to be reading it in it's original language.
Thanks to my Goodreads friends who brought this book to my attention as I am fairly certain that I would not have come to it on my own!
January 23, 2019
Whoa. This was intense and astonishing. I’ll avoid plot details, because, frankly, they may put people off, but this dark and twisting story is so vivid and rich in detail, it feels as if the book itself is alive. For such a long book, it never dragged and I was never counting how many pages were left, rather I was pulled more and more deeply into the story. I’m glad this was a book club read because this is an experience that I feel would be incomplete without discussion.
July 21, 2024
"Honestly, that family!"
Ha, at this point I agree completely with the pharmacist whose report makes up one of the documents in the case: this Meneses family, indeed!
I expected something different from Cardoso given the fact that Clarice Lispector had been in love with him and he is a claimed influence on her work. Lispector's intense subjectivity and interiority is replaced here by Cardoso's baroque and sometimes quite demented tale of a family collapsing in on itself. Think Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher but at about twenty times the length and told in epistolary mode via letters, journals, reports and confessions.
I am sadly ignorant of Brazilian literature so have no idea how this sits against a Brazilian canon: for me, it taps into all kinds of western currents from Gothic claustrophobic houses (Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre) to Faulkner's Southern Gothic of tainted bloodlines and 'madness' (As I Lay Dying, A Rose for Emily), with an added ingredient of sin, grace and salvation narratives such as Melmoth the Wanderer.
There's a distinctively historical rather than modern feel to the setting and generalised concept of the story which revolves around a marriage which brings beautiful, manipulative Nina into the Meneses family with fatal consequences for all the other members and the broader household. Full of heightened, melodramatic deeds and happenings , this reads with a camp aesthetic to me with its disruptive artifice and operatic tone.
Don't expect characters with psychological roundedness or depth: they are moved around to fulfil their functions. Ana, though, another Meneses wife, turns out to be surprisingly resourceful and takes on an unexpected agency in the dissolution of the family.
The epistolary form captures some of the immediacy of letters and diaries but there isn't the dynamic of, say, Les Liaisons dangereuses or Clarissa, or, The History of a Young Lady where the materiality of letters play a part in shaping the narrative by the conditions of their writing or the fact of their concealment. Here the letters together with commissioned reports and other texts end up repeating events from slightly different angles though new information is also revealed with some 'ah ha!' moments
Overall, I enjoyed reading this but I'd be hard pressed to explain why this is regarded as such an important book - but that may well be my ignorance of Brazilian literary tradition. I'd love to know what I'm missing if Brazilian or more enlightened readers see this: please do comment to tell me more. 3.5 stars rounded down.
April 12, 2017
I was drawn to Chronicle of the Murdered House following the Mookse and Gripes group following of the Best Translated Book prize. I'm very glad to have read this (originally) 1959 Brazilian work. The translation was excellent I thought.
The events, the happenings, at Chacara are not in themselves fast moving or incident filled. This does not diminish the powerful messages; there's a brooding, atmospheric, claustrophobic, feel to the story; A sense of foreboding is present throughout.
Among the dysfunctional Meneses family, suspicion, neurosis, persecution, self doubt and duplicity abound.
Freudians will have a field day putting the pieces together!
A great read.
The events, the happenings, at Chacara are not in themselves fast moving or incident filled. This does not diminish the powerful messages; there's a brooding, atmospheric, claustrophobic, feel to the story; A sense of foreboding is present throughout.
Among the dysfunctional Meneses family, suspicion, neurosis, persecution, self doubt and duplicity abound.
Freudians will have a field day putting the pieces together!
A great read.
February 20, 2017
What a revelation! This book has every feature of a classic drama. This against the setting of a provincial town in Brazil. One setting, a few dramatic personages, a lot of themes that play a part in it and around which the drama unfoulds. The story is constructed from different statements from the different persons so you get a clear vision of it from every angle. What one tries to hide, is revealed by another... I'll look to more english translations of the work of Cardoso.
August 17, 2023
Uma obra prima da literatura em português que me parece deveria ser lida e discutida atentamente. Lúcio Cardoso é um autor que quero conhecer muito mais.
March 6, 2017
this, father, must be the devil's main talent: stripping reality of any fiction and placing it naked, in all its importance and anxiety, in the very center of a person's being.magnificent in every regard, lúcio cardoso's 1959 familial masterpiece, chronicle of the murdered house (crônica da casa assassinada), is a superlative novel deserving of a much wider english audience than it'll likely enjoy. the brazilian author (novelist, poet, and playwright), a dear friend and inspiration to clarice lispector (see benjamin moser's indispensable introductory biographical note: "bette davis in yoknapatawpha"), was both catholic and gay, elements that inform chronicle's narrative without being their focus. told from multiple perspectives across 56 chapters, cardoso's remarkable novel is compiled from each character's letters, diaries, reports, confessions, accounts, and statements – a stylistic choice that not only works wonderfully well, but also enriches the reader's perspective of each character and how they individually portray a shared, but singular reality.
but father, damnation is a fire that burns in solitude; sometimes one person burns, sometimes two, sometimes a whole community, but we are each alone in our own particular flame, sole owners of what we might call our evil or our crime.chronicle of the murdered house is the tale of the meneses clan, a once proud family in possession of a large estate which, like the family itself, has fallen into disrepair with the passing years. rife with silence, shadows, resentments, scandals, trysts, paranoia, secrets, duplicity, cruelty, scheming, infidelities, disloyalties, wounds (physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual), and other salaciousness, cardoso's saga is epic in scope and stirring in its execution. from its rich language to its impossibly conceived characters, its propulsive plot to its existential musings on god and goodness, chronicle of the murdered house is an absolutely exceptional work of fiction. ignore its brilliance at your peril.
and i had never felt so certain that, for as long as i lived, i would continue to proclaim the news that we human beings are pathetic, wretched creatures, and that, anywhere on earth, all we are ever offered is a closed door. everything else, alas, is a chimera, madness, illusion. everything i represented, like an island surrounded by the rough waves of that sea of death, was proof that the human race was doomed forever to a clamorous, oppressive solitude. no bridge exists, it never did; the judge in charge of our case denies us that. and so the power that invented us is equally wretched, for it also invented pointless longing, the rage of the slave, our perpetual wakefulness in this prison from which we will only escape through madness, mystery, and confusion.
*translated from the portuguese by margaret jull costa (saramago, marías, pessoa, de queirós, vila-matas, atxaga, et al.) and robin patterson (jull costa's mentee)
February 5, 2017
I should note that I didn’t buy this book. I attended the 2017 MLA convention here in Philly. On the last day of the convention the publisher representative, who was actually the president or someone high up in the structure, was dishing out the books for free. Take as many as you want free. So being the book slut that I am, of course I did.
Open Letter, the publisher, has a new fan and not because the books were free.
Because this book is wonderful.
Cradoso’s novel chronicles the fall of a family when a disruptive force enters the premise. It is one of those families that you can find a gothic book. A reviewer on a cover blurb makes reference to Faulkner, though the reference is somewhat misleading because Cradoso to my mind is the better writer. At the very least, one is not subjected to the level of confusion that seems to go hand and hand with Faulkner. Cradoso dazzles because the story is the center point, not the ability to dazzle.
This novel is told from various views, from various witnesses, and if the novel has a weak point, it is the similarity of the voices, for they are not entirely disc tint. In fairness, this could be a problem of the translation or because of translation.
The book is a wonder.
Open Letter, the publisher, has a new fan and not because the books were free.
Because this book is wonderful.
Cradoso’s novel chronicles the fall of a family when a disruptive force enters the premise. It is one of those families that you can find a gothic book. A reviewer on a cover blurb makes reference to Faulkner, though the reference is somewhat misleading because Cradoso to my mind is the better writer. At the very least, one is not subjected to the level of confusion that seems to go hand and hand with Faulkner. Cradoso dazzles because the story is the center point, not the ability to dazzle.
This novel is told from various views, from various witnesses, and if the novel has a weak point, it is the similarity of the voices, for they are not entirely disc tint. In fairness, this could be a problem of the translation or because of translation.
The book is a wonder.
June 13, 2020
An entertaining if, at times, emotionally overwrought tale of a family living in decline on an estate in the country whose equilibrium is upset by the arrival of the wife of one of the sons. Pretty much everyone's life is upset by her arrival in one way or another.
Yet another South American novel which makes good use of various different narrators (I counted at least 8)
Yet another South American novel which makes good use of various different narrators (I counted at least 8)
June 16, 2018
This book starts with the corpse at its end and leads us on a doomed journey along two time periods, approximately two decades apart, that detail the crumbling of a once-wealthy house, both in terms of its architecture and its family line, as it rots from sin and corruption. Achronologically and circuitously told, the events can be a little hard to keep straight, but everything happens twice anyway in a mirroring technique that underscores the gothic fatalism of the estate's collapse. The pacing is appropriately dirgelike, but the reading experience is never burdensome thanks to constantly shifting narrative perspectives and to another fantastic translation job by Margaret Jull Costa.
March 6, 2019
É um livro imenso em sua qualidade, a prosa do autor é de uma deliciosidade entre idas e vindas de pensamentos precisos e cheios de significado, curiosamente é isso que deixa um livro um tanto inverossímil, supostamente tecido sob o soar de diversas vozes há uma certa incredulidade que todos aqueles personagens escrevessem de forma tão íntima a um escritor consumado, como se todos eles estivessem na uniformidade e pico de sua escrita. Mas enfim, esse lapso não diminui a obra-prima que de fato é.
December 5, 2021
MARAVILHOSO!!!!
A segunda parte principalmente, onde finalmente as coisas começam a se encaixar; quando as reviravoltas acontecem e as certezas se desfazem. Quero ler tudo do Lúcio! E Nina!!! Ahhhh Nina, que personagem enigmática, única.
A segunda parte principalmente, onde finalmente as coisas começam a se encaixar; quando as reviravoltas acontecem e as certezas se desfazem. Quero ler tudo do Lúcio! E Nina!!! Ahhhh Nina, que personagem enigmática, única.
May 1, 2018
An extraordinary novel that elicits strong emotions... The unexpected events and the madness of the characters accompany the reader on a roller-coaster of an emotional journey. I have been captivated throughout the reading, from the first word to the last word; unable to put down the book for a second, if not for life's other obligations.
July 20, 2024
Updated 14 July.
I wonder whether I have the right literary vocabulary to express my thoughts about this book.
On the one hand, there is much about this book that left me unsatisfied. I thought the characterisation was weak. Even though the situations and mindsets of the Meneses family and of Betty, the Colonel, the pharmacist, the doctor were very different, I didn't have a strong sense of different voices and personalities as they expressed themselves in their writings. Just different perspectives and preoccupations.
And although the House, Chácara, was positioned as almost an additional character in the novel, and certainly its inhabitants expressed an attachment to it like a member of the family or as an essential part of the landscape, it never really came alive to me ([added 20 July] as a physical object), not in its shape, layout, colours or odours. Only in the separation between the House and the Pavilion me ([added 20 July] and its significance for the characters themselves)
And finally, the emphases on God, sin and grace, whether as expressing the essentials of life or as rejecting them, left me cold. Of course, my not being an adherent of that brand of religiosity could well explain my distance from that element of the novel, but still it felt "tacked on" to me, almost as a straw man, with no character actually embodying any true spirituality or any quest for it, with the exception of Father Justino, who in the end advocates for a fluid kind of religion and morality that would have served the Meneses well. Using Father Justino, Cardoso is simply portraying the emptiness of a traditional style of religion, an argument that just isn't relevant or new to me.
There is so much packed into this novel, and sometimes I felt Cardoso couldn't resist using it to say everything that mattered to him, whether or not it fit into the shape of the story. Power, hierarchy, family relationships, homosexuality, religion. Aestheticism versus spirituality versus ethics. Relationships among the classes. The urban life and the provinces.
And yet I still feel that the novel was a masterpiece of some kind. Apart from the deficiencies in characterisation referred to above, I thought the letter/journal/confessions format worked very well, with the multiplicity of viewpoints, the partial knowledge of the characters and the slow development both of our understanding of them, their pasts and the incidents at Chácara circling around, inching slowly forward and more deeply. I loved the slow plot revelations, the continual thickening of our understanding of the characters, their relationships, and the key events at the two time periods of Nina's residence at Chácara. And the writing was beautiful. Although with a translated text there is always a question of what is in the original and what is added, the phrasing, the details and the structure of the sentences, again circling around in ruminations and observations, certainly represent Cardoso's artful portraits of the characters's anguished minds.
Original thoughts.
It will take me awhile to put my thoughts together about this, but here's a placeholder for my review.
I loved living in the dense, complex prose, which was slow going but also for me very readable and understandable, and there were many, many brilliant descriptions of thoughts, feelings, and settings within the house..
The structure of the novel, in letter, journal and diary format worked well for me. The multiple perspectives added to the mysteries of the plot, even though one character seemed artificially to suppress the revelation of certain key facts.
The negatives for me:
Although the feelings and psychology of the characters were explored extensively and articulated in all their complexity and contradictions, I still felt that the characters remained thin and unknowable.
And similarly the sense of the collapse of the Family and the House never quite achieved immediacy or reality. Can you really understand a decline without ever seeing the life and strength they are declining from? I contrast this to Lampedusa's The Leopard, where even though the decline in the Prince's wealth and authority has already set in when the novel begins, you can still see what has been lost from the past.
I will leave it to someone with a Catholic or Christian sensibility to comment on the religious aspects. For me, the passages on God, sin, evil and Grace seemed extraneous to the point of the novel. But maybe to others they were the whole point of an anti-religious novel, or the larger context of a fallen elite.
I wonder whether I have the right literary vocabulary to express my thoughts about this book.
On the one hand, there is much about this book that left me unsatisfied. I thought the characterisation was weak. Even though the situations and mindsets of the Meneses family and of Betty, the Colonel, the pharmacist, the doctor were very different, I didn't have a strong sense of different voices and personalities as they expressed themselves in their writings. Just different perspectives and preoccupations.
And although the House, Chácara, was positioned as almost an additional character in the novel, and certainly its inhabitants expressed an attachment to it like a member of the family or as an essential part of the landscape, it never really came alive to me ([added 20 July] as a physical object), not in its shape, layout, colours or odours. Only in the separation between the House and the Pavilion me ([added 20 July] and its significance for the characters themselves)
And finally, the emphases on God, sin and grace, whether as expressing the essentials of life or as rejecting them, left me cold. Of course, my not being an adherent of that brand of religiosity could well explain my distance from that element of the novel, but still it felt "tacked on" to me, almost as a straw man, with no character actually embodying any true spirituality or any quest for it, with the exception of Father Justino, who in the end advocates for a fluid kind of religion and morality that would have served the Meneses well. Using Father Justino, Cardoso is simply portraying the emptiness of a traditional style of religion, an argument that just isn't relevant or new to me.
There is so much packed into this novel, and sometimes I felt Cardoso couldn't resist using it to say everything that mattered to him, whether or not it fit into the shape of the story. Power, hierarchy, family relationships, homosexuality, religion. Aestheticism versus spirituality versus ethics. Relationships among the classes. The urban life and the provinces.
And yet I still feel that the novel was a masterpiece of some kind. Apart from the deficiencies in characterisation referred to above, I thought the letter/journal/confessions format worked very well, with the multiplicity of viewpoints, the partial knowledge of the characters and the slow development both of our understanding of them, their pasts and the incidents at Chácara circling around, inching slowly forward and more deeply. I loved the slow plot revelations, the continual thickening of our understanding of the characters, their relationships, and the key events at the two time periods of Nina's residence at Chácara. And the writing was beautiful. Although with a translated text there is always a question of what is in the original and what is added, the phrasing, the details and the structure of the sentences, again circling around in ruminations and observations, certainly represent Cardoso's artful portraits of the characters's anguished minds.
Original thoughts.
It will take me awhile to put my thoughts together about this, but here's a placeholder for my review.
I loved living in the dense, complex prose, which was slow going but also for me very readable and understandable, and there were many, many brilliant descriptions of thoughts, feelings, and settings within the house..
The structure of the novel, in letter, journal and diary format worked well for me. The multiple perspectives added to the mysteries of the plot, even though one character seemed artificially to suppress the revelation of certain key facts.
The negatives for me:
Although the feelings and psychology of the characters were explored extensively and articulated in all their complexity and contradictions, I still felt that the characters remained thin and unknowable.
And similarly the sense of the collapse of the Family and the House never quite achieved immediacy or reality. Can you really understand a decline without ever seeing the life and strength they are declining from? I contrast this to Lampedusa's The Leopard, where even though the decline in the Prince's wealth and authority has already set in when the novel begins, you can still see what has been lost from the past.
I will leave it to someone with a Catholic or Christian sensibility to comment on the religious aspects. For me, the passages on God, sin, evil and Grace seemed extraneous to the point of the novel. But maybe to others they were the whole point of an anti-religious novel, or the larger context of a fallen elite.
February 5, 2017
The author is Brazilian and, according to the introduction, one of Brazil's greatest authors. He died in 1968. This novel, first published in 1959, is, once again according to the introduction, his masterpiece. It is set in the Brazilian province of Minas Gerais, with most of the story taking place at the decaying mansion (called Chacara) owned by the Meneses family, a family that itself seems to be decaying. The story is told through diaries, reports, letters, statements, accounts, memoirs, and confessions. The writers of these are Andre (considered to be the son of Valdo and Nina Meneses), Nina, the town's pharmacist, the town's doctor, Ana (the wife of Demetrio, the eldest Meneses brother), Betty (the housekeeper/maid/tutor), Father Justino (the local parish priest), the Colonel (lives in Rio where Valdo met Nina and where Nina returns to twice), Valdo (the middle Meneses brother), Timoteo (the youngest Meneses brother who is a transvestite). Through the lens of these 10 individuals we learn the scandal brought upon the Meneses family as a result of Valdo marrying Nina. The opening of the book is the last entry from Andre's diary, written when he was 15, and tells of his last view of Nina -- as a corpse. The rest of the book is primarily about Nina, who is not a particularly likeable character, although she is charismatic and beautiful.
But this is more than the story of Nina and how she helped speed the decay of the Meneses family. It is also Ana's story and ultimately that story is just as interesting as Nina's. And then there is the undercurrent of religious strife that comes through in Ana's and the priest's writings.
This is a long book - 592 pages. It is fascinating. Seeing the same event through more than one person's view was really interesting, especially as, with few exceptions, the viewers of the events never discussed them with each other and when they did, they mostly lied. I cannot say I like the story. If I were to rate this solely on the story, it would be a two star read. But I was really fascinated by how the author told the story. The prose is really fine (great translator). So the writing itself is four star. So I ended up giving it 4 stars but with the caveat that this is not a book I'd ever want to read again and not one that I'd recommend to most people, only to those who like odd literary novels and are willing to spend the time this book demands.
But this is more than the story of Nina and how she helped speed the decay of the Meneses family. It is also Ana's story and ultimately that story is just as interesting as Nina's. And then there is the undercurrent of religious strife that comes through in Ana's and the priest's writings.
This is a long book - 592 pages. It is fascinating. Seeing the same event through more than one person's view was really interesting, especially as, with few exceptions, the viewers of the events never discussed them with each other and when they did, they mostly lied. I cannot say I like the story. If I were to rate this solely on the story, it would be a two star read. But I was really fascinated by how the author told the story. The prose is really fine (great translator). So the writing itself is four star. So I ended up giving it 4 stars but with the caveat that this is not a book I'd ever want to read again and not one that I'd recommend to most people, only to those who like odd literary novels and are willing to spend the time this book demands.
November 15, 2021
"Morre-se de quê? da doença, que existe, do descuido, que acontece, ou simplesmente dessa coisa imponderável que se chama vontade de morrer?"
Mastigou minha alma e engoliu.
Declarar que o Morro dos Ventos Uivantes e agora a Crônica da Casa Assassinada serem meus livros favoritos da vida parece declarar que eu sou um tanto perturbada? 🤣
Completamente tóxicos os dois livros vão pelo menos caminho, mas da mesma forma que intoxica também cura!
Raras as vezes leio apenas um livro, sempre leio vários ao mesmo tempo, ao começar Crônica da Casa Assassinada fui sugada para dentro do livro, que livro fantástico!! que narrativa!!! Sumi do mundo, sumi de mim mesma ao passar por esta leitura.
Eu queria ter uma estante cheia deste livro para ter a sensação de ler um livro novo toda semana, mesmo sendo o mesmo livro a vida toda!
A narrativa já começa com a conclusão, você termina o livro e se pega no primeiro capítulo novamente! Quase entra em um ciclo sem fim de leitura e releitura.
Vai além da leitura! Vai do sensorial, do cheiro, quase até do toque! É uma experiência completa o que eu acabei de passar.
O que pode acontecer em uma fazenda em decadência em Minas Gerais? Tudo!
Pode-se até estar quente e abafado em suas linhas, mas só se sente frio e escuridão em cada página de janelas fechadas.
Tudo o que eu possa escrever nunca chegará ao mínimo do que este livro passou a representar em minha vida.
O final desse livro é de destroçar qualquer alma! Um dos melhores finais que já li!
Não é à toa que Clarice Lispector fosse apaixonada por Lúcio Cardoso, quem não seria?
Mil estrelas, favoritado da vida!
Mas defitivamente não é um livro que irá agradar todo mundo.
Mastigou minha alma e engoliu.
Declarar que o Morro dos Ventos Uivantes e agora a Crônica da Casa Assassinada serem meus livros favoritos da vida parece declarar que eu sou um tanto perturbada? 🤣
Completamente tóxicos os dois livros vão pelo menos caminho, mas da mesma forma que intoxica também cura!
Raras as vezes leio apenas um livro, sempre leio vários ao mesmo tempo, ao começar Crônica da Casa Assassinada fui sugada para dentro do livro, que livro fantástico!! que narrativa!!! Sumi do mundo, sumi de mim mesma ao passar por esta leitura.
Eu queria ter uma estante cheia deste livro para ter a sensação de ler um livro novo toda semana, mesmo sendo o mesmo livro a vida toda!
A narrativa já começa com a conclusão, você termina o livro e se pega no primeiro capítulo novamente! Quase entra em um ciclo sem fim de leitura e releitura.
Vai além da leitura! Vai do sensorial, do cheiro, quase até do toque! É uma experiência completa o que eu acabei de passar.
O que pode acontecer em uma fazenda em decadência em Minas Gerais? Tudo!
Pode-se até estar quente e abafado em suas linhas, mas só se sente frio e escuridão em cada página de janelas fechadas.
Tudo o que eu possa escrever nunca chegará ao mínimo do que este livro passou a representar em minha vida.
O final desse livro é de destroçar qualquer alma! Um dos melhores finais que já li!
Não é à toa que Clarice Lispector fosse apaixonada por Lúcio Cardoso, quem não seria?
Mil estrelas, favoritado da vida!
Mas defitivamente não é um livro que irá agradar todo mundo.
July 30, 2023
Crônica de uma casa assassinada (1959) é uma daquelas obras que são lançadas e mudam completamente o cenário, a expectativa e o pensar literatura em um país. Nesse caso, temos a sorte de Lúcio ser brasileiro.
Aqui temos um romance perturbador, imagético, erótico, herético (ao mesmo tempo que amparado nas efígies do cristianismo). Nina, essa tempestade que sacode toda a Chácara dos Menezes, tem as complexidades, falhas e desejo de viver das melhores protagonistas da literatura brasileira, junto com a esfíngica Ana (minha personagem favorita).
Esse livro é sobre essas duas mulheres, completo opostos, que caminham pelas mesmos escombros de uma lugar em decomposição. Ambas encontram o fim junto com a decadência da Casa (outra personagem que suspira, decai, assombra, pune e envelhece junto com os Menezes).
É uma obra que queima sua atmosfera no coração de quem a lê.
Clássico absoluto da nossa literatura, de um autor que perdemos cedo demais. Tem trechos que a escrita de Lúcio se ancora no mais absoluto brilhantismo. Discordo da crítica de Manuel Bandeira, que cita o "problema" de ter todas as vozes que aparecem no livro com o mesmo tom narrativo (pra mim, não é um erro porque a escrita de Lúcio é soberba demais - não tenho dúvida que Lúcio sabia que estava escrevendo um novo clássico).
Livro incrível. Queria ter escrito uma análise melhor, mais detalhada, mas ainda estou sob o efeito dessa apoteose literária. Cinco estrelas é pouco. Viva, Lúcio!
May 20, 2016
Um livro sério, muito longo e dramático. As últimas 10 páginas são fudidas.
June 10, 2020
After reading the introduction about Lucio Cardoso, clearly one understands the significance of this novel.
He also succeeds in working out big themes here. For me, the human blindness and - let's face it, exemplified in the Meneses, downright idiocy, is brought brilliantly into scene.
The characters are all completely unrecognizable in today's world, but are so authentic in their world. The do manage to show us human condition and flaws in their particularity.
I love how Cardoso does not resolve all the lies and contradictions. In the end, we will never really know everything, just like in real live.
It was also a grand ending.
I give it 3 stars because although I very much enjoyed the first part, I had to force myself thru the last quarter, where I found the rhythm become too slow. Apart from the thunderous start, the whole novel was slow, but I could not savor the last part too much, working myself impatiently towards the conclusion.
Still I really appreciated the read, against the time spirit, and it ís a unique undertaking. The characters and the voices of the different accounts are very well worked out. In the wider context of literature , I would give it 4 stars, or 4,5. But I think this is a novel that should be read only by the real literature-freaks, sought out and appreciated by the people prepared for some effort , in the name of the art... therefore I add the 3 stars as a caution-sign for the seeker of grand, epic, overwhelming stories.... this is a slow-burner.
But burn it did!
He also succeeds in working out big themes here. For me, the human blindness and - let's face it, exemplified in the Meneses, downright idiocy, is brought brilliantly into scene.
The characters are all completely unrecognizable in today's world, but are so authentic in their world. The do manage to show us human condition and flaws in their particularity.
I love how Cardoso does not resolve all the lies and contradictions. In the end, we will never really know everything, just like in real live.
It was also a grand ending.
I give it 3 stars because although I very much enjoyed the first part, I had to force myself thru the last quarter, where I found the rhythm become too slow. Apart from the thunderous start, the whole novel was slow, but I could not savor the last part too much, working myself impatiently towards the conclusion.
Still I really appreciated the read, against the time spirit, and it ís a unique undertaking. The characters and the voices of the different accounts are very well worked out. In the wider context of literature , I would give it 4 stars, or 4,5. But I think this is a novel that should be read only by the real literature-freaks, sought out and appreciated by the people prepared for some effort , in the name of the art... therefore I add the 3 stars as a caution-sign for the seeker of grand, epic, overwhelming stories.... this is a slow-burner.
But burn it did!
April 30, 2022
Dentre as obras de Lúcio Cardoso, A Crônica da Casa Assassinada é tida como a mais alegórica e de maior sucesso, dado que quando lançada causou alvoroço no meio literário, tanto pelo estilo no qual o romance é composto, como pelos temas espinhosos que aborda em uma narrativa que busca lançar luz a hipocrisia moral e religiosa, aos tabus, adultério, corrupção e relações incestuosas.
Com uma narrativa epistolar, onde o leitor se encontra em contato com os pensamentos dos personagens que vivem enclausurados na antiga Chácara da tradicional e decadente família mineira dos Meneses, cada ação possuirá um ponto de vista fechado, de tal forma que cabe ao leitor acompanhar e tentar compreender o que move cada personagem, no meio de tanta dissimulação, crime e angústia que ronda a casa.
Tendo como protagonista essencial a própria casa, Lúcio Cardoso reflete acerca da decadência e da aparência da sociedade, em um romance em que o novo, o belo e o incomum é visto como ameaça e deve ser confinado, se possível até a morte. Com os irmãos Timóteo, Demétrio e Valdo, e principalmente com as esposas enigmáticas Ana e Nina, o romance toma forma e cabe ao leitor aceitar adentrar em um ambiente ambivalente e hostil, deixando o juiz de valor em segundo plano para tentar compreender o que impulsiona e repele cada um de seus personagens. A mim, a leitura foi tudo, menos agradável, não há ar aqui, e o que há é hostil e dissimulado, contudo, nem por isso a obra deixa de ser o clássico que é.
Com uma narrativa epistolar, onde o leitor se encontra em contato com os pensamentos dos personagens que vivem enclausurados na antiga Chácara da tradicional e decadente família mineira dos Meneses, cada ação possuirá um ponto de vista fechado, de tal forma que cabe ao leitor acompanhar e tentar compreender o que move cada personagem, no meio de tanta dissimulação, crime e angústia que ronda a casa.
Tendo como protagonista essencial a própria casa, Lúcio Cardoso reflete acerca da decadência e da aparência da sociedade, em um romance em que o novo, o belo e o incomum é visto como ameaça e deve ser confinado, se possível até a morte. Com os irmãos Timóteo, Demétrio e Valdo, e principalmente com as esposas enigmáticas Ana e Nina, o romance toma forma e cabe ao leitor aceitar adentrar em um ambiente ambivalente e hostil, deixando o juiz de valor em segundo plano para tentar compreender o que impulsiona e repele cada um de seus personagens. A mim, a leitura foi tudo, menos agradável, não há ar aqui, e o que há é hostil e dissimulado, contudo, nem por isso a obra deixa de ser o clássico que é.
April 12, 2022
Ok, Lúcio Cardoso....you got me!!
Drama familiar já me ganha fácil pela identificação e sempre rola a sensação de estar tendo acesso a intimidade/segredos de uma família real, que poderia morar logo ali na esquina de casa. A forma com que Lúcio estrutura essa narrativa é formidável, como se fosse uma colcha de retalhos perfeitamente costurados. Ele manteve minha atenção em 100% do tempo, sem qualquer oscilação. Não sei dizer como, mas a mistura dessa gente asquerosa e amargurada, enclausurados nessa casa/família lúgubre e claustrofóbica me FASCINOU. E o livro me deu o que eu mais gosto em uma leitura, que é a experiência completa, o sensorial. Acho dificil alguém passar pelo piores momentos de Nina sem sentir o cheiro do quarto, ou o cheiro do fatídico "quartinho" no galpão do jardineiro, ou ainda o cheiro das maquiagens antigas do Timóteo. E por falar em Timóteo, o que foi a genialidade e sensibilidade do Lúcio ao criar um Timóteo em 1959? E a chácara então? que de tão viva eu saia da leitura sempre com a sensação de que ia trombar ela na rua a qualquer momento. Sério, eu não sei mais o que dizer, mas talvez o mais importante é que o pulso e fôlego que esse livro tem fizeram dele pra mim, com certeza, uma leitura inesquecível.
Drama familiar já me ganha fácil pela identificação e sempre rola a sensação de estar tendo acesso a intimidade/segredos de uma família real, que poderia morar logo ali na esquina de casa. A forma com que Lúcio estrutura essa narrativa é formidável, como se fosse uma colcha de retalhos perfeitamente costurados. Ele manteve minha atenção em 100% do tempo, sem qualquer oscilação. Não sei dizer como, mas a mistura dessa gente asquerosa e amargurada, enclausurados nessa casa/família lúgubre e claustrofóbica me FASCINOU. E o livro me deu o que eu mais gosto em uma leitura, que é a experiência completa, o sensorial. Acho dificil alguém passar pelo piores momentos de Nina sem sentir o cheiro do quarto, ou o cheiro do fatídico "quartinho" no galpão do jardineiro, ou ainda o cheiro das maquiagens antigas do Timóteo. E por falar em Timóteo, o que foi a genialidade e sensibilidade do Lúcio ao criar um Timóteo em 1959? E a chácara então? que de tão viva eu saia da leitura sempre com a sensação de que ia trombar ela na rua a qualquer momento. Sério, eu não sei mais o que dizer, mas talvez o mais importante é que o pulso e fôlego que esse livro tem fizeram dele pra mim, com certeza, uma leitura inesquecível.
April 16, 2008
O mais fascinante neste livro é a estrutura narrativa. Para contar a história da decadência de uma família da aristocracia rural mineira, o autor mescla várias vozes e gêneros narrativos. Cartas dos personagens, confissões e bilhetes são algumas peças desse quebra-cabeça. O enredo se constrói a partir dessa fragmentação e da contradição dos diferentes pontos de vista. O clima é denso. Lúcio penetra no reduto de uma sociedade dissimulada e hipócrita, é de dentro da casa que ele traz à tona toda a podridão e imoralidade da tradicional família mineira e católica. A crítica não é por menos: Lúcio sofreu bastante por ser homossexual. Além de enfrentar a sociedade, o autor teve de enfrentar os conflitos internos que surgiram pelo fato de ser muito religioso.
September 10, 2025
i started this book yeeeears ago, back when i was still in uni. picked it back up in july with the intention of getting it done this time around and it took me weeks... i'm really bad with epistolary novels because i feel like i can just put them down for a while after every chapter.
cardoso's writing is GORGEOUS. even though years have passed, when i revisited the opening chapter the images came rushing back to me of nina's sickroom and her desperation.
unfortunately struggled with having any attachments to many of the characters. the only memorable ones were nina and timoteo. i liked betty though. and ana too i guess, towards the end (i have this theory that ana was in love with nina... but that's a separate thing). valdo and demetrio were supposed to represent traditional values to some extent but it felt like cardoso was unable to delve very deeply into their thoughts (especially demetrio's) because he didn't sympathize with them very much?
demetrio is supposed to be tyrannical i feel like but he just stomped around and got angry sometimes. valdo is a man that doesn't understand his wife and he seems super tortured about something but he also just fades into the background most of the time. there's a lot of "those damn meneses" over and over but i wasn't really convinced of their supposedly eccentric reputation
incest plotline was crazy. i'm not sure why it comprised so much of the book? trying to understand the purpose it was meant to serve because i'm sure there is one, it just missed me... really loved reading entries from outsiders, like the captain, the doctor, and father justino. they seemed to give the setting and the family a lot more dimension and i personally thought each of those characters felt different wrt their voices.
i did read this after morante's lies and sorcery and to some extent i did expect some level of comparable obsessiveness and madness (and the mention of incest so early on made me wonder if there would be a little bit of hundred years of solitude esque craziness), but chronicle of the murdered house was relatively subdued, for all of the darkness it treads.
cardoso's writing is GORGEOUS. even though years have passed, when i revisited the opening chapter the images came rushing back to me of nina's sickroom and her desperation.
unfortunately struggled with having any attachments to many of the characters. the only memorable ones were nina and timoteo. i liked betty though. and ana too i guess, towards the end (i have this theory that ana was in love with nina... but that's a separate thing). valdo and demetrio were supposed to represent traditional values to some extent but it felt like cardoso was unable to delve very deeply into their thoughts (especially demetrio's) because he didn't sympathize with them very much?
demetrio is supposed to be tyrannical i feel like but he just stomped around and got angry sometimes. valdo is a man that doesn't understand his wife and he seems super tortured about something but he also just fades into the background most of the time. there's a lot of "those damn meneses" over and over but i wasn't really convinced of their supposedly eccentric reputation
incest plotline was crazy. i'm not sure why it comprised so much of the book? trying to understand the purpose it was meant to serve because i'm sure there is one, it just missed me... really loved reading entries from outsiders, like the captain, the doctor, and father justino. they seemed to give the setting and the family a lot more dimension and i personally thought each of those characters felt different wrt their voices.
i did read this after morante's lies and sorcery and to some extent i did expect some level of comparable obsessiveness and madness (and the mention of incest so early on made me wonder if there would be a little bit of hundred years of solitude esque craziness), but chronicle of the murdered house was relatively subdued, for all of the darkness it treads.
July 18, 2021
Poderia ser chamado também de Crônica da Casa "defunta", com personagens habitando em um lugar isolado e selado no tempo,sombrio até que chega o sol :Nina. A luz que que queima,incendeia,ilumina, o coração e a mente dos silenciosos Meneses.
Se em "Pedro Paramo" de Juan Rulfo, os mortos parecem estar vivos,aqui os vivos parecem estar mortos, vivendo das ruínas de riqueza,tradição e preconceitos da época.
A história é contada em várias versões e narradores,através de cartas, diários e lembranças, ao final nem tudo pode ser o que realmente aconteceu.
Assim como em "Dias Perdidos" ,Lucio Cardoso explora essas relações familiares
simbióticas e adoecidas, em qual as personagens femininas complexas se destacam e são a peça fundamental.
Nina ,Ana, Bety e até a distante ancestral dos Menezes, Maria Sinhá ,dominam esta narrativa arrebatadora . Embora um pouco tradicional e previsível, longe de ser perfeito,está obra vale a pena ser lida e relida
Se em "Pedro Paramo" de Juan Rulfo, os mortos parecem estar vivos,aqui os vivos parecem estar mortos, vivendo das ruínas de riqueza,tradição e preconceitos da época.
A história é contada em várias versões e narradores,através de cartas, diários e lembranças, ao final nem tudo pode ser o que realmente aconteceu.
Assim como em "Dias Perdidos" ,Lucio Cardoso explora essas relações familiares
simbióticas e adoecidas, em qual as personagens femininas complexas se destacam e são a peça fundamental.
Nina ,Ana, Bety e até a distante ancestral dos Menezes, Maria Sinhá ,dominam esta narrativa arrebatadora . Embora um pouco tradicional e previsível, longe de ser perfeito,está obra vale a pena ser lida e relida
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