Reviews

Fernando Pessoa, The Poet with Many Faces: a biography and anthology by George Monteiro, Hubert D. Jennings, Filipa de Freitas, Carlos Antonio Pittella

murakamiangel's review

challenging reflective slow-paced

3.5

ahc's review

3.0

listen...I'm conflicted here and I'm going to tell you why. Keep in mind, I could have these feelings about this book due to the fact that I just finished a masters degree and my brain is tired of lofty academic texts, but this book for me seemed to be a bit too theoretical. The author was caught up in a deep analysis of Pessoa's major works and I didn't expect that from a book I believed to be a biography. Granted, Pessoa is a highly complex and enigmatic literary figure but I think the major events of his life were masked by the author's own analysis.

With that being said, the poetry at the end of the book is fantastic. Pessoa (and all his iterations) is a highly gifted writer. His words are beautiful and I am looking forward to reading a collection of poems from him that I bought with this book.