Reviews

Cuíer by Caio Fernando Abreu

iantaylor's review

3.0

The formatting of this book is superb, the cover image is one of the most beautiful book covers I've ever seen, and the very existence of a collection of work written by queer Brazilian authors is a fantastic thing.

theoedd's review

challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective relaxing sad fast-paced

3.75

verbamatic's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

5.0

gossamerchild's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

This is a collection of translated poetry, essays, and stories by queer Brazilian artists. It was also challenged at the library where I work. Stunning, sad, heartbreaking, brutal, and amazing. 

unidentifiedgemstone's review

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective fast-paced

3.5

As many other reviewers have shared, this collection could do with an introduction. There is a section in the back of the book that provides brief biographies for each author that I read before going into each piece, but still I think the collection would have been aided by an explanation of why these pieces were chosen and how they're tied together. I did enjoy my time overall, but there were certain pieces where I very much struggled to understand what was going on or, what, exactly, I was supposed to gain through reading it. I have a few possible culprits here: firstly, I'm not much of a poetry reader and I may not have been quite trained enough to discern meaning from certain poems, secondly, I worry the translation may have been ineffective and, lastly, there simply might have been a wedge driven between myself and the texts due to our cultural barriers: I am not Brazilian, nor am I Brazilian-American, and I do not speak Portuguese.

That being said, this was still a fun and refreshing reading experience. I'd like to list my favorite pieces, the ones that I did get quite a lot out of: "Fat Tuesday" by Caio Fernando Abreu (and "Three Letters for Beyond the Walls" by the same author, but I especially enjoyed "Fat Tuesday"), "A New House" by Carol Bensimon, the poetry of Tatiana Nascimento, "Farrina" by Cidinha da Silva, and the poetry of Ricardo Domeneck (particularly "Shyness in Linen").

jeffrey_e's review

inspiring reflective slow-paced

3.0

There were a couple really great stories within, but most of it wasn’t my cup of tea.

acweber's review

emotional reflective medium-paced

4.5