Dom Casmurro 9.80 · 9.80

A concession relieves the criticism: the orchestral parts are, 'aliás,' handled with great skill. Whatever the libretto's failings, the pure music — the score beneath the words — is expertly made. Satan, the composer, keeps his craft intact.

The distinction is the novel's own. Bento's telling may be tendentious, his case unproven, yet the artistry of the telling is beyond dispute — the 'pericia' belongs to Machado even where it is withheld from his narrator. The passage quietly separates the reliability of the account from the mastery of its making, and asks us to admire the second while doubting the first, which is the whole discipline of reading this book.

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