Pode um Desejo Imenso by Frederico Lourenço

Were the constant references to Camões' literature and poetry quite a pain for someone who spent most of her middle school literature classes either drawing or reading books of my own? Certainly. The specific edition that I read contains all three volumes of the story, the first and last one taking place in the current timeline with Hugo as a Professor and the second one with Nuno as a Classics student.ĭid I find the story interesting? Certainly. This is an explicitly queer history that shows not only the struggles of growing up in a society where queerness is misunderstood by the many but also shows how queer relationships themselves are many times not exactly as ideal as many forms of media make them out to be, which honestly was quite the relief for me since I am not the biggest fan of the constant ‘good’ and idealized perception of queer relationships that is considered as the ‘correct’ way of representation.Īt first, I had been given the idea that the structure of this story was similar to that of “Master and Margarita” by Bulgakov with ever-changing settings of time and place, but as with many of my initial presuppositions regarding this book, I was incorrect. “Pode um desejo imenso” recounts the life of our main character Nuno through his days as a Professor where he falls in love with one of his students as well as his days as a university student himself dealing with a complicated and fluctuating relationship with one of his colleagues.

I usually am quite skeptical of reading books by authors of whom I've only read translation work and even though I had high expectations for this book I have got to admit that even after some days of processing what happened I still find myself quite uncertain concerning my final thoughts regarding this work. (he wrote my favorite Portuguese translation of the Iliad, I am passionate about this matter okay?)

This book is written by none other than Frederico Lourenço, if you are Portuguese and have no idea of who this man is then shame on you. I promised myself that I would start writing more book reviews for my own sake and with that said I shall attempt to do this book justice.

Pode um Desejo Imenso by Frederico Lourenço