The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE recommends an impressive impersonation of Bob Dylan
‘I think therefore I am not’
FIONA O’CONNOR recommends a biography of a Portuguese modernist poet who maintained a philosophical approach to his own being and is best encountered within the playfulness of his writing
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews Here, Vermiglio, William Tell and Wolf Man
New releases from Thorpe and Morrison, Daria Kulesh, and Will Finn and Rosie Calvert
RINA ARYA confronts the brutal operation of Francis Bacon’s approach to portraiture
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ANDY MIAH advocates the use of AI to assist people by expanding access to global literature and culture
EWAN KOTZ relishes a veteran Glasgow band that have lost none of their verve for live performance
Critical Lives: Fernando Pessoa
by Bartholomew Ryan
Reaktion Books £12.99
FERNANDO PESSOA, Portuguese poet of the enigmatic self, is the latest focus of the Critical Lives series from Reaktion Books; a series of short critical biographies that presents the work of important cultural figures in the context of their lives.
Despite living in relative obscurity, Pessoa is now an increasingly recognised figure of modernist literature. This book, written by a Lisbon-based university philosopher, attempts to locate Pessoa within the ideas and events, influences and shifting politics of his age.
To capture Pessoa is challenging: “I think therefore I am not” — Pessoa’s flipping of Descartes’ famous saying characterises much of his writing. He is a self-proclaimed empty vessel, a thing of shreds and patches, fragmentary writings, abandoned projects, works unrealised.
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