CBR13Bingo – Pandemic We learn in the opening section and introduction to this book that Machado de Assis has Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy in mind with this book, and that influence is clear throughout. The structure of this novel is not entirely novelistic, but instead is presented as a diary published after the death of our protagonist, Bras Cubas, who is a minor, failing lord who owns plantations in Brazil. And sometimes a lot happens and sometimes very little happens, as is the nature of […]