Customer Reviews

Diary of a Humiliated Man

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This book promises a refreshing change from the often banal offerings of American literature. It delivers. It is a peculiar little book--and one of the best I've read in a while. It reveals itself quite slowly, but besides being a modest little book and full of hope, it is a well written and clever examination the quest for meaning in modern life. Stylistically, I would place it with Sartre's "Nausea", Dostoevsky's "Notes from Underground," and Hamsun's "Hunger". Philosophically, the story is more optimisitic and more modern. If you enjoyed those, give this book a try.

The narrator of this fine book attempts banality, but comes nowhere close to it. The writing is original and fresh. The dialogue is handled very well indeed, and it is a cosmopolitan voice (oh, yes!) that speaks to us from these pages. And a voice that finally manages to escape the confines of literature and present itself as pure and unfettered. The book is funny too, in parts. And did I mention the dialogue--it is really well written. Heck, I enjoyed this book a ton.

An allegedly picaresque novel, Diary of a Humiliated Man by Felix de Azua, has been sitting next to the computer for weeks. It took a similar number of weeks to plow through after getting off to a promising start. Written in Spanish in 1987 and translated into English in 1996, the book is impossible to find. I guess there isn't any demand.

de Azua calls the first part "A Banal Man" and the second "The Dangers of Banality" so where the "hero" gets humiliated must have been lost in translation. After five months of diary entries, the hero explains who is trying to debase him -- his "employer" the Chinaman: "It us very clear that the Chinaman feels a visceral antipathy toward my banality and that he wants to teach me a lesson. With that idea in mind, he keeps me under control, tries to humiliate me. But his teaching method is corrupt. He doesn't even use fear, just disgust." But upon reflection, I conclude that only those whom we love and admire can humiliate us; we expect some social reciprocity. If we ignore or look down on someone, their attempts to diminish us has no effect as we do not adhere to their measure of man but our own. The story's protagonist has no love of himself, let alone this criminal associate.

de Azua maybe is modeling this man's life on Kafka. (Since I haven't read Metamorphisis, I don't know whether it is better to be an insect or banal.) How can one have banality as a quest goal? What insights there are on contemporary Spanish governmental corruption is gratuitous when the protagonist chooses not to interact with his community.

Jean-Paul Sartre's 1938 classic LE NAUSEE was probably a great inspiration to De Azua while writing this. There are so many simularities. Though arguable, Sartre gave birth to philosphy-slash-style Existentialism that DIARY is written in and both authors use more generous amounts of colorfull historical references than a complete Brittanica edition.

Each author lets their "heros" set off on a major body of work that they both ultimately fail (sort of). The charactors friends are scaunt to none and the love interest is "distant" at best. It would seem that all signs point to major downer. But the message is finding purpose/strength/humor/direction/our-true-calling in our failures as much as our successes.

And suceeds De Azula does. He FUSES (and I like useing that adj. cuz it best discribes his style) with brilliant , mania-inducing firey humor . He also uses the historical refs to more to his advantage- the settling is pulsing with important and unimportant history (both necessary). Although the protagonist's life starts to drag in parts, the writing never does. This is where (i feel) DIARY triumphs over LE NAUSEE.

People differ. Maybe this book won't speak to you as it has for me. Give it a try. If it doesn't do it for u I can only say I am truely sorry... (cuz you're missing something I found really beautiful). thank you