Review: 
DNF.
God, this was awful. I wanted to punch that hateful little shit of a narrator/main character/Pessoa on the nose within the first ten pages of the book.
I get that the cynicism is an expression of the guy’s struggle to find something to value in his life, but that doesn’t make him a metaphor of the modern literary hero or indeed anything I can value.
Apparently, a lot of people have found some deep insights in his ramblings. Good on them. To me, the narrator’s (or Pessoa’s??) ignorant, arrogant, disdainful stream-of-consciousness blether held more cliches than a piece of hackneyed journalism, signifying nothing.
And if the intro to the book is correct and the MC is an alter ego of Pessoa himslef (who hadn’t actually published this in his lifetime), then that is rather sad.
Original post:
BrokenTune.booklikes.com/post/1768994/the-book-of-disquiet
Broken Tune's Blog 
Based on what I managed to read thus far, I think it should come with a warning, honestly. “Don’t read this if you’re diagnosed with or in therapy for any level of clinical depression.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
…or a trigger-warning that this might set off anger management issues. LoL.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh yes… Credit where it’s due, the guy had an amazing grasp of poetic language, but that hardly makes up for content. I try not to judge too harshly without knowing more backstory, though.
LikeLiked by 1 person
True, but backstory or no backstory, I got nothing out of the book – other than a foul temper.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s about what I got out of it too, but there’s not much context there for me to work with.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I thought about the context requirement when I read that the narrator in this one may have been one of Pessoas alter egos and that to get a complete picture, one needs to read more of his books.
I’m not sure this is something I can subscribe to. I need a book to be able to speak for itself without the help of additional knowledge of the author.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ideally, any literary work would be complete on both levels. Some absolutely require context. Some just can’t be rescued. Eye of the beholder stuff.
LikeLiked by 1 person