Love is fucked

“The jolt begins with the title. Even the least experienced reader suspects that, although writers of all times and places have devoted themselves to trying to define love, it is perhaps unlikely that anyone has ever chosen to end a sentence begun with the expression “love is” with the word “fucked.” Love usually has, despite everything, a good press—which, come to think of it, is incomprehensible. To say that love is fucked is, finally, to treat it as it deserves. It is to summarize, for those who do not want to waste time with erudite euphemisms, the etymology of the word passion.”

But perhaps O Amor É Fodido is less a story than a thesis. A suggestion about a way of speaking. A hypothesis about the way of dealing, both literarily and otherwise, with love. A proposal that questions whether it is appropriate to describe a terrifying disease with meter and rhyme and that therefore proposes a kind of anti-lyricism. Or, perhaps more precisely, an anti-lyrical lyricism. According to this thesis, to say that love is a fire that burns unseen is what is obscene. Noting that it is fucked is mere innocence.”

From the preface by Ricardo Araújo Pereira

Miguel Esteves Cardoso (b. 1955) is a writer, columnist, and an influential figure in contemporary Portuguese culture. With a background in Economics and a long career in journalism and communications, he became known for his singular voice, capable of uniting humor, lucidity, and a precise observation of everyday life. His work—which includes books such as A Causa das Coisas, Os Meus Problemas and O Amor é Fodido—has evolved over the decades into a more intimate and refined writing, where reflection on love and time takes center stage.