A Death in Brazil
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Average rating5
15
Ratings1
Average rating5
The story of an encounter with one of the world's greatest and strangest countries. Combining travel, history, culture and his own memories of twenty years of Brazilian life, Robb delves into the past and present of a baroque country, writing about Brazil's centuries of slavery and the vibrant but disturbed society that slavery left behind. Even today, Brazil is a nation of almost unimaginable distance between its rich and its poor, a place of extraordinary levels of crime and violence, but also one of the most beautiful and seductive places on earth. Using the art, food, and the books of Brazil's great writer, Machado de Assis, Robb takes us on a journey into a sensual and frightening world. Power, murder, greed, ambition, sexual drama and family jealousy mirror the TV soap operas watched by a hundred million Brazilians every night, stories whose only structure is desire and whose only resolution is death.
Reviews with the most likes.
A Death in Brazil is less about a singular death than it is about the transformation of a nation. The novel intimately shares glimpses of the lives of the people Robb encounters, while it also reveals broad swaths of the history of the nation. Corruptions that reach back for generations have kept in power the most wealthy and left the vast majority with a sense of powerlessness, but not all is dark and hopeless. Robb also traces the path of Luis “Lula” da Silva to an unlikely presidential victory, supported by legions of Brazil's youth.
The historical foundation is well-crafted and researched, yet this is not a dry treatise on the after effects of colonialism. It is a vibrant story, sensuously-written and capturing the hopes, fear, and pride of a nation.
Very politically focused. Quite a heavy and complicated read, but the author keeps it interesting with minor sidelines and history.
