Yasmina traboulsi biography of rory
Bahia Blues
August 6, 2011
As much of my reading, this too came into my hands through my perennial snooping into JK's lists. Thus, I feel compelled to cut-and-paste his review here as it does better justice to the book than I can muster. (Except for the reference to the City of God....)
"Starts off as the expected Jorge Amado pastiche with the obligatory " oh what an- eccentric-cast-of-characters" : the seven year old boy who must fend for his family, the aging prostitute, the ever stoic priest etc. But then it turns into City of God. The violent (literally) change in tone reminded me of how the annoying whimsical opening to "Life of Pi" gave no warning of what was to come. The Pelourinho (main square and environs in Salvador de Bahia) operates as the shire to the twin Mordors of Rio and Sao Paulo. Traboulsi does a very good job of turning up the pacing when the protagonists leave Bahia. However the book did get me wondering if every intelligent writer (or filmmaker) who contemplates Brazil will ultimately converge on the same descriptions of surreal violence and equally surreal life. I recommend Iain McDonald's brilliant sci-fi novel "Brasyl" if you really want to feel the unique disturbing power of this country turned up to an illuminating extreme. There are whole sections of the two books that echo each other. One final point - for the English edition it looks like Charles Addams was asked to do the cover. Yes there is a phantasmagoric feel to the book but the Bahian Addams family on the cover does not capture it. Mistake." -- John Krakauer
PS: There is another edition, also British, that has the kids in the front and a row of colorful houses in the background. It's still doesn't quite work but it's better than the one shown here.
"Starts off as the expected Jorge Amado pastiche with the obligatory " oh what an- eccentric-cast-of-characters" : the seven year old boy who must fend for his family, the aging prostitute, the ever stoic priest etc. But then it turns into City of God. The violent (literally) change in tone reminded me of how the annoying whimsical opening to "Life of Pi" gave no warning of what was to come. The Pelourinho (main square and environs in Salvador de Bahia) operates as the shire to the twin Mordors of Rio and Sao Paulo. Traboulsi does a very good job of turning up the pacing when the protagonists leave Bahia. However the book did get me wondering if every intelligent writer (or filmmaker) who contemplates Brazil will ultimately converge on the same descriptions of surreal violence and equally surreal life. I recommend Iain McDonald's brilliant sci-fi novel "Brasyl" if you really want to feel the unique disturbing power of this country turned up to an illuminating extreme. There are whole sections of the two books that echo each other. One final point - for the English edition it looks like Charles Addams was asked to do the cover. Yes there is a phantasmagoric feel to the book but the Bahian Addams family on the cover does not capture it. Mistake." -- John Krakauer
PS: There is another edition, also British, that has the kids in the front and a row of colorful houses in the background. It's still doesn't quite work but it's better than the one shown here.