A Death in Brazil by Peter Robb (PDF)

Description

Delving into Brazil’s baroque past, Peter Robb writes about its history of slavery and the richly multicultural but disturbed society that was left in its wake when the practice was abolished in the late nineteenth century. Even today, Brazil is a nation of almost unimaginable distance between its wealthy and its poor, a place of extraordinary levels of crime and violence. It is also one of the most beautiful and seductive places on earth. Using the art, food and the books of its great nineteenth-century writer, Machado de Assis, Robb takes us on a journey into a world like Conrad’s “Nostromo”. A world so absurdly dramatic, like the current president Lula’s fight for power, that it could have come from one of the country’s immensely popular TV soap operas, a world where resolution is often only provided by death. Like all the best travel writing, “A Death in Brazil” immerses you deep into the heart of a fascinating country.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Peter Robb is an amazing storyteller. I have read A Death in Brazil and Midnight in Sicily, 2 of his books about his travels to places and cultures far from his native Australia. In both books he illuminates the people and the landscape in a vivid, deeply visceral way. A Death in Brazil and Midnight in Sicily combine his knowledge of history and politics, as well as his love of food and cooking, with his sympathy for people who are struggling to stay alive. His ability to speak Italian and Portuguese are an important part of his story.

⭐Peter Robb’s “A Death in Brazil” defies classification. The narrative flows easily back and forth between the author’s personal experiences and the greater context of Brazil’s history. Those looking for travel and culture will find exquisite descriptions of food, architecture, and the sensuality for which Brazil is known. Historians will enjoy his digressions into the little-known world of Brazil’s dry northeastern highlands, populated by bandits, the landless poor, and the descendants of an escaped slave community that once numbered almost 30,000. Finally, if the book can be said to focus on any one story, it is that of a provincial political family’s descent into scandal after the accession to the presidency of Fernando Collor in 1989. Robb deftly weaves together the threads of this tale, building it gradually from an election-finance fraud into a dramatic conclusion worthy of Shakesperean tragedy – or a modern-day telenovela.That said, while the reader can happily get lost in Robb’s descriptions of Brazilian life, those looking for a simple plot and a satisfying conclusion will be disappointed. At times, anecdotes are thrown in with hardly any context and then forgotten, and at times the political scandals involve so many characters that I considered taking notes. Academics will also be disappointed by the absence of sufficient citations for the multitude of quotes used by the author, which appear in inexplicable and confusing italics instead of within quotation marks. While the story of the Collor family and their associates is more or less ended, many other tales – including the author’s own brush with death which opens the book – are left frustratingly behind. Then again, the subtitle is “A Book of Omissions.”All in all, highly recommended.

⭐This is eminently readable and fact-filled. Robb has dozens of references to the copious amount of history in this book from the first Portuguese landing to the election of Lula DaSilva. Wonderful.

⭐i have been to brazil and enjoyed it immensely, my favorite part of the country being salvador, bahia. i picked up this book with some interest, and was gratified that it provided so much more than a fluffy novel. the author moves from sugar plantations to conversations with a bar owner to military rule to endemic corruption to street kids to issues of race – within 5 or 6 pages. and none of it feels forced, he provides insightful details that explain so much to people accustomed to western cultures – or even other latin american cultures to those who have traveled outside the u.s.part history, part novel, part memoir, the book is worth a read to anyone with an interest in brazil. it will entertain while you learn – i wish history had been this intriguing when i took it in school.

⭐Engaging, entertaining and sometimes hilarious back-stories of Brazilian history. The author, a journalist, uses a feature-story style to the Brazilian story, from pre-history to Lula’s election in 2003. Easy to absorb, this overview of Brazilian history and culture gave me the grounding I needed before my first trip to Brazil. And don’t let the author’s magazine-story style fool you. He’s done his homework and his research. The characters, including presidents and kings, soccer stars and generals, really existed and howevercrazy their soap-opera antics may sound, this is Brazil. A really good introduction to this society, it’s history, it’s people and it’s culture. Highly recommended if you’re going to Brazil, and like me, prefer not to read history in a textbook.

⭐This is the book to read on a trip to the Northeast. It’s well written, but not an easy read. The author’s personal indulgence, tastes and quirks may sometimes irk the reader, but he has such a good grasp of Brazilian literature and politics that eventually these intrusions don’t matter. The characters — from ordinary people to the current and former Presidents — are masterpieces. This book is an eye-opener, as timely as the current headlines. The tales of Alagoas may seem like magical realism, but it is all true.

⭐I am generally a fan of Peter Robb. But I found this book too unstructured. The anecdotes of daily life in the history of Brazil’s development were of themselves interesting and well written, as always, but I wasn’t sure what they added up to. Clearly the theme was extreme corruption and racism but I didn’t have any sense at the end of the day of the ‘patterns’ of how that corruption developed. Perhaps that’s the job of the historian rather than documentary novelist, which is how I see Peter’s work : dealing in historical facts but with a narrative joining them. The narrative does not depart into the realms of historical fiction – that’s not his genre – but must constitute an organising framework. I think that framework was missing this time.

⭐History can be seen through the eyes of someone that lives throughout the harsh times of Brazil’s political and economical changes. A death of brazil is a book that relates the history with life experiences, anecdotes and real people’s perspective of life. If you want to learn about history without getting bored with history dates and memorizing names, this book will teach you history like no other book. VERY INTERESTING and deliberating, the author’s narrations about the incidents are AMAZING!!!!!

⭐Its ok but I was expecting better based on what the so called experts said on the book.Interesting history in parts but not enough balance for me.Flicks from mainly the 18 th century to mainly the 90s where it talks about corruption at the top

⭐What an interesting way to learn about Brazil and its idiosyncrasies. Unfortunately the author is bit biased when he talks about the left-wing politicians in Brazil

⭐An unexpectedly good book. He is a very good author. The subject matter was very interesting as well.Makes English politics look a bit dull. It perhaps rambled a bit at the start but overall it was very enjoyable.

⭐must read if you travel there, gives you a lot of contest in a very digestible way.

⭐An interesting critique of Brazil’s history-informative and well researched

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