by João Ubaldo Ribeiro
Another Brazilian book! Bit I read it in the German translation. I am sure wouldn’t have understood it in the original version. Too many regional expressions from the North-East of Brazil. I live there and therefore it was particularly interesting to read. But it is difficult! The reader must actually inform himself about the location, the time and this special kind of people there.
Sargento Getulio tells the story and he basically has no interlocutor. It is a constant flow of telling a story to himself and commenting current facts. The reader needs to reposition constantly himself in time. Getulio just does not use the tenses correctly – a very simple man.
Getulio is a criminal. You should hate him, and you should wish him to be caught soon. He is really bad. But in his own mind he has his own code of honesty. He is betrayed by his boss who sent him to kidnap an adversary politician. That is the situation: Getulio with the kidnapped politician on the run, and him telling the story. That politician could be also a dishonest person. Nevertheless, you feel with him since Getulio is so violent. But at the same time Getulio seems to be “honest” like no other because he does not play the game of an opportunist like his boss. Everything in this new world is so confusing for him that he decides to stick on an order even if it is wrong. He cannot judge it!
And I myself had to avoid to accept his take on life, which was the Darwinian principle – just with a gun. It is a small book, but surprisingly I have written a long summary of my reading experience – it speaks for itself, I guess.
Sargento Getulio tells the story and he basically has no interlocutor. It is a constant flow of telling a story to himself and commenting current facts. The reader needs to reposition constantly himself in time. Getulio just does not use the tenses correctly – a very simple man.
Getulio is a criminal. You should hate him, and you should wish him to be caught soon. He is really bad. But in his own mind he has his own code of honesty. He is betrayed by his boss who sent him to kidnap an adversary politician. That is the situation: Getulio with the kidnapped politician on the run, and him telling the story. That politician could be also a dishonest person. Nevertheless, you feel with him since Getulio is so violent. But at the same time Getulio seems to be “honest” like no other because he does not play the game of an opportunist like his boss. Everything in this new world is so confusing for him that he decides to stick on an order even if it is wrong. He cannot judge it!
And I myself had to avoid to accept his take on life, which was the Darwinian principle – just with a gun. It is a small book, but surprisingly I have written a long summary of my reading experience – it speaks for itself, I guess.
Facts:
English title: Sargento Getulio
Original title: Sargento Getulio
Published: 1971
