Nove Noites

Bernardo Carvalho is in the circle of the most important contemporary writers in Brazil. A friend gave it to me as a birthday gift and I usually read these books since I consider them as suggestions and I want to respond to it. Nove Noites at first looks like an very interesting story. An American anthropologist comes to Brazil in the 30ties and after he spent some time with tribal people he kills himself in the rainforest. The author tries to reconstruct the anthropologist’s life and at a second level he describes his own efforts to achieve it. A somewhat third level are the letters of a friend of the anthropologist to whom he spoke nine nights (nove noites). That account is set in italics – horrible to read. I did not like that at all – there are other typographic means to differentiate certain text passages.
The novel is well architected, but in my opinion the craftsmanship overshadows the story. and I am always more interested in the story.