Brazil

This book is wasted on people that only want to live in the first world; with their defined lives and refined views (refined to a pen-prick of possiblities). If you don't want to open your vision, put this book away and read the latest N. Sparks... Updike knew exactly what he was doing when he wrote this book! After living in his apartment off Avenida Paulista, in Sao Paulo, with the taste of naked samba dancers and the world of fantasies and Carnival swirling his imagination, he wrote a beautiful Brazilian love story! Everyone with a negative view of this book--you have my sympathy. You've never loved Brazilian style!

Combined factual and mythological account of life in Brazil, from the standpoint of a favela boy and his rich rebellious, sexual girlfriend, and their consequent hopeless flight from racism and class. The book gives us the real flavor of Brazil, which compensates for the use of magic in the plot. The magic is used to emphasize the racism. The racism of Brazil differs from that of the U.S., Europe, Afghanistan and other middle eastern countries, in that mixing has far more prevalent there, first of the Portugese with the Indians and later with the Africans. In spite of that, the black underclass lives in the most abject, dangerous, poverty imaginable (are the lives of Hazaras in Afghanistan in any way comparable?). I will not forget the view from Impanema Beach of an attractive populated mountainside in the distance. In Europe or the U.S. the rich would now occupy such territory. It was a favela, and the sewage from all favelas runs untreated into the water. You cannot swim in the ocean, so 'normal' people simply promenade and sunbath on the beach, where boys from the favela sell roasted cornears and sodapop, and occaisonally swim, out of ignorance, in the water. Nights in summer without A/C are unbearable, one cannot possibly sleep. So the street along Impanema and Copacabana are alive with walkers, joggers, skaters and prostitutes at 1 AM. The hospitality of the Brazilean people is great, the brutality of their police is seen in the faces of the policemen, and the hopelesness of the favela dwellers is surely without bound. The houses of the rich and middleclass border right on the favelas, and are separated from them by stone fences with broken glass imbedded on top. Nevertheless, if you walk up the stairway leading into a favela you will see graffitti on the walls of those houses, a sign that broken glass is not enough to keep the poor out (I kept my camera under my shirt to make stealing it harder). And as a white, you will risk your life if you walk further upward. This is what I mean when I write that the book "Brazil" gives an accurate sense of place.

This book disturbed some of my notions of love. Mr. Updike certainly has written a very engrossing love story. The theme of love is what captivated me the most. Others may not like this. As a writer and poet, Updike writes brillaint prose, and he keeps the book's characters enticing throughout. Do I sense a certain sense of cynicism from the author on love? Read and judge for yourself!The Brazilian images are memorable. The book has many memorable lines. The ending is tragic and expected. What love story ever ends in eternal bliss? Is love a thing above physical attraction? The future is what we make of it or how others make it for us?I might come back to this book and see if it is worth a second read. I will certainly read another Updike novel: kinda of looking forward to it actually!

This was such a great book, this was a book i originally choose from a list for my english class but it turned out to be one of my favorites of all time, the way the book traces the hard times and good times, the love, the triumph, makes life seem more like an adventure than a seris of sequences. Be sure to notice in this book that the variety of life explodes in your face.

Being my first exposure to John Updike, I had no previous benchmarks against which to compare. I did enjoy the book and I will read more Updike. Updike is both a gifted story-teller and apt at description. Some of his social commentary seemed forced and stale. Irony was well used in resolving the main conflict as well as bringing the heroes back to where they had begun. Tristao and Isabel's relationship was founded in love and not sex which was also quite intriguing. I have never seen the word "yam" used so frequently before.