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book review, cormac, Fiction, Hannibal Lecter, Javier Bardem, No Country For Old Men, patricia melo, south american
Lost World: Translated from the Brazilian Portuguese by Clifford Landers by Patricia Melo
My rating: 1 of 5 stars
I am afraid to say that ‘Lost World’ is the first book to get 1/5 stars from me this year. No matter how bad a novel is, I hate giving that rating. Even worse is leaving a book unfinished, which unfortunately I had to do with this one. I don’t usually say a book is no good, but in this instance I must point out certain narrative errors that eventually made me throw in the towel.
Having been seduced by the front cover that is deceptively reminiscent of that film-making masterpiece the ‘City of God‘, I picked up Melo hoping to have discovered yet another brilliant South American novelist. It wasn’t to be. The premise itself promises something in the persuasion of ‘No Country For Old Men‘, as it’s protagonist, one ex-contract killer by the name of Maiquel, sets off on a (I quote) ‘heart-stopping journey of revenge’. Mmm. Yeah. The ‘Guardian’ also hailed it as ‘A Hero’s journey with a difference’, and The List said it was ‘Casually brutal and utterly uncompromising, this Brazilian noir thriller is nerve-shreddingly compelling from start to finish’. Has it whet your appetite as it did mine? There was me thinking Javier Bardem‘s Mr. Chigurh gets his own novel, but boy was I wrong.
Let’s get one thing straight; first off, I’ve read a few of McCarthy’s novels and know he is famous for being a bit stingy with his prose. He is very much in the ‘show don’t tell’ school of novelists, but the important thing is he knows how to make that work for his story. Melo probably wanted to go after that sort of ‘leanness’ as well, but ended up omitting, skipping and rearranging some vital storyline elements like an amateur interior designer who decides to nail the sofa to the wall because they think its ‘innovative’.
For one, our main character isn’t introduced properly. In fact, NONE of the character’s are introduced properly. They are all sketches that are being constantly rubbed out and re-drawn to accommodate Melo’s last-minute ideas about what they SHOULD be like. This is very frustrating and tiring for a reader as we shouldn’t be made to work THAT much for a story. For instance, I didn’t even know what Maiquel LOOKED like. I discovered almost 60 pages on that he was a blonde who dyed his hair black.
There were also other things that did not match. Maiquel has come out of prison to pursue and punish his girlfriend (who he’s still a little bit in love with) for setting him up, kidnapping his daughter and running off with the local preacher. Melo also reminds us he is a fugitive. If so, wouldn’t you take care to hide your identity, keep a low profile? Not Maiquel. He goes around sleeping with strange women who end up complaining about him to policemen and stealing his wallet. He also rescues dogs that are victims of hit-and-run accidents and takes them to the vet (Assassin school lesson one: stay away from government buildings/ establishments). That’s not the end of it either. This supposedly brutal, heartless Hardman gets hold of his ex-girlfriends phone number and does what might you like? Yep. Rings her. Several times. Thus fairly putting the wind up her and causing her to shift locations. Idiot.
Maiquel’s not very bright. In fact, the other characters are much more intelligent than him which lowers his credibility as a MC to well, 0. Still, good girl that I am I managed to haul myself through roughly 100 pages to see where Melo was taking this stagnating storyline. After all, I was promised a ‘fearsome climax’, so I thought I’d look for it, and the climax usually begins to show from the middle onwards but I kind of lost the will to live, so to speak.
In short, this revenge story had lots of plot-holes in it. The initial personalities of certain characters were about 10 sizes too big for them. Such a pity. I wish I could say Melo’s ‘Lost World’ might be the victim of bad translation, but I don’t think so. If you truly want to read something that is dark, uncompromising with a contract-killer that has a fear-factor on par with Harris’s Hannibal Lecter (minus cannibalism) then opt for McCarthy’s ‘No Country For Old Men’. The movie is amazing too, you won’t regret it.
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Based on your scathing review of one of Patricia Melo’s works, it is evident that you are completely unfamiliar with her work or the Brazilian literary tradition of marginal fiction set in favelas.
You complain that Máiquel and other characters in the novel are not “properly introduced.” Perhaps you are unaware that the main character for Lost World is initially introduced in Melo’s novel The Killer. In this earlier novel, she develops Máiquel and his story using her deliberately skeletal narrative style (a style which coincides with and underscores the limits and ruin of the poor Brazilian areas she uses as the story’s backdrop). The Killer was made into an award winning film, Man of the Year. In your review, you mentioned the famous Paulo Lins novel City of God, which also became a movie. But, I can’t imagine that you actually read the book, based on your critique of Melo.
Lost World is neither akin to No Country for Old Men nor City of God (the only correct assertion in your review). It is, however, similar to the Hector Bebenco film, Pixote, in which street teenagers move through life with little connection to one another, to the people they encounter, or to the streets they roam. They are horribly abused, they are wickedly violent, and they are always moving, running away, edging toward an unfair and untimely death. This sinister, distopian image of life for the poorest Brazilians is brilliantly eluded to in Patricia Melo’s work.
It seems all of her clever subtlety that references both the crime fiction tradition and the Brazilian marginal fiction tradition she draws from was utterly lost in your reading of this excellent book. I hope your post is recognized by careful readers for what it is: an uneducated and misleading review an important book.
TM first of all, welcome to my blog and thanks for your reply, even though it is rather scathing in itself and borders on contempt for other people’s opinions. You seem to have taken my review almost as a personal insult which I am quite surprised. I apologise the effect that it has had on you. But let me make one thing quite clear: this is a PERSONAL book blog and above all will always have my true thoughts and feelings about a work regardless of whatever awards it may have won or whatnot. In this day and age an award or a movie deal means nothing. ‘Twilight’ was made into movies and won numerous awards, but has it any real literary merit? No. That is what I look for in a book, and in this instant it wasn’t there. I try to approach each book as if I’m reading it for the first time (even if it is by a well-known and well-loved author), and in this instant I really couldn’t see it.
This was an HONEST review and I’m not going to apologise for that. There will always be differences of opinion, which I accept, but arrogance is not something I will condone. I am happy that you have a better understanding of Brazilian fiction than me and applaud your knowledge, but a more constructive response would have been better. In fact, if you don’t like my review, start your own book blog if you haven’t already and I’ll come and see your opinions about books.
Secondly I’m sorry that you do not consider me a careful reader, an ‘uneducated one’ no less. Maybe my MA in Literature and creative writing isn’t enough. A most unfortunate comment based on pure assumption.
Coming to your comment on ‘City of God’, I did not say I had read it. If you read carefully, I said the front cover of ‘Lost World’ reminded me of a scene from that movie. Also, my comment on ‘No Country for Old Men’ was simply a comparison of Maiquel to Mr. Chigurh, of which the former is a mere ghost of the latter. In my opinion Melo and McCarthy’s writing styles are also a little similar in the way they choose to court their storylines, but I felt McCarthy had that something else that Melo lacks. I also complained how the blurb was misleading. I personally do not believe that the novel inspires such a potency of emotions. The choice of wording was far too strong. It promises something that the story cannot deliver.
But like I stated in my review, this book felt like it was missing something, that being character introduction. You have confirmed that for me. My only gripe is that Melo wrote her sequel assuming that readers would be aware of the first in the series. That simply won’t do. There will always be new readers like me coming to a story that might not be aware of certain narrative styles, there should be enough of an introduction for us to build a base off of. Any other way and it causes alienation, and I felt alienated. A good author should treat each book in a series as if it is a standalone. One must never assume that the reader simply knows.
I am not an expert on the favelas and what goes on there, and I have not studied the intricacies of Brazilian literary traditions, you obviously have and enjoyed the book in its’ true context, maybe even in its original form. You said it yourself: it is ‘marginal’, and I’m afraid I am not a literary oracle.
Finally, maybe I understand your frustration a little. One time I met a man who told me that Borges was utter rubbish. Aside from wanting to slap his face I eventually mastered my disgust and explained what Borges was trying to do with his writing and eventually he got it. He’s a firm fan of the author now and I’m glad I was able to guide someone to some great writing. I have not been able to gather much information about Melo, she certainly seems not to be very well-known in the UK. The internet may need someone like you to fill that void and give people like me the chance to find out more about her.
Myworldlyobsessions,
After re-reading my response to your review, I realized how, um, “impassioned” it was. …I am embarrassed to read how unnecessarily snarky my comments were.
I apologize for the strong, downright rude tone of my response to your personal review. Sometimes the perceived anonymity of the Internet emboldens one to express their views in a disrespectful way, something they would never do when having an actual exchange of intellectual ideas in person. I much prefer to exchange ideas than to leave overly harsh and unproductive comments on someone’s personal blog on literature, especially because mean comments are easy to dismiss as an inappropriate diatribe written by someone too self conscious to let their ideas speak for themselves.
Furthermore, I am incredibly impressed and grateful that you were able to not only maintain your composure when an acquaintance doubted the gift of Borges (!), but that you were also able to invite your friend to re-read Borges’ work until you were able to change that person’s mind about it. I may have gone for the slap myself, but after reading that you were able to change his mind, I realize how important it is to allow for those exchanges, not be afraid of them, and to at all costs avoid violence in favor of intellectual exchange.
Unfortunately, because I went for the slap in my response to your review of Melo, I fear that I have discredited myself and left myself with little ability to convince you that this book, in my view, does have some literary merits.
That being said, I did want to mention one thing about Melo’s book. I read this book before reading The Killer; it was my first encounter with Patricia Melo’s writing. Perhaps the reason that I responded so strongly to your assertion that the characters were not properly introduced to the reader or developed throughout the story is because I found this to be a definitively risky technique while I was reading the book (in other words, to a certain degree, I agree with what you say: the characters are left sparse). What I should’ve said in my response to your review was that I think is that leaving the characters in these underdeveloped and uncertain terms was a worthwhile risk because it reinforced a certain sense of desperation for the reader throughout the novel– a desperation that demonstrates the very same desperation the characters feel, as prisoners in their lives and the unpredictable circumstances in which they find themselves. The reader therefore wishes to escape these characters who remain very much unknown and unpredictable to us– but I believe that this is intentionally structured this way so as to force the reader to accept the same terrifying and limited lives that the characters of Lost World lead. Do you think that is a valid interpretation based on your reading?
I am no expert on Brazilian literature, on the contrary! In spite of my arrogant words above, I am decidedly a beginner in all literature, and respect the work you have done to become a Master in it. I really am embarrassed by my unthoughtful remarks and appreciate your thoughtful response (even when a slap would’ve been faster and easier!).
Finally, I may someday take you up on your suggestion to begin a blog of my own… perhaps one extolling the literary virtues of the Twilight series?? (Kidding…) Thanks again for your respectful response and I look forward to (hopefully) being removed from the ranks of rude, ignorant folks spouting off nonsense on the Internet.
tm
I’m glad that we have reached a point of mutual agreement and I thank you for your apology. Yes, the internet can make us behave in strnage ways and I have found myself in similar situations when my words often can be interpreted/ miscontrued in negative light. It happens to everyone at some point, so don’t worry about that. The important thing is to learn from our mistakes.
Regarding Patricia Melo, don’t worry, it takes a lot to put me off a writer and I’ll probably be revisiting her work in the near future, now I know that ‘The Killer’ might fill in some of the gaps for me. Even though I hold a MA in lit, all it means is that I have learned to read books without constant guidance by a teacher! I still feel a learner and every book I read adds to my bank of knowledge. I make more links, find more literary patterns to explore. It’s a neverending process of consuming and digesting information.
It’s obvious you have a real passion for books and if you do choose to start a blog, it will contain well-informed content that will educate people. I sincerely hope that happens, as I’d like to read your thoughts.
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