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Hobby Forum Index » Arts - Books - Reviews » Book Review - Declares Pereira (Antonio Tabucchi)
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| Danny Yee |
 Posted: Mon Aug 11, 2003 2:27 am |
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Declares Pereira
Antonio Tabucchi
translated from the Italian by Patrick Creagh
Harvill 1995
136 pages
A book review by Danny Yee
http://dannyreviews.com/h/Declares_Pereira.html
Fascist Portugal in the summer of 1938, with the Spanish Civil War
raging next door... Dr Pereira is the middle-aged, overweight editor
of the culture page of a Lisbon evening paper; widowed and childless, he
talks to a photo of his wife and dines on omelettes _aux fines herbes_.
He has not been following political events and his translations of 19th
century French classics have never attracted the attention of the censors.
When Pereira employs a student to write some articles, however, that
precipitates his unlikely transformation into a hero. Monteiro Rossi
delivers impossible pieces on the most unsuitable people -- Lorca and
Mayakovsky even! -- and his girlfriend is a firebrand. Pereira supports
them anyway, for reasons not clear to him -- is he thinking of the son he
might have had, perhaps, or is "a new ruling ego obtaining leadership of
his confederation of souls", as Dr Cardoso suggests? A steady progression
of events leads to a dramatic conclusion, with Pereira striking a blow
against tyranny and embarking on a new life.
Dramatic but understated, _Declares Pereira_ (_Sostiene Pereira_)
is a fine psychological study, a compelling account of a political
awakening. The title derives from a curious feature of the novel's
style: it is written in the third person, from Pereira's perspective,
but nearly every paragraph is decorated with a "..., declares Pereira"
or "Pereira declares ...". The context of Pereira's declarations and
his audience are never explained -- is he safe in exile, addressing a
circle of friends, or is the whole narrative the report of a fascist
interrogator? But Antonio Tabucchi's subject is not the fate of the
butterfly but the more dramatic metamorphosis of the caterpillar --
which retains its mystery despite the transparent narrative.
--
%T Declares Pereira
%A Tabucchi, Antonio
%M Italian
%F Creagh, Patrick
%I Harvill
%C London
%D 1995
%O paperback
%G ISBN 1-86046-069-0
%P 136pp
%K Portugal, world literature, historical fiction
%Z a political awakening in 1938 Portugal
4 August 2003
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Copyright (c) 2003 Danny Yee http://danny.oz.au/
Danny Yee's Book Reviews http://dannyreviews.com/
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