Beatriz Bracher

This novel is interesting in its construction (something I love), in that there are 3 narrators talking to one man who we hear nothing from. His dying paternal grandmother, his paternal grandfather's best friend, and his late father's best friend all explain their experiences with and memories of his late father.

Benjamim himself is about to become a father for the first time, to his son Antonio.

I loved the first half or so of this, and then I lost interest. I really want to hear from show more Benjamim himself. As an adult man about to have a son, how does it feel to learn more details of your father's and grandfather's mental health issues? Did he already know the extent, or does he now feel doomed or under threat himself? Or what does this mean for his son? I found this foreboding, as Benjamim's and Antonio's futures felt more and more threatened and out of their control--but is that how Benjamim/his family/his wife/Brazilian culture would interpret this? show less

I wanted to like this more than I did, and perhaps a second read in a few years will set me right, but I found it far too unfocused. That's a shame, because otherwise it's everything I like: a bit of philosophy here, a bit of depressing history there, a boatload of moral conundrum and impossibility. But I think it needed to either be three times as long, or to lose a few of the many, many threads, which I, at least, found no way of tying together.