João Ubaldo Ribeiro (1941–2014)

En una isla tropical un grupo de científicos internacionales lleva a cabo un sospechoso experimento genético. ¿Tienen alma esos híbridos de hombre y chimpancé que están produciendo sus experimentaciones? Averígüelo el lector a través del singular triángulo protagonista, formado por un biólogo borrachín y vividor, una romántica esquizoide de apremiante sensualidad y un político corrupto -secretamente enamorado de un psicópata homosexual, pero capaz de asesinar por su honor show more conyugal. Personajes muy adecuados, en su torrentera de pasiones, para comprender que sienten los monstruos que la ciencia genera en la isla. Joao Ubaldo Ribeiro nació en Brasil en 1941. Se dedica al periodismo y está considerado como uno de los mejores escritores brasileños de nuestros días. En España aún no ha sido descubierto más que por un fascinado grupo de lectores y críticos. Alfaguara ha publicado sus dos novelas más importantes: Sargento Getúlio y Viva el pueblo brasileño. show less

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No livro, ele aborda temas como a ambição humana, o amor e as ameaças do mundo moderno, numa história cheia de traições e mistérios, que não perdeu nada de sua atualidade desde seu lançamento, em 1989.

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Ambientado no Nordeste dos anos 50, Sargento Getúlio narra a história de Getúlio Santos Bezerra, homem de confiança de um poderoso coronel de Sergipe, que precisa levar um preso político de Paulo Afonso até Aracaju. No meio do trajeto, uma reviravolta política faz com que as ordens se alterem: Getúlio não deve mais prosseguir com a missão. Desconfiado, determinado a cumprir à risca o serviço que lhe fora dado, o sargento parte em uma jornada que não show more terá outro destino a não ser o da violência e da morte. Sargento Getúlio, um dos romances mais importantes da literatura brasileira no século XX, é inspirado em fatos reais que Manoel Ribeiro, chefe da Polícia Militar de Sergipe, contava ao filho João Ubaldo na infância. Quando o escritor era criança, um certo sargento Cavalcanti, baleado num atentado em Paulo Afonso, foi socorrido por seu pai e levado com vida até Aracaju. show less

http://www.mytwostotinki.com/?p=1541

The political changes in Europe 1989/90 affected probably no other city more than Berlin. The divided city was not only re-united but became once again a magnet for writers, artists, and all kind of creative people. With them came the hipsters, this sort of people that is so difficult to categorize and for whom Berlin seems to be the place for a never-ending party.

In literary terms, Berlin is - like any other bigger city - the scenery for many novels and show more stories; it also seems to be a good inspirational place for autobiographical books with sketches or travel notes. Cees Nooteboom's Berlin Notes or his Roads to Berlin are good examples, as well as Wladimir Kaminer's Russian Disco, a bestseller with cult status in Germany (more than 1.3 million sold copies).

When João Ubaldo Ribeiro, the most famous contemporary Brazilian novelist (I am talking about literature here, not drivel - which excludes Paulo Coelho of course), came to Berlin in the early 1990s with his family, he published during his one year as a guest of DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) and after his return to Brazil a number of newspaper columns about his life and experience in Berlin which were later collected under the title A Brazilian in Berlin.

His adventurous travel to Berlin, experiences in supermarkets or on the street (the aggressive Berlin cyclists were probably never described more up-to-the-point), examples for the mentality of the Berliners, visits of classmates of the kids at home, the very different concept of the word "tomorrow" in Brazil and Germany, the phenomenon that he met a lot of Berliners but no Germans at all, the naked people in Halensee (Freikörperkultur or short FKK is a very serious German movement, and indeed there is probably no other country with fewer legal restrictions of public nudity than Germany), or the unexplicable habit of many Berliners to go to public readings - voluntarily! - all this and a few other experiences are subject of Ubaldo Ribeiro's causeries.

Although all his texts breathe humor and mild (self-)irony, the author has also a sensorium for the more serious effects of re-unification: since he knows the city from visits before the re-unification, he feels a certain difference in the attitude of people to visitors. Since Berlin was overwhelmed by visitors (and migrants) in the years after the changes, he feels that people are more stressed, less polite. Something seems to have changed...well, Berlin has never been a place of particular politeness, and typical Berliners are famous for their rough wit and no-bullshit attitude.

The book is a very fast read and a suitable preparation when you go to visit Berlin or plan to live there for a while. It was the first book I read by this author and it made me read his more serious works such as Sargento Getulio. The only downside of the book reviewed here: it is not translated in English. show less