Marcio Souza (1946–2024)

Strap yourself in and get ready for suspense and intrigue that's high times three: high tension, high voltage, high octane. Flashing back and forth between Rio de Janeiro and Paris, Brazilian author Marcio Souza’s 1984 novel, Death Squeeze, is is John Le Carré-style international thriller that’s so scorching hot I feel compelled to simply fire off the following bullets:

Voice - Mr. Souza’s writing is clear and crisp; reading his sentences is like taking deep gulps of fresh mountain show more air. To say the action is fast-paced would almost be understatement. Although the protagonists in Death Squeeze are themselves squeezed rather than the ones doing the squeezing, in a very real sense this novel reads like an adventure story.

Miguel Gouveia - Forced to give up the rank of captain and his military career for political reasons, forty-year-old husband and father Miguel is a man of high morals. He’s currently working as an advertising executive in Rio. In the first few pages he's drawn into bloodshed and savagery: after midnight, on a deserted street, he witnesses a stabbing; he’s chased by a car than on foot by two men armed with pistols; he circles back and clubs the guy watching their car; hearing more shots, he steals the car and drives off. And with each twisting and torquing of events, as if struggling in quicksand, Miguel sinks deeper and deeper.

Haidée Jeffet - One of Brazil's top fashion and clothing designers, she's Miguel's boss and has many political ties and connections both in Rio and Paris as her now dead husband was once a prominent ambassador. The more we read, the more we appreciate just how resourceful Haidée can be when she sets her eyes on what she wants.

Vivian de Castro - Exiled Brazilian in Paris. Vivian lives and breathes politics and has direct links with influential members of the Communist party. She despises all the right wing thuggery and brutality among the head honchos in Brazil and she isn’t shy about taking action that will turn Brazil's politics in a decidedly different direction.

Ruth Gouveia - Miguel's wife. When Miguel goes missing Ruth swings into action, which brings her into contact with all sort of characters, both hurtful and helpful, including Rosa, a hippie artist with a strong commitment to the practice of meditation.

Full Urban Spectrum - We move rapidly from Rio’s posh rich neighborhoods to its ramshackle favelas, from luxury hotels to cramped apartments in Paris as the squeezers inflict beatings, torture or death while the squeezed attempt to remain at least one step ahead of their pursuers.

Military and Police and Politics - Who’s in charge here? Is it the army or secret army or private army, the police, secret police or their political leaders? The shifting of power is so speedy, we might even question if anybody is squarely in charge other than those who happens to possess the greatest firepower at any given moment.

Eastern Philosophy – But maybe the real power and control resides in the forces of nature and the universe. Marcio Souza weaves the Eastern concepts of harmony, tranquility, karma, dharma, samsara and nirvana into his violent mix.

Drive – We are right there, from beginning to end, feeling squeezed and pressed from every direction as the story propels forward in overdrive. It's as if we hear the novel's soundtrack as we turn the pages - Philip Glass' Music with Changing Parts: show less

'The Emperor of the Amazon' is a book unlike any other. Arranged into brief vignette-style chapters (some only as long as a sentence) it tells the story of journalist turned dictator thrust into a position of power in the newly independent territory of Acre, Brazil. This wild tale leaps off into so many different directions that sometimes it's hard to keep track of what's going on, but when you adapt yourself to Souza's style, you will soon fall in love with both the story and its presentation.

This is a wonderful and zany story, it was pretty short I managed it in just a day.
The premise is that a Brazilian journalist, through an outlandish and hilarious turn of events, suddenly finds himself on the way to trying to conquer a vast expanse of land (as I recall several times the size of Portugal, it was described), which also happened to be a massive source of rubber trees, during the very important time of 'the rubber boom' in South America.

The book was such a fun read, I literally show more let the entire day slip away without even feeling it! It has a wonderful and special brand of humor which I seem to notice a lot in South American literature. show less

This was very well written. I really enjoyed how the characters were developed. I would like to be able to write like this. At first, I thought that the book should have been a lot longer, but the more I think about it, I think that it was a really appropriate ending for the theme of the book.