|
Moacyr Scliar (1937-2011) Brazil
|
|
Moacyr
Scliar was one of Latin America's most important contemporary writers, who was
repeatedly awarded the most distinguished prizes of his country and a great
contribution to Brazilian society. He studied medicine and worked as a doctor
in the public health service until his retirement. In 2003 he was elected
member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters.
Scliar is one of the few novelists in Brazil to deal with the topic of
Jewish immigrants, as in O exército de
um homem só (“The One-Man Army”). He is also a master of short stories, of
a fantastic and absurd kind. I'm attracted by the fluid borderline between
the literary and the humorous, the real and the absurd. Medicine is another
topic that runs through his oeuvre. With considerable humour the author
presents the issues of alienation, of religious and ethnic belonging, of the
discrepancy between individuality and group identity. He became famous with the
novel O centauro no jardim (“The
Centaur in the Garden”) and has maintained the interest of a wide readership
until present with novels such as A
mulher que escreveu a Bíblia (“The Woman who wrote the Bible”), which tells
the story about an unattractive girl who becomes one of King Salomon’s wives.
As she is the only literate woman, she becomes the king’s historian and tells
generations to come the true story of the creation of the world and the glory
of King Salomon.
Os leopardos de Kafka (“Kafka’s leopards”) tells the story of a misunderstanding
and its expansive and entertaining consequences. In 1916, in a Europe
devastated by the First World War and on the threshold of the Bolshevik
Revolution, the young Russian Benjamin travels to Prague on a secret mission.
When he is mistakenly handed The Temple Leopards by Franz Kafka, he believes it
to be a coded message. The result is a truly Kafkaesque situation.
One of Brazil's finest fabulists.
Alberto
Manguel
Scliar's voice is a fresh onde, his artistic roots
as firmly fixed in Jewish tradition and mythology as they are in Brazil's
literary history.
The
Washington Post
In O centauro no jardim (“The
Centaur in the Garden”), Moacyr Scliar
humorously links fairy-tale, myth and the banality of everyday life in a bourgeois
society. Guedali is the son of Jewish immigrants in
Brazil - and a centaur, half man, half horse. When he meets the female centaur Tita, the two of them decide to undergo an operation to be
given full human form. But Guedali soon longs for his
former appearance again...
The Centaur in the Garden is a comedic novel, a regionalist novel, a
bawdy erotic novel, a realistic novel of bourgeois alienation, a metaphoric
novel, a fantastic phantasmagorical novel – a weaving of the common and the
mythic, a mating of contrasts and opposites.
The
Washington Post
Na noite do ventre, o diamante (“The Hidden Diamond”): The family Nussembaum lives in a remote village in
Russia. For Sabbath each week, Esther, mother of two sons, puts on a precious
diamond ring in her humble little house. And what a diamond it is! It
accompanies the reader throughout the centuries up to the present. First it is
brought from Brazil to Amsterdam by a neo Christian persecuted by the
Inquisition and then it is handed down from generation to generation. In the
beginning of the 20th Century the family Nussembaum emigrates
to Brazil. In order to bring the ring safely across the border, one of the sons
swallows the ring, the other, Gregório, swallows the stone. The family soon
regains the ring, the stone, however, has implanted itself in Gregório’s
bowels. Will it ever be found again? The doyen Scliar once again combines
occurrences bordering the absurd with historical facts and lets the reader take
part in an entertaining game amid reality and fiction.
Os vendilhões do templo (“The Temple Hawkers”):The famous Bible scene in
which Jesus furiously drives the merchants from the Temple provides Scliar with
the idea for his new novel, which is set in three different eras and takes a
good-humoured look into the relation between religion and commerce. The author
starts off with the story of a man from 33 AD, a skilled and inventive
salesman.
The second story takes place in the 17th century in the south of Brazil,
in one of the Jesuits’ missionary outposts. The third and final part of the
novel is set in the same place, where a small town has been built on the site
of the old mission. The year is 1997. The narrator is a broke, melancholy
journalist.
As in his previous works, the author looks back to tell the present through
the past. And the questions that are repeatedly raised in the course of the
novel do not apply to Brazil alone: What is the relationship between religion
and commerce? How can ideals survive reality? Scliar once again seduces the
reader in this funny, ironic novel as the masterful storyteller he is.
Manual da paixão solitária (“A Manual
on Solitary Passion”): At a congress of biblical studies held in a Brazilian
city, Harold Veiga de Assis, a famous historian and professor at a prestigious
North American university, presents a paper that is based on a manuscript
discovered only a few months previously in a cave in Israel that refers to a
short passage in the Book of Genesis. It tells the story of patriarch Judah and
how his decision to increase his clan leads to the loss of his children. Two of
his sons, Er and Onan marry, one after the other, the young and beautiful
Tamar, but neither of them manage to father any
children. The first son, Er, is punished by God with death for his inability to
procreate. Traditionally the Second son, Onan, is responsible for taking the
place of his older brother. He, however, refuses to carry out this role since
he considers it a humiliation and would rather spill his semen on the ground,
than produce any children with her. God punishes him too, with death. Judah's
youngest son Shelah is the only one left and he does not want to him to go to
Tamar for fear of losing him too. Dishonoured and deprived of children, Tamar
plays a trick that goes down in history. A masterly raconteur, Veiga de Assis
manages to capture the attention of the congress members, which prompts Diana
Medeiros, also a historian and university professor and one of Veiga de Assis'
old students, to offer her interpretation of the biblical text, which in turn
unleashes a heated debate. The antagonism that arises between the two
professors gives way to a modern debate on the biblical facts being presented,
which at the end of the day are really explorations into the fundamental
feelings of human beings.
As in his previous novels, “The Woman who wrote the Bible” and “The
Temple Hawkers”, Scliar uses a biblical theme to prompt the narration of two
very different points of view. Typically amusing and though provoking, he
addresses the basic emotions of every human being – love, hate, envy, jealousy
- all of which have played a part in every human story throughout the ages.
La variété de son inspiration, la
clarté da sa prose, sa verve enfin en ont fait un des principaux écrivains de
son pays. Médecin des pauvres à Porto Alegre, humaniste plus que militant, il
n’a plus rien à prouver. [...] La farce, le rire gras sont là, sous-jacents,
mais parfaitement contrôlés, et c’est finalement l’écrivain qui s’impose,
maître de son rire comme de sa pensée.
Jean
Soublin, LE MONDE
Please also visit the author’s website: www.moacyrscliar.com
Original editions and rights sold (selection):
Scliar’s work is now mainly being published by Companhia das Letras, São
Paulo.
Novels (Selection):
A guerra no Bom Fim, Rio de Janeiro: Expressão e Cultura 1972; Porto Alegre: L&PM 1982, 90 p.
France: Folies d’Encre 2010 ● Germany: Hentrich & Hentrich ● Romania: Univers
2012 ● US: Texas Tech University Press 2010
O exército de um homem só, Rio de Janeiro: Expressão e Cultura 1973; Porto Alegre: L & PM 1980;
2002, 176 p.
Argentina: Contexto
1988 ● Chile: Lom 2002 ● Colombia: Tercer Mundo
1988; 1995 ● Germany: Weitbrecht 1987, pb
Goldmann 1989, pb Suhrkamp 2000 ● Mexico: Alfaguara 2005
● Portugal: Caminho 2002 ● Spain: Txalaparta 2004
● US: Ballantine 1986
Os deuses de Raquel, Rio de Janeiro:
Expressão e Cultura 1975 ; Porto Alegre: L&PM 1983, 2001, 125 p.
Germany: Hentrich & Hentrich ● US: Ballantine 1990
Os voluntários, Porto Alegre: L&PM 1980, 203 p.
US: Ballantine 1988
Max
e os felinos, Porto
Alegre: L&PM 1981, 2001, 78 p.
Canada: Les Intouchables 2003 (French), Key
Porter Books ● Colombia: Ediciones B 2006 ● France: Presses de la Renaissance 1991,
Folies d’Encre 2009 ● Italy: Meridiano Zero 2004 ● Romania: Univers ● US: Ballantine 1990, Penguin 2003
A
estranha nação de Rafael Mendes, Porto Alegre: L&PM 1983,
287 p.
France: Belfond 1986 ● Germany: Weitbrecht 1989 ● Spain: Circe Ediciones 1988 ●
US: Crown Books 1988,
Ballantine
Sonhos
tropicais, São Paulo:
Companhia das Letras 1992, 212 p.
France: Belfond 1994*
O
centauro no jardim, Porto Alegre: L & PM 1997; São Paulo: Companhia das Letras 2004,
pb 2011, 247 p.
France: Belfond 1985; Folies
d’Encre 2011 ● Germany: Hoffmann und Campe 1985, Volk und
Welt 1988, pb Rowohlt 1989 ● Israel: Maariv Book
Guild 1988 ● Italy: Voland 2002 ● Netherlands:
Wereldbibliotheek 1994 ● Portugal: Caminho
1986 ● Romania:
Univers ● Russia: Amphora 2002* ● Spain: Swan 1985,
Cículo de lectores 1986* ● Sweden: Tidens 1988 ● US: Ballantine Books
1985, pb 1988, University of Wisconsin
Press 2003, Texas Tech University Press 2011
A
Majestade do Xingu, São Paulo: Companhia das Letras 1997, pb 2009, 210 p.
France: Albin Michel 1998 ● Portugal: Caminho 2000 ● US: Texas Tech
University Press
A
mulher que escreveu a Bíblia, São Paulo: Companhia das Letras 1999, pb 2007, 216 p.
France: Albin Michel
2003 ● Italy: Voland, 2004 ● Mexico: Alfaguara
2001, pb 2003 ● Portugal: Plátano 2009
Os
leopardos de Kafka, São Paulo: Companhia das Letras 2000, 117 p.
Catalan: Rayo Verde ● Czech Republic: Aurora 2002 ● Denmark: Hjulet ● France: Actes Sud ● Italy: Voland 2006 ● Portugal: ASA ● Spain:
Rayo Verde ● US: Texas Tech
University Press 2011
Na noite do ventre, o diamante, Rio de Janeiro:
Objetiva 2005, 167 p.
Os vendilhões do templo, São Paulo: Companhia
das Letras 2006, 296 p.
Manual da paixão solitária, São Paulo: Companhia
das Letras 2008, 215 p.
Eu vos abraço, milhões, São Paulo: Companhia
das Letras 2010, 255 p.
Stories (Selection):
A
balada do falso Messias, São Paulo: ática 1976, 85 p.
US: Ballantine Books 1987*
O
carnaval dos animais, Porto Alegre: Movimento 1978, 74 p.
France: Belfond 1987, Serpent à Plumes 1999,
Folies d’Encre 2010 ● US: Ballantine Books 1986*
O
olho enigmático, Rio de
Janeiro: Ed. Guanabara 1986, 185 p.
France: Belfond 1990* ● US: Ballantine Books
1989*
A
orelha de Van Gogh, São Paulo: Companhia das Letras 1989, 163 p.
France: Belfond 1992* ● Italy: Voland 2000 ● Portugal: Caminho
1994 ● Sweden: Tranan 2011
Contos
reunidos, São Paulo:
Companhia das Letras 1995, 437 p.
US: University of New
Mexico Press
Participation in anthologies:
Abécédaire incomplet de l'humour juif, France: Folies d’Encre 2011
Essays (Selection):
Saturno nos trópicos,
a melancolia européia chega ao Brasil, São Paulo: Companhia das Letras
2003, 274 p.
Young
readers (Selection):
A colina dos
suspiros, São Paulo: Moderna 1999,
128 p.
Colombia: Ediciones B 2008
* rights available