The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1951-11-01
Key Books
BY 4. de T. cIEcRAs

,z.,.x. -, u thdtitliilan ON
ps,, MY New York City. s24 pages s ,
~. Inc Plush language used IN
T lns aust jacket of a book nub-
, ,., IN the United states
Usually exaggerate the charms
= ene contents around which !,
wraps itself, But in descrih;n !,
.h he translation of this work by
ne popular Brazilian novelist
me Dlurb writer was. not far
wrong when he compared the
Peace 80 anu
PERHAPS it isn't quite as great
e she kussian classic. but I
say perhaps, for the yesterdays
OF literature are surrounded with
the sacred aura of the much
Iead and the much praised. The
new work has not vet gathered
unto itself the barnacles of q
Justified greatness.
Mr.. Verissimo. of course dc.
pets a vastly different milieu
14o-l895 in Brazil. He also uses
writing techniques and penetra-
ions into deep weels OF human
nenavior unknown in Tolstoy's
aay. A performer in any art. if
ne wants to be heard in his own
age and tomorrow, cannot fail
10 recognize the new discoveries
IN the medium in which he is
working. If the artist does not
use them consciously. his work
at least unconsciously shows a
recognition of their existence.
Mr.. Verissimo is a scholar as
well as an artist with words.
ard a superb story teller.
He is well aware of the ex-
ceilent stream of consciousness
device carried to the grotesque
BY James Joyce He uses it with
restraints as he crawls in and
out of the minds and concious-
ness OF his characters. He is we'll
aware of Freud's penetration in
to the levels of consciousness and
employs it to show living throb-
bling human beings moving in
the yesterdays of his race, in
Place of the costumed dolls in
so many stories placed back
wards in time The short natural
dialogue sentence of Heming-
way fame is carefully balanced
with passages of narrative and
descriptive prose so that the six
hundred page book almost never
drags.
There is no pastel Victorian
reticence evidenced in the selec-
ton of events which he portrays
on his canvas. All too often in
his Brazilian frontier world the
color is of flesh ripped open by
swords and bullets and the
hatchets of Indians and brigands.
And in the quiet spots OF the
book when children play on the
earthen floors with oxbones for
piaythings, when young boys
play under a fig tree, when
women sit on patios with their
spinning wheels. the colors are
warm and rich, the colors of a
sieSta sun.
And these new generations
and techniques are thoroughly
digested by the author. There is
no illegitinate literary flourish,
for examplea In his cotifaterpun-
tai weaving back and forth III
time in order TO maintain the
highest dramatic placing of the
events in the saga, There is
nothing forced about his intro
duction of polished European
into the frontier town to show
the place in perspective. And the
massive research which must
have gone into the novel no
where shows the author over
whelmed by his material Only
the professional or amateur dis
sector of literature is aware OF
Mr.. Verissimo's excellent use OF
the manipulation of language
and literary techniques, when
placing yesterdays historical
novels next to this one. To the
reader they are evidenced only
in a book about one hundred
and fifty years in the life of a
Brazilian family in which every
character is wildly alive.
MIR. Verissimo's country TO SO
many of us up here means Car
men Miranda. the samba and
there's lot of coffee in Brazil.
So to North Americans particu-
Iarlv. this book has a lot to say
in its frontier panorama Eu-
ropes frontiers are in some an
cient April long ago, buried IN
Nieberlunglied, or Gallo
war or q pre- Parthenon yestef
dav. But Brazil is young as we
are young, with Indian fighting
and frontier settling within the
memories of our granotathers.
Time and the Wind pulls back
the surtain on q prelude of the
Brazilian past which is very
much like our own Men and
women lured to the west by a
frontier dream, building towns
around a public square and a