{"title":"Rodrigo Barbosa Fonseca","description":"","products":[{"product_id":"o-homem-que-nao-sabia-contar-historias","title":"The Man Who Couldn't Tell Stories","description":"Rodrigo Barbosa's The Man Who Couldn't Tell Stories follows the protagonist's path in search of answers to a riddle at the bottom of a teacup. And, while developing a plan to learn how to tell a story—and break through his existential limitations—José Brás will have to learn how to live a story in real life. Along this journey, the narrative unfolds as a novel of personal discovery. With a mystery to unravel and a love story, the plot weaves through Brazil's recent history. \"In outlining modern Brazil and its recent history, Rodrigo Barbosa creates figures who are sometimes grotesque, caricatured, and farcical, and sometimes delicate, like Cecília, whose greatness goes unnoticed by the world. Through her delicacy, she loses her life. On the contrary, the libertarian, up-to-date Juliana gains it. The author preserves the best characteristics of 20th-century literature (subtlety, ambivalence) and resurrects, with great style, the 19th-century serial, creating an almost circus-like atmosphere,\" says professor and writer Rachel Jardim, who wrote the book's blurb. José Brás's quests are followed from the perspectives of three different narrative voices. The reader learns about Brás's imaginary plane through his notebook, in which he writes the story he wants to tell—and, with it, explores references to contemporary Brazil, such as the 1964 Coup, exile, the debauchery, the Riocentro bombing, and the Diretas (Direct Elections) campaign. The first-person narrative offers the perspective of the story's protagonist. And the \"real\" scene, narrated in the third person, follows his adventures as he investigates a mysterious case. The dream story and the real story intertwine throughout the novel. With a strong presence of Brazilian song in the historical narrative, *The Man Who Couldn't Tell Stories* is set in Juiz de Fora, the author's hometown. Rachel Jardim draws a parallel between the novel and the short story \"The Dead,\" which is part of James Joyce's \"The Dubliners\": \"Although distinctly Dubliners, or Juiz de Fora natives, Joyce's characters and Rodrigo's are similar in the astonishing effort to live their daily lives unaware of the magnitude of this effort. Even engaging in heroic revolutionary endeavors and dishonest farces, they are almost all childish, and it is this childishness that saves them. In Halfeld Park, sheltered from the sun under the shade of a tree, or emerging from the brown waters of the Paraibuna River, or walking across the O'Connell Bridge in the snow, they reveal their cities, their world, and their way of life. They emerge from the shadows illuminated by the strong and perennial light of great literature.\"","brand":"Totvsrj-record-dc","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47175501644028,"sku":"9788501094124","price":54.9,"currency_code":"BRL","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0722\/9197\/5420\/files\/fd9e7b5b0d10aad4fd67051ce807574e_a18f4bbb-63fa-44e6-a97a-d14d979f02bb.jpg?v=1778326602"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.record.com.br\/en\/collections\/rodrigo-barbosa-fonseca.oembed","provider":"Editora Record","version":"1.0","type":"link"}