ME NAKED

"EU, NUA" begins Odete Lara's autobiographical trilogy. A muse of Brazilian cinema, with this book, Odete performs a veritable psychological striptease and recounts the details of her humble childhood, the beginning of her career in theater and television, and the many loves of her life. Originally published in 1975, "EU, NUA" inspired the film "Lara" by Ana Maria Magalhães, which will be released in theaters in August 2002, starring Caco Ciocler and Christine Fernandes. Odete Lara caused a sensation in the 1950s and, besides igniting the erotic fantasies of audiences who saw her in roles such as Guigui in "Boca de Ouro" (Nélson Pereira dos Santos's adaptation of Nélson Rodrigues's work), she was also a brilliant actress. She worked with some of the country's greatest directors, such as Anselmo Duarte, Walter Khouri, and Glauber Rocha. Beautiful, adored, and desired, a successful actress and singer, Odete sought in sex and drugs the absolute that would compensate for her personal tragedies. The suicide of her mother and father, and an unstable personal life—all of this marked her to the point of despair. "I, NAKED" is the visceral account of a life. Odete found salvation in Buddhism, a path to accepting and understanding her personal dramas. "In Buddhism, I found answers to many questions I couldn't understand before," declares the author. The path Odete chose led her away from the glory of cinema and the material benefits of acting. "I, NAKED," by Odete Lara, is a rare example of complete candor. In simple, shocking, and direct language, she tells absolutely everything about her bumpy existential journey toward finding herself. She confesses, however, that she hesitated considerably before deciding to publish her story: "Writing was a necessity. And publishing? What's the point of dissecting my life and exposing it to others?" She eventually convinced herself it was worth doing. ME, NUA guides us through a captivating saga of a beautiful woman who strips herself of artifice, convenience, and secrets, after a painful childhood, the dangerous exploitation of her physical charms in the splendor of youth, and the sweet scent of professional success, to reveal herself in fullness. One of the most important actresses in Brazilian cinema, Odete Lara is the author of the autobiographical books Eu nua (1975), Minha jornada interior (My inner journey) (1990), and Meus passos em busca da paz (My steps in search of peace) (1995), which narrate her career as an actress and her search for values that fame and acclaim did not bring her. She currently works as a translator, primarily of the works of Thich Nhat Hanh, a monk and world-renowned pacifist with whom she studied in California.