Netto Loses His Soul is not the story of Antônio de Souza Netto. It is a fiction about him, an invention, a dream—mine and that of others. (Tabajara Ruas) In "NETTO LOSES HIS SOUL," the celebrated writer Tabajara Ruas ultimately revives an era by imagining the life of the Farroupilha hero—General Antonio de Souza Netto. Netto participated in all the border wars and revolutions that shook southern Brazil in the last century. However, according to the author, biographical notes about him are "few and incomplete," Ruas declares. It is, above all, a historical fiction about a historical time. The story takes on a soul in Tabajara Ruas's prose, who, by reviving this era, the distant 1800s, also revives characters and, with them, the feelings and conflicts that are the essence of humanity. Ruas breathes new life into already well-known historical figures such as General Netto himself and the monarchist president Bento Gonçalves. The book's entire narrative consists of direct, crystalline, tense, cinematic, and symphonic prose. The text also boasts a masterful command of dialogue, a verisimilitude, a familiar accent, and everyday diction after each dash. There's also a restraint in the use of regional terms, a loyalty to the gaucho accent without caricature, and a realism without folklore in the characters' speeches. In NETTO LOSES HIS SOUL, there's more than dialogue. Multiple voices monologue during General Netto's final hours, for example. Awakened by fever, they contradict and provoke one another. Tabajara Ruas proves himself a craftsman of words, of writing. His fluent prose dispenses with the rigid chronological order of events, with well-crafted temporal regressions and progressions, and a fascinating beginning and end. It's an invitation to reflect on the past and, above all, on the subtleties of the human soul and the human condition in the face of its destiny. The Netto created by the author is not only a rigid, rule-bound man; he also has a fragile, womanizing, and affective side. Ruas also uses the expertise of his craft to innovate or even create images whose lightness borders on perfection, as when he compares "books falling like frightened chickens with their wings spread." Ruas combines the gaucho soul, the themes, and the figures that populated the history of the south of the country with a thoroughly modern literary technique. Ruas proves himself a skilled novelist, balancing scenes of high dramatic tension with a mature skepticism distilled throughout the sentences—sentences that make this novel an exercise in indisputable affirmation. In NETTO LOSES HIS SOUL, the regional voice raises its voice to the entire world, and from a small region grows what would be a restricted account to become a universal work of art. Tabajara Ruas, a gaucho from Uruguaiana, is a writer, translator, and screenwriter for comics, television, and film. He appeared in the films "Kilas, o mau da fita," "Anahy de las misiones," and "O dia em que Dorival encarou a guarda." He published the serial "A segunda experiência de Terry Lennox" in several newspapers. He studied architecture at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul and in Denmark. Exiled between 1971 and 1981, Tabajara lived in several countries: Chile, Argentina, Denmark, and Portugal. As a writer, he contributed to Brazilian newspapers and magazines and to more than a dozen television specials. He received awards at the Locarno, Biarritz, and Lisbon Film Festivals. He currently works in advertising. "Netto Perdido Sua Alma" (Netto Loses His Soul) was the basis for the film, which won four Kikitos at the 2001 Gramado Film Festival, including the Special Critics' Prize and Best Film by the Popular Jury. "Tabajara Ruas... is a writer with a sense of the epic in small things and the human in the epic, and it is, above all, a beautiful text. On this excursion into the past, Tabajara pursues a fascinating character and gives us the privilege of going along." - Luis Fernando Veríssimo "Direct, crystalline, tense, cinematic, and symphonic prose." - Zero Hora "Tabajara Ruas's genius does not conform to the narrowness of the traditional historical novel." - Jornal do Brasil "Lyrical and sober prose, which neither seeks, nor flees, from the savage violence of battles." - El País - Montevideo "Ruas... also uses the expertise of his craft to innovate or even create images whose lightness borders on perfection." - Jornal da Tarde
