Originally published in 2008, Raṣīf: mar que arrebenta , by award-winning writer Marcelino Freire, has a new edition, revised by the author and with a previously unpublished story, and illustrated by the disturbing engravings of Manu Maltez.
Rare writers have such an intimate relationship with words as Marcelino Freire. His stories are composed of delicate mechanisms in which no syllable is out of place. The cadence, rhythm, and sonority of his prose are impeccable, approaching poetry and carrying within it echoes of theater, a fundamental part of the development of the writer born in 1967 in Sertânia, in the interior of Pernambuco.
From its title, Raṣīf alludes to Recife and two other elements that characterize the stories in this book. One is the nod to the Arab world, which fascinates and contrasts with other powerful cultures. The second is the tension between beauty and strength, serenity and brutality, the sensual and the hostile, the rock and the sea. We read at one point, in the now classic short story "Da Paz," long championed by actress Naruna Costa and recently performed in a show by Emicida: "Peace is a disgrace. A disgrace." Ambiguity is one of the hallmarks of Marcelino's work.
Refusing conformity and clichés, we wander through a myriad of memorable characters, scenes, and plots. Santa Claus, frightened, may not show up. The transvestite marvels at the invitation for coffee. The father laments his artist son—couldn't he like soccer? The suicide bomber sounds charming to a tourist riding a bus. The Queen of the Sea, other orishas, and Christ mingle among characters closer to their deities than to any institutionalized faith.
Raṣīf: Mar Que Arrebenta , first published in 2008 after Marcelino won the Jabuti Prize for Contos Negreiros , has received a new edition, revised by the author and featuring a previously unpublished short story, and illustrated with the haunting engravings of Manu Maltez. It is a book that condenses in its brief stories the best virtues of Marcelino Freire, an unavoidable name in Brazilian literature of recent decades.
