Parallel lives, parallel times, parallel universes. And a single country. Or not quite so. In Brasyl, scotish Irish writer Ian McDonald opens a window to three distinct landscapes: one futurist, descending from cyberpunk tradition; other contemporary, an echo of news services and the fever of reality shows; and, at last, one in the past, in a mysterious and predatory jungle, an independent world inside a colony. Linking all these three universes, so distant from each other, and at the same time so close, is quantum physics, its possibilities and its consequences.
The book tells the story of three characters separated in time and space. In 2006 Rio de Janeiro, Marcelina Hoffman is a TV producer specialized in reality shows seeking Barbosa, the goalkeeper of the fateful 1950 final, when Brazil lost for Uruguay in the Maracanã stadium. In ultra-surveillance society of 2032 São Paulo, entrepreneur and street guy Edson Jesus Oliveira de Freitas has his life tured upside down when he gets involved with a girl member of a gang of quantumeiros, physicians that use illegal quantum computing to break any kind of code. And in 1732 Amazon, Jesuit father Luis Quinn hunts, in the name of the Church and the Portuguese Crown, another father that would be building his own theocracy in the heart of the jungle. And in the middle of all this, two conspiracies that cross the wall between realities: one tries to keep the multiverse a secret, while the other tries to open up the realities as the only way to save them.
But Brasyl is much more than this. It is a book that keeps the title Science Fiction has earned: that of last representative of the literature of ideas. Just because of that, Brasyl is not an easy book, even less a conventional SciFi book.
In the book, McDonald builds, in those three narrative lines, three discussions: the number of lives an individual may have, the quantity of landscapes and societies a country can have and, finally, how many different worlds fit in a universe. It is a tour, from micro to macrocosm, about the nature of identity. It is a book about philosophy, physics and the nature of reality. About choices, secrets and masks. It is a book about a country that never were and maybe never will be. About parallel realities, but focused in their similitudes rather than their differences.
In the end, Brasyl is not even a single book, but many, inside a single tome of about 400 pages. That is because McDonald wrote, between the lines, that he could have made made books with the same premise, the same elements and the same characters. Brasyl could have been a book about interdimensional intrigue. It could have been a action-packed book, with capoeira, gunshots and swordfights. It could have been an epic in the jungle. It could have been a book about the future of a country dominated by soap operas and reality cop shows, controlled by a surveillance system that monitors, from the stratosphere, every person, every object. Not that all these elements are not present in McDonald’s book. There are fight scenes in which capoeira is described in all its beaty, a afro-descendent version of Hong Kong movies. There are swordfights, both in 18th century chivalric tradition, and in a future one, with the Q-Blades, capable of cutting in the quantum level.
But instead, McDonald decided to spend most of the book writing about three characters and their individual parallel realities: a blond girl that is also a capoeira practiotioner and tries to keep her beauty tp be a little happier, and at the same time that maintains a love affair with a colleague without knowing if it is love at all; a priest, that is an assassin and a general; and a man that by day is an entrepreneur, in love for a Japanese descendent girl, by night is a cross-dresser, a dance queen, and in the weekends is a super-hero, a homoerotic fetish.
And McDonald tells these stories using a special, poetic and labyrinthine prose. The points of view going back and forth, both between the three main characters, as in their minds eye, their memories and multiples lives, too often jump to different scenes in the same paragraph. The structure McDonald uses in Brasyl completes the notion of parallel realities and is the mark of an author that has control over his book.
Through three main characters, both believable an empathic, McDonald explores the nature of Brazilian people. Even if he hasn’t lived in Brazil, doing his research in a couple of visits to São Paulo, Bahia and the Amazon, and reading the few books about Brazil available in English, McDonald was able to capture, with amazing precision, th Brazilian spirit. And he did this without clichés, without hullabaloos, but with critical observations regarding the importance Brazilian people gives to beauty, soccer and TV. Besides, geographically everything is right and linguistically, it is better than most foreigners trying the language of Camões.
The author mixes his English with many terms in Portuguese, which causes a positive estrangement much more interesting to fellow English speakers, but here it becomes the only and real downside of the book. There is a great deal of misspellings: non existent diacritical marks, misplaced accent marks and some inaccurate translations. But that is something that does not diminishes the book’s brilliance and importance.
A hell of an accomplishment for a gringo, definitely Brasyl is a book Brazilians must read.
[…] Well, I need worry no longer. Thanks to the magic of Facebook, I now have a friend in Brazil, and he loved the book. Money shot: Through three main characters, both believable an empathic, McDonald explores the […]
“The author mixes his English with many terms in Portuguese, which causes a positive estrangement much more interesting to fellow English speakers,:”
‘Interesting’ is the wrong word.
I love Ian McDonald, I’ve read most everything he’s written – but he crossed the line from culture to incomprehensible, something other science fiction writers have done when face the giddy richness of a real but foreign culture. He throws his science fiction exformation communication tool kit out the window.
But I have to ask, as someone who reads a lot science fiction ( and not Star Wars novels. Okay I have… ) but meaning I read Delany, China Mieville, Dan Simmons – you know, the guys that non-SF can’t read. How REALLY can I make this out –
“Gunga spoke the rhythm, the bass chug, the pulse of the city and the mountain. Medio was the chatterer, the loose and cheeky gossip of the street and the bar, the celebrity news. Violinha was the singer, high over bass and :rhythm, hymn over all, dropping onto the rhythm of gunga and medio then cartwheeling away, like the spirit of capoeira itself, into rhythmic flights and plays, feints and improvisations, shaking its ass all over the place.
Marcelina stood barefoot in a circle of music, chest heaving, arm upheld. Sweat ran copiously from her chin and elbow onto the floor. Tricks there, deceivings to be used in the play of the roda. She beckoned with her upraised hand, suitably insolent. Her opponent danced in the ginga, ready to attack and be attacked, every sense open. To so insolently summon an opponent to the dance had jeito, was malicioso.
I went walking, the capoeiristas chanted. ”
“jeito, was malicioso. ” Okay I got this, but the tool was there to use. Otherwise, about 6 words I don’t know.
I can infer a great deal, and be patient with what I don’t know. But I didn’t know “capoeira” and it’s not in the glossary. It’s the keystone to the complete page. I learn this on the NEXT page.
There is also (not within this quote ) ” the roda chanted” – What ? so I look it up :the circle with which the capoeira takes place. Is that a joke ? Remember ‘capoeira’ isn’t in the glossary.
So I’m asking myself ” is she dancing or fighting ?” Turns out both, but I one whole page of ‘huh’? So if an experienced science fiction reader can’t get it, how good is it really ? This was going to sit on my shelf of ‘best coolest things I’ve read.’ River of Gods is there. Loved it. But Brasyl is going to the used book store.
Thanks for dropping by, Jeff.
Can’t say much about your comments since I’m Brazilian and very familiar with capoeira. In fact, that part you excerpted is one of my favourite. 🙂
The only thing I would discuss is: there’s no such thing as “the guys non-SF can’t read”. To assume this is the same as to assume there are “guys SF can’t read”. Good literature is good literature. But sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. This time, McDonald didn´t work for you.
But besides that little disagreement, I hope you found that a good review. Please, come back. There will be more soon.
Thanks for the comments and the insight. I respectfully differ on SF ( the thicker stuff ) being readable by all. The structure that SF often uses to drops hints ( the door irised closed ) a reader has to learn to decode. And sometimes familiar concepts of science and /or SF are also assumed knowledge. My wife isn’t that familiar with quantum physics for example. But who really is.
I do get the sense that you understand if I’ve never heard the word capoeira I may be lost. I wish I had known it, I would enjoyed the rhythm and beauty of the scene. ( I’m a little surprised I don’t word after 5 years of karate )I will look at McDonald’s further offerings.
I just came home from the store with collection ‘The New Weird” which looks good and weird, with essay’s as well. I love that.
Jeff again – I will ask, are these real words or sound descriptions ?
Gunga
chug
Medio
ginga
Jeff, I guess hard SF elements need so much suspension of disbelief as a Borges novel. See, the physics applied in fiction are so theoretical one needs to trust the writer will deliver a consistent “in world” explanation or, at least, a good ficcional result.
In that way, I repeat, every novel, be it SF, Fantasy or a psychological, post-modern novel should be readable by anyone. Specially because SF should be about the impact of technology, not the technology itself. When it is the contrary, very often they are not good novels. When a novel tries to lecture quantum physics it is a pain in the ass.
But just to be clear…I’m not saying SF is for everyone. Because there is taste, interest, etc. There are audiences. But the reason of not reading a SF, Horror, Mystery, Mainstream, Psychological, Romance, etc, is not in the genre. It is in the reader.
On the capoeira stuff. Yes, I do understand that not being familiar with a language, a term or a tech makes things harder. But I think it is part of the game. (I also write fiction and I also like to put strange foreign words to impact the reader. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. Some readers love. Some hate. It is a game.)
And gunga, médio and ginga are all portuguese words. Gunga and Médio (and Violinha or Viola) are the names given to berimbaus (the instrument played in capoeira) that are in different tunes. Viola is in a high tune, Médio is in middle tune and Gunga a low tune. Ginga is a almost a slang for dance skills. But in capoeira, ginga is the dance to-and-fro-and-sideways movement used in the fight. Since capoeira is mostly based on dodges, ginga is the first thing one learns. And chug, I guess, is an english word for a low tune explosion, like the sound of an engine.
Finally, I am currently reading The New Weird. Really good. If you like, there´s a good review in The Fix.
I agree about tech exposition. Tedious as best, I forget what novel I skimmed that in recently.
Thank you for your clearing up the terms. Now I’ll be annoying and say that it does support that I’m good at placing and learning the context, but too much is too much. And when they are real world terms, without context support – how in the world am I supposed to sort it out ?
I too (write ) and like inserting the created word ( without an essay behind it ) but if you include 6 in as many lines, I think the chances of you losing even a savvy reader is high.
On another note – I was reading the intro in the coffee shop to The New Weird and I had also just picked 2 Mievelle novels having read The Scar last year. I was also tickled to see Koja’s The Cipher, and Bishops The Etched city mentioned. I’m in the right company. – Jeff
Like I said, Jeff, it’s part of the game. Works for some people. Doesn´t for other ones.
About those books you bough, I only read Mieville. Gonna read Koja and Bishop in the New Weird antho. But if you like New Weird I strongly recommend Hal Duncan´s Vellum and Ink. Boy…the guy is good!
I’ve seen that around, I’ll check it out !
Do it! The guy is a blast!