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| Rubem Fonseca |
6 essential works to know Rubem Fonseca’s literature
April 16, 2020
Writer Rubem Fonseca died on Wednesday (15) at the age of 94, in Rio de Janeiro. He had a heart attack in his apartment, in the Leblon neighborhood, and was taken to the Samaritano hospital, but died in the early afternoon.
Placed among the greatest Brazilian writers of the 20th century, with special emphasis on his production as a short story writer, Fonseca debuted with the book “Os Prisioneiros”, in 1963. After a series of acclaimed volumes of short stories, he published his first novel in 1973, “ The Morel Case ”. He continued alternating the two formats throughout his career and, from 2011, published five editions of unpublished stories by Nova Fronteira. His most recent book, “Carne crua”, was released in 2018.
Known for his dry style, which portrays urban violence directly, Fonseca promoted a renewal in the Brazilian literature of the period, being credited for starting a new moment in national fiction from the 1960s. His work was a fundamental reference for Brazilian writers who graduated in the 1970s and 1980s, as stated by the professor of the Department of Literary Theory and Comparative Literature at USP (University of São Paulo) Edu Otsuka to Nexus.
Many of his narratives are closer to the police or “noir” genre, which paved the way for a more direct influence of American literature in the country, as the journalist Maurício Meireles said in Folha de S.Paulo. With that, Rubem Fonseca is usually pointed out as someone who combined the popularity associated with this market strand with a high literary quality. Although his work has been associated with violence, critics also highlight the lyricism and humor of his stories.
Themes, characters and prophetic vision
Among his characters, it is usually possible to identify a division between the marginalized and those who are part of a corrupt bourgeoisie, according to the entry on the author in the Itaú Cultural Encyclopedia. Through them, Fonseca deals with themes such as the bestiality of criminals, social hypocrisy and the abuses committed by the ruling classes. “The existential void, however, is equivalent, whatever the character’s origin”, says the text.
“ALTHOUGH HE BECAME KNOWN FOR THE VIOLENT STORIES THAT INVOLVE THE UNDERWORLD AND CHARACTERS FROM LOW SOCIAL STRATA, HIS TALES ALSO COVER OTHER FORMS OF VIOLENCE PRACTICED BY CHARACTERS OF BOURGEOIS CUT AND ‘RESPECTABLE’ APPEARANCE – RESULTING IN HIS VISION OF A UNIVERSE CROSSED BY A SUBSTRATE OF VIOLENCE AND SEXUALITY (ANOTHER RECURRING THEME), ONLY COVERED BY THE CIVILIZED SURFACE ”
In 2017, literary critic Sérgio Rodrigues wrote that, in the 20th century, Fonseca’s literature was visionary, pointing “like a bazooka” to the future of Brazil.
“No one saw before him the country that was born from unbridled urbanization, where, free from semi-feudal brakes, our obscene inequality generated the social monster that today is bigger than Godzilla,” said Rodrigues in a review published in Folha.
To Nexus Otsuka goes in the same direction, stating that “Rubem Fonseca’s work fulfilled the function of literarily revealing the deviations from the brutal modernization that imposed itself on the country”, referring mainly to the books of the 1970s, which he highlights as the most significant period of the author’s production.
Repetition
Negative reviews, which accused the author of repeating the same formula (but without the same brilliance of his best phase), were directed mainly at some of the last books published by Rubem Fonseca, such as “Caliber 22” (2017) and “Carne Crua” (2018).
This repetition, especially with regard to the author’s raw report of violence, began to be seen in the 2000s. Critics began to argue that, instead of serving as a form of denunciation and social criticism, this repetition would have the effect otherwise, losing its strength.
There is also a contemporary discussion of Fonseca’s treatment of female characters and a possible misogyny present in his work.
From curator to writer
Rubem Fonseca was born in Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, in 1925, but moved with his family to Rio de Janeiro as a child.
He graduated as a lawyer at the Faculty of Law of the University of Brazil in 1948 and, in 1952, he joined the police, as a commissioner in the district of the Rio de Janeiro neighborhood of São Cristóvão. He worked on the streets until the end of 1954, then working as public relations for the corporation. The experience provided material for his literature.
Still in the 1950s, he also started to work as a professor at Fundação Getulio Vargas and public relations for the energy company Light, being exonerated from the police in 1958 due to the impossibility of accumulating his position with the other functions, in which he kept until dedicating himself only to literature, already in the 1980s.
A striking episode in his career was the censorship of the book “Feliz Ano Novo” (1975) by the military dictatorship. The work was already a success when it was banned on the charge of violating morals and good customs. The writer sued the Union, but the work only returned to bookstores after the re-democratization.
His political position in the period before the 1964 coup, however, was a matter of controversy. Rubem Fonseca was one of the directors of the Institute of Economic and Social Research (Ipes), an institution created by businessmen who opposed then president João Goulart. The Ipes produced anti-communist propaganda and supported the military coup and the regime that followed. Fonseca stated that he was part of an existing democratic wing at the institute, with which he would have ceased to have any relationship since 1964.
As a recluse, the writer rarely gave interviews and refused invitations to participate in popular literary events, such as the Paraty Literary Festival. His justification was that a writer cannot be well known, or he loses the possibility of observing and, with that, his raw material.
6 books to know Rubem Fonseca
The request of Nexus, editor and translator Heloisa Jahn, who edited Fonseca’s work for several years, selected six key books by the author, listed below in chronological order with brief comments.
‘The dog’s collar’ (1965) – short stories
“For its unadorned, direct, dry language, and for looking at the violence and contrasts of society and the country, it was a milestone in our literature. From then on, throughout the decade, each new book by Rubem Fonseca was an event of great impact in the cultural environment and of strong political significance, in the midst of dictatorship. The author won a large readership, which from then on accompanied him book by book. ”
“Lúcia Mccartney’ (1967) – short stories
“THE irony and tension are elements of style that help to build a panel of life in the city, in Brazil: the most different characters rush into their projects – and encounter the unforgiving reality.“
‘Happy new year’ (1975) – short stories
“Violence in society at all levels – not only in criminal acts -, at a time when institutional violence prevailed. Unmissable. Language takes on the brutality of what it narrates. ”
‘Bufo & Spallanzani’ (1985) – romance
“Irony and narrative technique; bizarre and obsessions, in progress of police romance. ”
‘August’ (1990) – romance
“Situada in 1954, the plot glues a fictional murder to the political reality of the crisis of the end of the Vargas administration. Impeccable historical reconstruction, tense atmosphere, literarily masterful.“
‘Hole in the wall’ (1995) – short stories
“Rubem Fonseca in full force. The stories are provocative and the sex is very present. ”
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