1a. edição ( )

"I had seen too many detective films in my life not to know how to get away from someone following me." - Rubem Fonseca, Vast Emotions and Imperfect Thoughts

In his novella, The Short-Story Writers, Brazilian author Moacyr Scliar includes many cameos about men and women dedicated to writing short-stories: Auro wishes to coat the pages of his stories with hallucinogens; Omar wears a T-shirt with a warning that he will kill himself if the public doesn't buy his book of short-stories; Otaviano writes his stories in public toilets in the form of graffiti on the walls; Jane calls up strangers on the telephone and proceeds to read her short stories; Ernesto mimeographs his stories and hands them out at soccer games; Bltazar, a psychiatric nurse, reads her short-stories to her patients; Fischer writes in a trance-like condition, dictating his stories to his secretary. And on it goes.

With Vast Emotions and Imperfect Thoughts Rubem Fonseca likewise has his unnamed narrator, a Brazilian film director living in Rio de Janeiro, ramble forth on a number of intriguing asides, such things as his hallucinations and dreams, his reflections on media saturated society along with assorted books, films and television. All with a light touch but there's another aspect to the story that makes all the difference: right from the first pages our offbeat film director is sucked into a brutal murder and the world of crime.

And speaking of rambling, allow me a brief digression about my love of such works written in the first person with an unnamed narrator. I take this as a glorious opportunity to name the narrator myself. Here I named the novel’s film director Andre Barrio since he reminds me of Andre from Louis Malle’s My Dinner with Andre and Barrio is the last name of one of Brazil’s top contemporary artists - Artur Barrio.

Back on Vast Emotions, the novel is told in three parts: the first takes place in Rio, the second in Berlin and the third back in Rio. There are a plethora of those tangential excursions and flights of imagination until we arrive in Berlin when certain events kick the story into overdrive – as readers we eagerly turn the pages as we are now in the midst of an international crime thriller.

Since there are so many references to film and filmmaking, here's a batch of short clips as if from a movie trailer:

Serious Business: Angélica says they’ll kill her if they catch her. The narrator lets Angélica hide in his apartment. The next morning Angélica is gone but she leaves a bag of gems – emeralds, rubies, diamonds. Shortly thereafter, bad news: Angélica has been murdered. And not long after that, the narrator’s doorman is murdered and his apartment ransacked. But whoever they are, they didn’t find the gems. No doubt about it – the eccentric, artsy film director is caught at the epicenter of something that might cost him his life.

Lights, Action, Camera: Pointed breasts of his twenty-year-old girlfriend Liliana reminds him of Godard’s film Detective; the brilliance of the diamonds bring to mind Ian Fleming’s Diamonds Are Forever and then the mediocre Guy Hamilton film. The references to movies are so frequent, we’re given the impression the narrator is forever observing life around him through the lens of a camera – life as raw material to prompt memories of past films and ideas to create new methods and fresh techniques for directing his future films.

Luscious Ladies: What’s a crime thriller without sexually charged beauties? Vast Emotions features Liliana and Mitiko from Rio, Veronika in Berlin and Dalia from Curvelo. Perhaps not surprisingly in a novel so closely linked to film, all those gorgeous sweethearts find the spacey filmmaker irresistible. And, yes, there's a string of intimate sex scenes.

Televangelist: José, the narrator’s brother, an Elmer Gantry-style former car salesman, is making a small fortune hawing himself and his religion. The filmmaker observes "he had no love for his fellow man, which, contrary to popular belief, did not keep him from loving himself." However, it must be noted, José being a sleazy sharper does not stop the narrator from making films about the church as a marketing tool to support his brother's thirst for wealth and power. One of the more humorous parts of the novel.

Menacing Presence: A sinister-looking man in a raincoat continually lurks around the filmmaker's apartment building and on occasions tails him throughout the city. "In different circumstances I'd have asked the man to work in a film of mine. Since Widmark threw the paralyzed old lady down the stairs in Kiss of Death in 1947, I'd never seen a face as repugnant and terrifying as his."

Rio Carnival: All those gems bring the filmmaker in contact with one colorful parade contestant. “Ha! Ha!” shouted Negromonte, getting up from the bench, still carrying on his back the construction of wire, wood, plastic, cardboard, fabric, stones, feathers and various decorations, some sixteen feet high, causing the security guard to draw back in alarm.” Yet again another appealing element in the chemistry of Vast Emotions.

Isaac Babel: A major thread running through the entire novel is the presence of the famous author Isaac Babel. His short stories, his life and maybe even an authentic manuscript of his one and only novel. What a find!

Critic Chimes In: In his New York Times review esteemed literary critic James Polk wrote: “The novel becomes, despite its forays into the darker side of life, a profoundly optimistic book. Early on, the narrator refers to 'the essential qualities - love, compassion, charity, tolerance'. Finding them here, among even the slimiest of characters, is simply a marvel.” I completely agree! This Rubem Fonseca novel is truly marvelous. Or if you prefer the Portuguese – maravilhoso.


Brazilian author Rubem Fonseca, born 1925, claims a writer should have the courage to show what most people are afraid to say.

"Don't you envy writers? To create a book they use up only paper and time, the characters always work for free, and they do things that film actors couldn't do or would refuse to do. They produce the most extravagant scenes, expending nothing but words. They kill, mutilate, make people go mad with passion, ruin themselves or gain paradise. An epidemic that kills millions or a handshake costs the same for them." - Rubem Fonseca, Vast Emotions and Imperfect Thoughts ( )

"I had seen too many detective films in my life not to know how to get away from someone following me." - Rubem Fonseca, Vast Emotions and Imperfect Thoughts

In his novella, The Short-Story Writers, Brazilian author Moacyr Scliar includes many cameos about men and women dedicated to writing short-stories: Auro wishes to coat the pages of his stories with hallucinogens; Omar wears a T-shirt with a warning that he will kill himself if the public doesn't buy his book of short-stories; Otaviano writes his stories in public toilets in the form of graffiti on the walls; Jane calls up strangers on the telephone and proceeds to read her short stories; Ernesto mimeographs his stories and hands them out at soccer games; Bltazar, a psychiatric nurse, reads her short-stories to her patients; Fischer writes in a trance-like condition, dictating his stories to his secretary. And on it goes.

With Vast Emotions and Imperfect Thoughts (The Lost Manuscript) Rubem Fonseca likewise has his unnamed narrator, a Brazilian film director living in Rio de Janeiro, ramble forth on a number of intriguing asides, such things as his hallucinations and dreams, his reflections on media saturated society along with assorted books, films and television. All with a light touch but there's another aspect to the story that makes all the difference: right from the first pages our offbeat film director is sucked into a brutal murder and the world of crime.

And speaking of rambling, allow me a brief digression about my love of such works written in the first person with an unnamed narrator. I take this as a glorious opportunity to name the narrator myself. Here I named the novel’s film director Andre Barrio since he reminds me of Andre from Louis Malle’s My Dinner with Andre and Barrio is the last name of one of Brazil’s top contemporary artists - Artur Barrio.

Back on Vast Emotions, the novel is told in three parts: the first takes place in Rio, the second in Berlin and the third back in Rio. There are a plethora of those tangential excursions and flights of imagination until we arrive in Berlin when certain events kick the story into overdrive – as readers we eagerly turn the pages as we are now in the midst of an international crime thriller.

Since there are so many references to film and filmmaking, here's a batch of short clips as if from a movie trailer:

Serious Business: Angélica says they’ll kill her if they catch her. The narrator lets Angélica hide in his apartment. The next morning Angélica is gone but she leaves a bag of gems – emeralds, rubies, diamonds. Shortly thereafter, bad news: Angélica has been murdered. And not long after that, the narrator’s doorman is murdered and his apartment ransacked. But whoever they are, they didn’t find the gems. No doubt about it – the eccentric, artsy film director is caught at the epicenter of something that might cost him his life.

Lights, Action, Camera: Pointed breasts of his twenty-year-old girlfriend Liliana reminds him of Godard’s film Detective; the brilliance of the diamonds bring to mind Ian Fleming’s Diamonds Are Forever and then the mediocre Guy Hamilton film. The references to movies are so frequent, we’re given the impression the narrator is forever observing life around him through the lens of a camera – life as raw material to prompt memories of past films and ideas to create new methods and fresh techniques for directing his future films.

Luscious Ladies: What’s a crime thriller without sexually charged beauties? Vast Emotions features Liliana and Mitiko from Rio, Veronika in Berlin and Dalia from Curvelo. Perhaps not surprisingly in a novel so closely linked to film, all those gorgeous sweethearts find the spacey filmmaker irresistible. And, yes, there's a string of intimate sex scenes.

Televangelist: José, the narrator’s brother, an Elmer Gantry-style former car salesman, is making a small fortune hawing himself and his religion. The filmmaker observes "he had no love for his fellow man, which, contrary to popular belief, did not keep him from loving himself." However, it must be noted, José being a sleazy sharper does not stop the narrator from making films about the church as a marketing tool to support his brother's thirst for wealth and power. One of the more humorous parts of the novel.

Menacing Presence: A sinister-looking man in a raincoat continually lurks around the filmmaker's apartment building and on occasions tails him throughout the city. "In different circumstances I'd have asked the man to work in a film of mine. Since Widmark threw the paralyzed old lady down the stairs in Kiss of Death in 1947, I'd never seen a face as repugnant and terrifying as his."

Rio Carnival: All those gems bring the filmmaker in contact with one colorful parade contestant. “Ha! Ha!” shouted Negromonte, getting up from the bench, still carrying on his back the construction of wire, wood, plastic, cardboard, fabric, stones, feathers and various decorations, some sixteen feet high, causing the security guard to draw back in alarm.” Yet again another appealing element in the chemistry of Vast Emotions.

Isaac Babel: A major thread running through the entire novel is the presence of the famous author Isaac Babel. His short stories, his life and maybe even an authentic manuscript of his one and only novel. What a find!

Critic Chimes In: In his New York Times review esteemed literary critic James Polk wrote: “The novel becomes, despite its forays into the darker side of life, a profoundly optimistic book. Early on, the narrator refers to 'the essential qualities - love, compassion, charity, tolerance'. Finding them here, among even the slimiest of characters, is simply a marvel.” I completely agree! This Rubem Fonseca novel is truly marvelous. Or if you prefer the Portuguese – maravilhoso. ( )

Unusually creative, as if the book in print is a movie script. Yet there are not pages and pages of dialogue, but pages of images. The strange thing in the book is that the narrator, who is the lead character, dreams without images. He describes his dreams quite often the book and they are JUST LIKE DREAMS. I have never read anyone who described the state of dreaming so realistically ...creative, extremely. Great ideas for dances!