About a hundred years ago my wife and I were on holiday in England, staying then with her brother in Reading. A certain chain of events had left me at a hotel bar with my wife's brother, his friend Richard and Richard's soon-to-be wife. At the time Richard didn't care much for me, I was an American and one who didn't rise to his provocations: in fact I agreed with most of his zingers. We have since become warmer and I rather enjoyed hiking with his wife and children a few years back. Well, anyway, it was the four of us and then suddenly this fellow sat down uninvited and began relating his life's story. He stated that he had been kicked out of the French Foreign Legion for being too violent. Now if that isn't an endearing ice breaker to a table of strangers, I'm not sure what is. Quickly the others identified the guy as harmless and a blowhard and abandoned ME to listening the tirade. The guy kept harping on the competitive gene which a biological holdover of sorts. it was self evident, we wanted to be the best. I assured him that such reductions weren't likely. He asked, no, implored for evidence. I strangely referenced myself, my vocation, my approach to life. He kept hectoring and saying that my discretion was a crutch. This "debate" as such continued its stumble through a few more pints. I still shudder recalling that.

That grinding tactic is wielded by Tavares as well as his protagonist in Learning To Pray In The Age Of Technique . It leaves the reader gasping for air and insecure. Nothing can be conceded for the author. Abstractions and biological imperatives steamroller all objections. There are no refutations to marshal. The assault continues until the earth is blackened. Such is the world view of Lenz Buchmann. His brother dies and apparently has the temerity to mix their father’s books with his own.

Albert hadn't kept his father's library isolated on some particular shelves, with his own on others; on the contrary, he had merged all authors, reordered everything, arranged it all alphabetically, a simplistic decision that revealed the flaws in his character--he confused strength with alphabets.


Even as the flesh weakens the spirit is vigilant. The novel’s conclusion is an amnesty of sorts.
I admit to being relieved but am awe struck by the pitch maintained throughout. ( )

Can one build his life on the refusal to really live with others?

This is a story of a "relentless rise" and even an abrupt descent of a man that is born to be a servant of violence.

Lenz Buchmann is an utterly despicable character but what a phenomenal and satisfying portrait of a despicable character it is. Maybe that's why the book works on several levels. The thin line between melodrama and pastiche verges on the absolutely brilliant.

The books looks to me like an instruction manual because of its structure (the finely neat division in headlines, chapters and sections and language (technical and analytical, and yet also so distant).

While reading this book Kafka and Gombrowicz comes to mind. I'll try "to verbalize" the reasons:

1 - Tavares vs Kafka: Absurdist tendencies and a very dark look towards life;

2 - Tavares vs Kafka: Aphorisms abound. One could say that the book is almost entirely written in an aphoristic style. The similarities between Kafka and Tavares kept coming to mind ("Nachgelessene Schriften und Fragmente" by Kafka is a fine example of the Art of the Aphorism). In post-modern literature I don't recall another example to keep Tavares company;

3 - Tavares vs Gombrowicz: Battle against the strictures of culture.

Is it shown here the age of the "Death of God"? And with what can we replace Him? Technology...?

Thinking material permeates the book..." ( )

Dr Lenz Buchmann is a surgeon so clinically distant, cold and carelessly cruel as to be sociopathic. He realises that his profession is no longer enough to contain his massive self-regard and desire to control everything and everyone, so he downs scalpel and embarks on a rapid ascent to the peaks of the ruling political party. And just when he is tantalisingly close to his goal, he is struck down, rapidly and cruelly, by illness. He must learn to adapt to the accumulating ironies of this karma.
The author, Goncalo Tavares, is a critically acclaimed young Portugese author whose books are just beginning to be translated into English. ( )

Learning To Pray in the Age of Technique by Goncalo Tavares

This Portuguese novel takes place in an unnamed city and country.

Lenz Buchman the younger son of a military man is introduced to us as he performs surgery- a most respected surgeon in full control of his craft. His steady right hand slowly removes whatever disease is threatening his patient.

He almost, though, appears bored wanting to be tested in new ways- trying to become the man his father would have admired – a man tested by metal. Lenz enjoys danger and detests most people including his brother who’s memory he succeeds in erasing, and his wife whom he both humiliates and titillates by raping her in front of beggars and madmen who stop by their mansion looking for alms. Buchman is a man who seeks domination through debasement.

Giving up his medical profession he decides to become a politician seeking to control and operate on society like he has proven he can do in the surgery room. He partners with K.and the two run a campaign of fear to win over the population who seeks these strongman to protect them from their perceived fears. To manipulate the population’s vulnerabilities they plant a bomb to further stir up fear.

On the cusp of gaining power life intrudes. A yet unknown disease interrupts his ability to take office and becoming the man his father would have been proud of. Ironically he succumbs to his illness and becomes dependent on the descendents of a soldier his father killed while on a mission, a man the father had decided needed to be killed to maintain discipline and guarantee the success of the mission. It is those descendents, both meek in their very existence, his secretary/assistant and her deaf mute brother who inherit all of the Bachman legacy and estate.

To save face Buchman decides to commit suicide but has lost the strength and ability to do so and in a last attempt in aggression the saliva he tries to spit into the face of a priest bedside to perform the last rites cannot be spat out and merely becomes spittle that is wiped away from his chin as he breathes his last breath.

In the tradition of Jose Saramago who has endorsed his younger compatriot-Goncalo Tavares- this book is an allegory commenting on the thirst for power, how power corrupts and how justice is meted out in cruel and ironic turns. I highly recommend this unusual tale. ( )

Lenz Buchmann wordt na een Spartaanse, of beter gezegd een Pruisische opvoeding, een bekend chirurg in een Portugese stad. Zijn opvoeding heeft hem een soort mechanische levenswijze aangeleerd die ontdaan is van emotie maar gecompenseerd wordt door een niet te temmen eerzucht. Wanneer hij op enig moment ontdekt dat het hem betoonde respect niet voortvloeit uit gezag, zegt hij zijn beroep vaarwel en start een succesvolle politieke carrière. Hij is nu in staat om met de hem gegeven macht de werkelijkheid tot een andere waarheid te manipuleren. Uiteindelijk gaat ook hij ‘gewoon’ dood.
Tavares maakt van dit leven een boeiend verhaal waarin seksueel wangedrag en een overschot aan eigenwaarde uiteindelijk de ingrediënten zijn van een volledig gemankeerd bestaan.

Tavares schrijft compact, zonder dat de karakters er onder te leiden hebben; het thema is niet echt origineel doch de wijze van benadering verraadt de hand van een goede schrijver. ‘In de verte’ dwaalt de geest van Saramago ! ( )