Pereira Maintains is the only book I cannot write about but here it goes. Bare with me, please. In an insignificant corner of the world, Pereira, who has established a small order for himself – let me tell you from the beginning – will blow your mind. No, you won’t see how detailed it is while reading the book or not immediately after finishing it, you’ll see it while trying to write about it. I don’t even know where to start. And at this very moment, I understand what kind of genius Antonio Tabucchi is.
When I move on to this next paragraph, I still cannot get my head together. I don’t know whether I should talk about Pereira’s change throughout the book, touch on the protests around the world, mention dictatorship or fascism. Even if I delete and rewrite the sentences, I know I won’t like any of them. My mind will go to the spas and hospitals where Pereira stayed, and I will remember him talking to his wife’s photo. That is something to mention! But hey, there are Monteiro Rossi and Marta! As I prepare to tell you about their youth, ideals and influence on Pereira, death will blow away all these thoughts. I will look at the screen desperately. I will feel like Pereira, who gets sweaty and breathless in the hot weather.
In the end, friends, I am happy I’ve read Pereira Maintains. But it is not easy to write about it. It is something you have got to read. Enjoy!
Pereira Maintains
In the sweltering summer of 1938 in Portugal, a country under the fascist shadow of Spain, a mysterious young man arrives at the doorstep of Dr Pereira. So begins an unlikely alliance that will result in a devastating act of rebellion. This is Pereira’s testimony.
Antonio Tabucchi
Antonio Tabucchi was an Italian writer and academic who taught Portuguese language and literature at the University of Siena, Italy. Deeply in love with Portugal, he was an expert, critic and translator of the works of Fernando Pessoa from whom he drew the conceptions of saudade, of fiction and of the heteronyms.
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
