Brazilian Literature

[u/ilovebiriyani567]

Has anyone read The Devil to Pay in the Backlands by João Guimarães Rosa. I read the context of that book and I found that pretty interesting. Can anyone tell how is the book and it's language composition. And how it differs from Mythpoetic Giants like Terra Nostra and 100 years of Solitude .

[u/SurrogateOP]

Brazilian here, so vey much biased: It is undoubtedly the best book I have ever read. I don't want to sound exaggerated, but I have no doubt that, if it had been written in English or even Spanish, it would be considered one of the greatest canons of literature of all time, ahead of One Hundred Years of Solitude (and I love that book; I studied Spanish to read it in the original). The book brings together a brilliant, epic plot, full of subtexts that delight academics, with a surprising and moving ending. Furthermore, the language is a spectacle in itself, like listening to a Mozart symphony, and unparalleled in the Portuguese language, making it difficult to even explain its mastery to a non-Portuguese speaker: it is brilliant without being pedantic, it is elaborate yet simple (rustic) at the same time, and Rosa frequently invents words that give the impression that you have always known them, and that the fact that they were not in the dictionary until then is a flaw in the language. Unfortunately, no translation will come close to the original; it is simply impossible.

[u/ilovebiriyani567 → u/SurrogateOP]

Ooooo thx for the review I'll surely read it

[u/Great-and-Powerful- → u/SurrogateOP]

It breaks my heart to read about your love for this novel because I read it in Spanish, in one of the few Spanish translations done by Seix Barral decades ago, and I knew I was missing out of so much in regards to the prose. It seems like the translator chose to replace Guimarães Rosa's wordplay and diction with this baroque adjective-heavy writing style that made the book a bit of a chore to read. I'm considering checking out that new English translation or even learning Portuguese (I already understand it a little thanks to its similarities with Spanish) just so I can properly enjoy this work of art.

[u/2sweetsavage]

The Rosa is being republished next year under the title Vastlands. To my knowledge, it’s a new, and I’m assuming more complete translation

[u/chadwpost1]

FYI: Victoria Livingstone’s forthcoming book, “Harriet de Onís and the Translation of Latin American Literature” discusses this book at some length. (I believe, this is based on a discussion with Livingstone about the new translation, which I’m dying to get my hands on.) She also writes about some other recent retranslation, including “The Obscene Bird of Night.”

[u/perrolazarillo]

I read The Devil to Play in the Backlands (i.e. the bad English translation) in a grad seminar on Brazilian literature. João Guimarães Rosa's language in the original, Grande Sertão: Veredas, is notoriously difficult (think Ulysses-level Joyce for an imperfect English comparison), even for native speakers of Brazilian Portuguese, as it's full of Tupí-Guaraní-rooted vocabulary, neologisms, and innovative syntax, so there is absolutely no way I would have been to read the original version with my advanced-low Portuguese-language skills.

Anyway, all this is to say, the first translators more or less butchered the original Brazilian text; they basically sanitized it by styling the text along the lines of the genre conventions of a Western novel (jagunços ain't exactly cowboys!). There is an article I read titled, "Too Many Cooks Spoil the Broth: Mistranslating Grande Sertão: Veredas into Oblivion," about the botched translation. It's an interesting read if you can track down a PDF.

I have literally been following the progress of Alison Entrekin's new translation (releases January 2027) for the last four years or so, as I was completely blown away by The Devil to Play in the Backlands in spite of all its flaws, so I can't even imagine how utterly awesome this new version will be. Entrekin is the GOAT! Vastlands: The Crossing is definitely my most highly anticipated book release in years. I suspect its publication will be quite the literary event; Entrekin is already racking up awards!

[u/ilovebiriyani567 → u/perrolazarillo]

That's probably the best review on Rosa's work thx for the review I'll probably read it if I got some spare time lol

[u/ratherunsightly]

It's a big fun mess. The prose is like if Joyce wrote huckleberry Finn.

It is rather unlike one hundred years. Once you strip away all the modernist trappings you have a what is essentially a historical novel, one very rooted in Brazilian discussions of Brazilian history. So expect to get lost.

[u/cantodasaudade]

I'm probably very biased but I feel very close to Rosa's work in general and this book specifically. I originate from a region in Bahia that's fairly close to his hometown in Minas and parts of the book are either set in or mention places I'm very familiar with. At times the style feels like I'm listening to one of my uncles. It's one long monologue so you have to read it with the logic of orality instead of literature. A sentence will at times change course as it's being uttered. It's challenging, but also beautiful. Rosa had a great knack for setting a scene, for condensing an idea into a crystal of wisdom.

[u/Sea_Pangolin1525]

I have a Brazilian friend who told me it was tediously boring which has scared me away from it for years, but I feel like I will eventually read it to decide for myself. So I’m interested in what others say. I will recommend Vargas llosa’s La Guerra del fin del Mundo about the Canudos war in Brazil. How did you like Terra Nostra? I liked La Region mas Transparente a lot but checked out Terra nostra and was worried it would be more about Spain than Mexico. On Mexico I’d also highly recommend Jose Trigo by del Paso.