The Air You Breathe

I finished this book a couple of weeks ago and have been ruminating on it since, but ultimately, I'm just not a fan.

Dores is a 95-year-old woman, samba royalty of sorts, and the book opens with her reflecting on her life and especially the shadow of her greatest friend and also her rival (in music, love, and life), Graça. Graça, the readers learns (early and often) has been dead going on 70 years. The rest of the book fills in the pieces.

The two women met as girls, when Dores was a kitchen girl and Graça the spoiled only child of a wealthy sugar baron in early 20th century Brazil. Their friendship deepens through a series of shared misadventures and a love for music. Running away to Rio, they build new lives in Lapa, surrounded by a cast of likely (though, I'm sure, only too true to life) characters. Here, their fame grows and their rivalry deepens, as only one of them can fully become a star in the volatile years of dictatorship leading up to World War II.

The Air You Breathe is well-written, and Frances de Pontes Peebles does a remarkable job of capturing the zeitgeist of the era. Unfortunately, I didn't like either Dores or Graça (I actually really, really disliked both of them). While it's a credit to de Pontes Peebles that she created characters who evoked such strong feelings, it meant that reading was a bit of a slog, and I only finished it because, as much as the characters grated on me, I did enjoy reading about the time and place, which nearly jumped off the pages. 

Two stars.