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.

Dancing with the Devil in the City of God: Rio de Janeiro and the Olympic Dream

Brazil is the first developing country I visited, in the 90s when I was in high school. I remember being blown away by the levels of dysfunction I witnessed - including that when our friends sold their home it was purchased by a customs agent...with suitcases of cash. Returning a few years ago for a conference, I had a box of stress balls and pens impounded by customs, who then implored my office for six months to return to the country and retrieve them. And so on.

Dancing with the Devil in the City of God is written by a Brazilian, Juliana Barbassa, thus lending credence to the notion that the dysfunction is not simply an American perception. Barbassa, who has lived and worked around the world, jumped at the opportunity to return to the city of her birth as the AP's correspondent there, only to discover the layers of dysfunction that were previously hidden to her. Chapter-by-chapter she dissects many of these, from the corruption within the police department to environmental degradation (read: raw sewage flowing through every river and onto the beaches), to the contradictory attitudes toward prostitution and, frequently, gay rights. Political shenanigans naturally figure prominently as well.

The backdrop for Barbassa's work is the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics, the deadlines for which are firm and inflexible, not subject to individual whims. While there is potential for such deadlines to positively drive change, Barbassa generally finds that instead decisions are taken too quickly, with an eye only for what the world will think and who can make the most money (hint: it's usually a property developer), as opposed to being grounded in urban planning or public policy imperatives.

Dancing with the Devil in the City of God concludes with the 2014 World Cup; the Olympics which figure so prominently in the discussions around waste water treatment and the removal of the favelas are still two years away when the book ends. So, too, the trials of Lula, the former president who is simultaneously an inmate serving a 12-year sentence for corruption and his party's nominee for president in this year's election. If Barbassa isn't already working on another book about Brazil, it's not for a lack of material.

This is a great read for anyone looking for perspective on the developing world in general, and Brazil in particular. The contradictions continue to flummox and frustrate Barbassa (who is at her finest in describing the process necessary to rent an apartment), so rest assured the reader will be no closer to solving the enigma, either, but this book provides excellent insight into the Brazilian culture today. It has the further advantage of reading, at times, like a travelogue, invoking the gorgeous scenery, as well as some of the highs and lows of Brazil's international diplomatic and business relationships.

Four stars.