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edgwareviabank's review
adventurous
funny
informative
lighthearted
relaxing
fast-paced
4.0
Rob Smyth's Kaiser always sounded like the sort of biography I'd love. Football trivia! An elaborate con! A completely bonkers story! It could hardly get any better.
I had a great time reading it, and learnt lots about Brazilian football, which I knew almost nothing about. Kaiser is packed with anecdotes and recollections from all sorts of Brazilian football personalities (some of whom, I was delighted to discover, were the same who rose to fame in Europe in the '90s, when I started watching games). Thanks to a strong sense of time and place, the city of Rio seems to be as much of a character as any of the people, with a personality of its own; I got the sense it's like no other city in the world, and certainly not like anywhere I've been before.
As for the life and deeds of Carlos Kaiser, everything in this book points to reality being stranger than fiction. Or to Kaiser's reality being complete fiction. Or both, depending on which part, and who's talking. Sound intricate? It's meant to be. The author sums it up perfectly towards the end, when he writes that Kaiser may be the only man whose life is inspired to a true story. And that's really all I can say. Giving away any other details would be spoiling the wild ride Kaiser is. If you're even mildly curious about football and remember the eighties and nineties (or are ready to jump into several Wikipedia rabbit holes looking up teams and players), read this. I will be watching the documentary next.
I had a great time reading it, and learnt lots about Brazilian football, which I knew almost nothing about. Kaiser is packed with anecdotes and recollections from all sorts of Brazilian football personalities (some of whom, I was delighted to discover, were the same who rose to fame in Europe in the '90s, when I started watching games). Thanks to a strong sense of time and place, the city of Rio seems to be as much of a character as any of the people, with a personality of its own; I got the sense it's like no other city in the world, and certainly not like anywhere I've been before.
As for the life and deeds of Carlos Kaiser, everything in this book points to reality being stranger than fiction. Or to Kaiser's reality being complete fiction. Or both, depending on which part, and who's talking. Sound intricate? It's meant to be. The author sums it up perfectly towards the end, when he writes that Kaiser may be the only man whose life is inspired to a true story. And that's really all I can say. Giving away any other details would be spoiling the wild ride Kaiser is. If you're even mildly curious about football and remember the eighties and nineties (or are ready to jump into several Wikipedia rabbit holes looking up teams and players), read this. I will be watching the documentary next.
pagesandsounds's review
adventurous
funny
informative
lighthearted
medium-paced
3.25
This is a very crazy book. If this was written by a writer of lesser esteem than Rob Smyth, I would have dismissed it as fiction. I have heard tales about Kaiser in dispatches, but nothing prepared me for the industrial-scale grift I encountered in this book.
In summary, Carlos Henrique Raposo popularly known as Kaiser, was a footballer but not a football player. Let that sink in for a minute. He was a con artist who lived off the fame of a football career that never was. This was not the case of a player claiming to have had a career in the past but a guy who claimed to play for clubs in the present and lived the life of a football player in the present but never kicked a ball. This was a classic football version of Frank Abagnale.
The scams Kaiser pulled off are jaw-dropping. Imagine getting a short term contract with virtually every big team in Brazil for a decade without ever kicking a ball. Kaiser pulled the most beautiful women, dined in the most expensive restaurants and even signed tonnes of autographs for genuine football fans based on a non-existent football playing career.
All of these could never have happened today, but you still marvel at how Kaiser was able to pull these off thirty years ago. Kaiser’s life is such that the line between fiction and non-fiction blurred so early in the journey that I almost had a headache keeping track.
This is a very interesting read, and Rob Smyth did a great job trying to keep up, but you end up feeling a bit silly at the end that this sort of grift could be pulled up in a world you inhabit.
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