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apaperboundlife 's review for:
Sostiene Pereira
by Antonio Tabucchi
'Pereira Maintains' by Antonio Tabucchi
When it comes to the year 1938 we know a lot about what happened in Germany, Italy, Spain and the United States. However, we hardly ever looked at the history of Portugal at that time. As many other european countries Portugal was under a dictator, namely António de Oliveira Salazar. This book tells the story of Doctor Pereira, the director of the cultural page of the "Lisboà", an afternoon newspaper. Pereira is a good catholic, obese, suffering from a bad heart and a widower. His life takes an unexpected turn when he decides to hire an intern, Monteiro Rossi, who is a revolutionist. Challenged by the way Rossi thinks, Pereira starts to question his life and what he had done with it so far.
'Pereira Maintains' provides revealing insight into the life of a journalist under a dictator that encourages censorship. The character of Doctor Pereira has an incredible depth to it and captivated me from the first page. One particular strength is the mixture of fiction and reality. While we learn a lot of historical facts about Portugal in 1938 the book is not boring because it has enough fiction to absorb us into the story. The book also includes rather philosophical discussions between characters. Those discussions animate the reader to think about this book and not just read through it. I found that this is not a book you read while on a beach vacation or just for fun.
On the other hand, I found that the plot sometimes moved too slowly and almost came to a standstill, due to the philosophical aspects of the book and the inner monologues. Another thing I found rather annoying, were the parts where Pereira would touch a subject, but then say that he is not going to talk about it any further because it is not of any importance to the story.
I definitely recommend this book to readers that enjoy reading not only for fun but like books that challenge their opinions of life and the world. If you speak Italian I strongly encourage you to read it in Italian, I did so and rather enjoyed it.
When it comes to the year 1938 we know a lot about what happened in Germany, Italy, Spain and the United States. However, we hardly ever looked at the history of Portugal at that time. As many other european countries Portugal was under a dictator, namely António de Oliveira Salazar. This book tells the story of Doctor Pereira, the director of the cultural page of the "Lisboà", an afternoon newspaper. Pereira is a good catholic, obese, suffering from a bad heart and a widower. His life takes an unexpected turn when he decides to hire an intern, Monteiro Rossi, who is a revolutionist. Challenged by the way Rossi thinks, Pereira starts to question his life and what he had done with it so far.
'Pereira Maintains' provides revealing insight into the life of a journalist under a dictator that encourages censorship. The character of Doctor Pereira has an incredible depth to it and captivated me from the first page. One particular strength is the mixture of fiction and reality. While we learn a lot of historical facts about Portugal in 1938 the book is not boring because it has enough fiction to absorb us into the story. The book also includes rather philosophical discussions between characters. Those discussions animate the reader to think about this book and not just read through it. I found that this is not a book you read while on a beach vacation or just for fun.
On the other hand, I found that the plot sometimes moved too slowly and almost came to a standstill, due to the philosophical aspects of the book and the inner monologues. Another thing I found rather annoying, were the parts where Pereira would touch a subject, but then say that he is not going to talk about it any further because it is not of any importance to the story.
I definitely recommend this book to readers that enjoy reading not only for fun but like books that challenge their opinions of life and the world. If you speak Italian I strongly encourage you to read it in Italian, I did so and rather enjoyed it.