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A review by andrew61
The Last Will and Testament of Senhor Da Silva Araujo by Germano Almeida, Sheila Faria Glaser
3.0
The opening chapter of this book reveals the reading of the will of Napumoceno da Silva Araujo, a rich Cape Verde businessman. the will at 300+ pages surprises everyone including his nephew that he has an illegitimate daughter to whom he leaves the bulk of his estate.
The book then tells Araujo's story from his arriving on the main island of Cape Verde St Vincente as a shoeless waif, to his finding work on the docks as a runner, to joining a customs and export firm, his own move into business and the fortune of buying umbrellas just as rare rains arrive, and onwards. Never partivularly lucky in love we learn of his thwarted passions , he never seems to be able to express his feelings at the right time, his dalliance with prostitutes , his lost loves, and perhaps most disturbingly his sexual assaults on his cleaner.
The book is told with humour, but at times with a slight distance from the characters (not sure whether that has anything to do with translation from Portuguese) and overall it was an interesting portrait of a country which seems so diverse geographically ( a number of islands of the coast of Africa) and only achieved independence in the 1970's , however I found some of the sexual encounters troubling in the lack of reflection on what were essentially assaults.
The book then tells Araujo's story from his arriving on the main island of Cape Verde St Vincente as a shoeless waif, to his finding work on the docks as a runner, to joining a customs and export firm, his own move into business and the fortune of buying umbrellas just as rare rains arrive, and onwards. Never partivularly lucky in love we learn of his thwarted passions , he never seems to be able to express his feelings at the right time, his dalliance with prostitutes , his lost loves, and perhaps most disturbingly his sexual assaults on his cleaner.
The book is told with humour, but at times with a slight distance from the characters (not sure whether that has anything to do with translation from Portuguese) and overall it was an interesting portrait of a country which seems so diverse geographically ( a number of islands of the coast of Africa) and only achieved independence in the 1970's , however I found some of the sexual encounters troubling in the lack of reflection on what were essentially assaults.