dukegregory 's review for:

Phenotypes by Paulo Scott

4.0

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The ending is so insanely sudden that I actually gasped, so that's really something. Regardless, Scott's novel is JUICY. There are a hundred different plot threads that are dropped and recur and are finished but are still somewhat left entirely open but they're done! There's a racial quota commission, a mid-life crisis, a gun, bureaucratic harassment, a teenage girl that may or may not be primed for terrorist action, and more. It's thrilling. All of these chunky, multiclausal sentences (which really seem to be the globally chic literary mode these past few years) come together as an extremely close character study of Federico, a white-passing mixed man who struggles to understand his brother's black experience and does everything in his power to work against racism but is, instead, just consumed by a deep-set (probably intergenerational) rage. Also cool to see Brazil's conception of race, because it does not really match up with America's. Much to glean and learn. I wish I knew people who have read/are reading this so we could just have a pleasant chat. Where's the book club?