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idleutopia_reads 's review for:
The Air You Breathe
by Frances de Pontes Peebles
Ay Dores! Your pain and endurance were etched in every word you shared in this enthralling tale. I know that this was written by Frances de Pontes Peebles but it felt like Dores was so real. I hated having to pause the book and miss out on the tale that Dores was sharing. It felt so important to capture every word of her enigmatic life. I will admit that in the beginning, I felt the story was going slowly, I wanted it to pick up its pace but once it did it never lost its momentum. The beginning was crucial in understanding the foundation that made up Dores and Graça, the experiences that united them and the differences that truly put them on separate paths in how they understood life. This is a book about friendship, put through so many challenges and obstacles. It is a love story, unlike anything I’ve read before because of how entangled it was with a deep and toxic friendship. I had never read a book set in Brazil and I loved that as I followed Dores and Graça's journey I was also able to glimpse important historical events that were sprinkled in the background. To my curious mind, this sprinkling led to searches as to what was going on in that time period.
Dores comes from nothing, all her life she has been made aware of how unwanted she is, while Graça is a spoiled brat, the daughter of a despondent sugar baron. They both seek to escape a life that pigeonholes them when all they want is to make music. While Dores is able to find escape with Graça, she is also overshadowed by her enormous ego. There are instances where we are shown that Graça has low self-esteem that she hides behind her vanity but it’s truly not enough to engender sympathy, especially when we follow Dores’ trajectory. Time again we see Dores having to take a step back to allow the spotlight to fall of her friend. I’m saying a lot but there’s so much that comes bursting from my heart when it comes to this amazing book. I fell in love with the words that Peebles shared. This story swooped me up and has had a claim on me ever since I read it. Dores is the storyteller of this book, she is a wonderful guide that takes us to her childhood, through her struggles trying to make it with her band, through Hollywood, to an event that changed the course of her life, tinged the rest of it and how she coped after this. The songs that interspersed this story felt so real and I could feel them vibrating within my heart. It’s magic that an author is able to do this. It’s not just a transportation of your mind but of your whole body. Your body feels the beat, while the songs reverberate in your ears. I highly recommend you read this!
Dores comes from nothing, all her life she has been made aware of how unwanted she is, while Graça is a spoiled brat, the daughter of a despondent sugar baron. They both seek to escape a life that pigeonholes them when all they want is to make music. While Dores is able to find escape with Graça, she is also overshadowed by her enormous ego. There are instances where we are shown that Graça has low self-esteem that she hides behind her vanity but it’s truly not enough to engender sympathy, especially when we follow Dores’ trajectory. Time again we see Dores having to take a step back to allow the spotlight to fall of her friend. I’m saying a lot but there’s so much that comes bursting from my heart when it comes to this amazing book. I fell in love with the words that Peebles shared. This story swooped me up and has had a claim on me ever since I read it. Dores is the storyteller of this book, she is a wonderful guide that takes us to her childhood, through her struggles trying to make it with her band, through Hollywood, to an event that changed the course of her life, tinged the rest of it and how she coped after this. The songs that interspersed this story felt so real and I could feel them vibrating within my heart. It’s magic that an author is able to do this. It’s not just a transportation of your mind but of your whole body. Your body feels the beat, while the songs reverberate in your ears. I highly recommend you read this!