What do you think?
Rate this book
Role Play
Role Play is a fresh satire narrated by a wealthy young woman in Rio on the verge of a class-consciousness awakening.
Vivian’s gallery gig in Rio de Janeiro is more than a job. She’s a curator, not just at work but in every aspect of her life. Her apartment has designer armchairs. Her wallet is Comme des Garçons. Everything is selected and arranged, even her friends, culled from Brazil’s richest families, who play the supporting cast in Vivian’s ongoing performance of self.
In Vivian’s world, everything comes in excess, including her own caustic self-awareness. As she informs us, “I’m a misandrist and a misogynist,” but she is fond of gay men, “the one type of human you can get along with as equals.”
The gravity of real life breaks through Vivian’s ongoing act when she's confronted with an unexpected and awful proximity to police violence. Can she pause long enough to recast herself in a new role, one that fits her highly staged world and can account for the random and unpredictable?
Role Play examines the superabundances of Brazilian elites, their art and ethics, and their monied ambivalence in the face of social inequality, machismo, and violence. As sharp and sparkling as broken champagne flutes, Clara Drummond’s prose is seductively frank and unflinching in its depiction of wealth's warping effects. Her third novel and her English-language debut, Role Play is a bold and hilarious book that places everything that affirms and informs the performance of self under a harsh spotlight.
Vivian’s gallery gig in Rio de Janeiro is more than a job. She’s a curator, not just at work but in every aspect of her life. Her apartment has designer armchairs. Her wallet is Comme des Garçons. Everything is selected and arranged, even her friends, culled from Brazil’s richest families, who play the supporting cast in Vivian’s ongoing performance of self.
In Vivian’s world, everything comes in excess, including her own caustic self-awareness. As she informs us, “I’m a misandrist and a misogynist,” but she is fond of gay men, “the one type of human you can get along with as equals.”
The gravity of real life breaks through Vivian’s ongoing act when she's confronted with an unexpected and awful proximity to police violence. Can she pause long enough to recast herself in a new role, one that fits her highly staged world and can account for the random and unpredictable?
Role Play examines the superabundances of Brazilian elites, their art and ethics, and their monied ambivalence in the face of social inequality, machismo, and violence. As sharp and sparkling as broken champagne flutes, Clara Drummond’s prose is seductively frank and unflinching in its depiction of wealth's warping effects. Her third novel and her English-language debut, Role Play is a bold and hilarious book that places everything that affirms and informs the performance of self under a harsh spotlight.
128 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2022
36 people are currently reading
4835 people want to read
About the author
Clara Drummond
14 books36 followersNasceu no Rio de Janeiro, em 1986, e é jornalista. Seu romance de estreia, A festa é minha e eu choro se quiser, foi publicado pela editora Guarda-Chuva.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 226 reviews
Want to read
November 23, 2024nurse, she's adding short lit fic with a low average rating again
October 23, 2025
Dentre muitas frases que esse livro possui, acho que a que melhor o explica é a seguinte: "É muito chique after em dia de semana, acho subversivo, anticapitalista.”
Adoro literatura contemporânea, no entanto, a mim, essa leitura foi apenas triste e sem sentido. Achei pobre, tanto de conteúdo quanto de linguagem, ao final, parecia um grande relato de white problem permeado de cocaína, dupla penetração, cerveja e aparência. Estranho.
No entanto, se o intuito da escritora foi fazer uma crítica a essa sociedade que vive em uma bolha de irrealidade, ela certamente logrou êxito.
Adoro literatura contemporânea, no entanto, a mim, essa leitura foi apenas triste e sem sentido. Achei pobre, tanto de conteúdo quanto de linguagem, ao final, parecia um grande relato de white problem permeado de cocaína, dupla penetração, cerveja e aparência. Estranho.
No entanto, se o intuito da escritora foi fazer uma crítica a essa sociedade que vive em uma bolha de irrealidade, ela certamente logrou êxito.
June 6, 2025
Role Play having an average rating below 3.5 stars does NOT fit with my French vanilla fantasy. What a powerful novella that is deliberately uncomfortable and mordant. We follow a wealthy, privileged curator named Vivian who has grown accustomed to living life on her own terms. She's acutely aware of the inequities around her, yet an episode of police brutality she witnesses forces her to justify her moral foundation and the broader social contract. Is she a victim of circumstance or the bystander effect? She argues a little bit of column A, and a little bit of column B. Aren’t we all a little complicit in exploitation?
Drummond gives the reader a lens into the life of the ultra-wealthy whose careers and social networks are pre-determined and built on connections. They feign outrage at the inequities in society to adhere to the social contract while simultaneously benefiting from the exploitation of those they sympathize. Vivivan sees through this facade, but confronts the reader - if they were afforded the same privileges, would they act any differently? "If equality of conditions truly existed, would there be someone else in my place with something more urgent to say?".
Role Play is aptly named and does an excellent job dissecting the roles we exhibit out of obligation versus authenticity. Drummond tackles the themes capitalism and wealth with nuance and forces the reader to confront uncomfortable truths. While thematically different, I think fans of Universality and Small Boat will appreciate this razor-sharp commentary on where capitalism has led us.
Drummond gives the reader a lens into the life of the ultra-wealthy whose careers and social networks are pre-determined and built on connections. They feign outrage at the inequities in society to adhere to the social contract while simultaneously benefiting from the exploitation of those they sympathize. Vivivan sees through this facade, but confronts the reader - if they were afforded the same privileges, would they act any differently? "If equality of conditions truly existed, would there be someone else in my place with something more urgent to say?".
Role Play is aptly named and does an excellent job dissecting the roles we exhibit out of obligation versus authenticity. Drummond tackles the themes capitalism and wealth with nuance and forces the reader to confront uncomfortable truths. While thematically different, I think fans of Universality and Small Boat will appreciate this razor-sharp commentary on where capitalism has led us.
May 24, 2022
"O sofrimento tem poder transformador, mas esse poder é neutro, pode ir para qualquer direção, e essa direção muitas vezes é aleatória, calcada em algum lugar do inconsciente, e quando vemos, estamos lá."
January 5, 2024
Across her slim, slick, razor-sharp takedown of Brazil's self-obsessed, silver-spooned elites, Clara Drummond stages the collision of several seemingly incongruous worlds: the favela and the filthy rich; the down-to-earth and the out-of-touch; the self-aware and the inconsiderate, the insensitive, the thoughtless.
From her very first line, Drummond's protagonist, Vivian, an art curator who has carefully arranged every facet of life to her liking - her furniture, her fashion sense, her group of friends - reveals herself as a walking, talking contradiction; the millennial manifestation of self-delusion and cognitive dissonance: "I'm a misandrist and a misogynist [...] But I'm not a misanthrope 'cause I do like gay men". Vivian, like all well-written unlikeable narrators (fans of Ottessa Moshfegh, Halle Butler, and Lauren Oyler will find much to love here) is often delightfully obnoxious, so enthralled by her performative and privileged social circle she fails to notice the harsh reality that exists just beyond its borders. But what is most impressive about the novella, aside from the expertly-chosen cultural references and the sharp, pithy turns of phrase, is that Drummond's portrait of her protagonist is still so fully fleshed out, rich with glimmers of perception. "I'm filled with a sense of grandeur", Vivian muses at one point, 'the beauty of being part of something bigger, even if that something is rotten".
A perfect, absurd, magnetic satire - reading Role Play feels like scrolling through a curated Instagram page on the cracked screen of a cellphone; like swiping a finger across something shiny, only to later find little splinters of glass buried just beneath the skin.
Thank you to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for this free ARC!
From her very first line, Drummond's protagonist, Vivian, an art curator who has carefully arranged every facet of life to her liking - her furniture, her fashion sense, her group of friends - reveals herself as a walking, talking contradiction; the millennial manifestation of self-delusion and cognitive dissonance: "I'm a misandrist and a misogynist [...] But I'm not a misanthrope 'cause I do like gay men". Vivian, like all well-written unlikeable narrators (fans of Ottessa Moshfegh, Halle Butler, and Lauren Oyler will find much to love here) is often delightfully obnoxious, so enthralled by her performative and privileged social circle she fails to notice the harsh reality that exists just beyond its borders. But what is most impressive about the novella, aside from the expertly-chosen cultural references and the sharp, pithy turns of phrase, is that Drummond's portrait of her protagonist is still so fully fleshed out, rich with glimmers of perception. "I'm filled with a sense of grandeur", Vivian muses at one point, 'the beauty of being part of something bigger, even if that something is rotten".
A perfect, absurd, magnetic satire - reading Role Play feels like scrolling through a curated Instagram page on the cracked screen of a cellphone; like swiping a finger across something shiny, only to later find little splinters of glass buried just beneath the skin.
Thank you to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for this free ARC!
May 22, 2022
eu gostei muito, só queria que a construção da vivian (muito boa e complexa, por sinal) tivesse um propósito maior que a autorreferência. acho que esse livro poderia ser impecável se fosse mais bem trabalhado, mas, de todo forma, achei bem interessante e me senti representada mais do que eu queria
June 9, 2024
3.5
Though I am giving this a 3.5, this book should have a substantially higher average rating on Goodreads. It felt like if Guillaume Dustan were less sexually crude and were consumed by his bourgeois life rather than attempting to escape it. The neuroses and cruelties of the Brazilian elite are captured cattily to great success. There are layers of self-awareness and self-deception shown to be not simply contradictory but simultaneous. There's a persistent sense of play, though the novella spirals as it goes on, to pasts that reveal the present and presents that fight against the past. Drummond's voice is the heart of the novel, and I found its quick wit and affinity for slight shock wonderfully breezy for poolside reading. But I wish she focused less on the past and the bevy of characters around Vivian (the narrator). The propulsion of the prose sings when fixated on a chaotic present immersed in brands, nonrelationships, glimpses of the past, and a hedonistic willing away of consequence. Drummond's structure reveals something, while still critical of the status quo, lacking in its structure: Role Play is rather standard fare. Like the narrator, the text attempts to break away from novelistic tradition while ending up clinging to it for safety.
An indicative quote:
"I've got very little understanding of the weight of the world. I don't know hunger, I don't know death, I don't know love. My existence is a search for small victories that sound important at the time. So I desire smaller victories still, like I am walking around scanning the ground with my eyes for coins."
Though I am giving this a 3.5, this book should have a substantially higher average rating on Goodreads. It felt like if Guillaume Dustan were less sexually crude and were consumed by his bourgeois life rather than attempting to escape it. The neuroses and cruelties of the Brazilian elite are captured cattily to great success. There are layers of self-awareness and self-deception shown to be not simply contradictory but simultaneous. There's a persistent sense of play, though the novella spirals as it goes on, to pasts that reveal the present and presents that fight against the past. Drummond's voice is the heart of the novel, and I found its quick wit and affinity for slight shock wonderfully breezy for poolside reading. But I wish she focused less on the past and the bevy of characters around Vivian (the narrator). The propulsion of the prose sings when fixated on a chaotic present immersed in brands, nonrelationships, glimpses of the past, and a hedonistic willing away of consequence. Drummond's structure reveals something, while still critical of the status quo, lacking in its structure: Role Play is rather standard fare. Like the narrator, the text attempts to break away from novelistic tradition while ending up clinging to it for safety.
An indicative quote:
"I've got very little understanding of the weight of the world. I don't know hunger, I don't know death, I don't know love. My existence is a search for small victories that sound important at the time. So I desire smaller victories still, like I am walking around scanning the ground with my eyes for coins."
March 30, 2022
A autora imprimiu um ritmo ótimo à narrativa, o que faz a gente não apenar ler rápido, como a gente querer ler rápido.
A história é sobre Vivian, uma curadora de arte que vive no Rio, família classe média-alta, meio rica, mas não rica de verdade. A narradora tem umas tiradas ótimas e é nesse ponto que vejo um destaque do livro: a gente ri dela, com ela, mas depois se percebe vestindo algumas carapuças do código social. Ou seja, livro bom pra rir como também para refletir. Como diz a quarta capa, o retrato de uma geração.
Escrevi um pouco mais no perfil @re_leituras:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CbtIUHBLN...
A história é sobre Vivian, uma curadora de arte que vive no Rio, família classe média-alta, meio rica, mas não rica de verdade. A narradora tem umas tiradas ótimas e é nesse ponto que vejo um destaque do livro: a gente ri dela, com ela, mas depois se percebe vestindo algumas carapuças do código social. Ou seja, livro bom pra rir como também para refletir. Como diz a quarta capa, o retrato de uma geração.
Escrevi um pouco mais no perfil @re_leituras:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CbtIUHBLN...
Read
April 16, 2023ficam todos tão preocupados em ganhar pontos, subir degraus, chegar o mais perto possível do topo, mas o fim do caminho é a morte, e isso é óbvio, mas não é. as pessoas passam tanto tempo preocupadas com o placement que não sobra tempo pra pensar na morte. talvez o placement exista para isso.
January 25, 2023
A publicação de certos livros só pode ser explicada por uma mistura de ter os contatos certo, um pacto inaudito de mediocridade e dívidas de jogo.
April 13, 2025
Just substantial enough to not be vapid, just explicit enough to not be convoluted, just short enough to not be boring. Honestly, I think Drummond nailed it.
July 17, 2024
scat of the year
January 20, 2023
Daria 2,5, porém o site não me permite, confesso que achei o começo promissor, engraçadinho até, mas depois foi ficando tão raso, eu até agora estou meio perdida sobre o que o livro queria passar, umas criticas meio obvias, quase a mesma coisa que dizer que a agua é molhada, só os dois primeiros capítulos que são realmente interessantes de ler, depois vai decaindo de uma forma tão rápida que se tornou um martírio terminar, acho que só terminei por ser curto mesmo.
June 24, 2024
A searing, scathing stream-of-consciousness look at wealth & class in Brazil. Though it had much less direct violence, it gave me vibes of the nihilism of Scarface & Fight Club but updated for the millennial/Gen Z generations.
Astra magazine has the first chapter online for you to read; although it looks like the online version is translated from the Portuguese by Zoë Perry while the book is translated by Daniel Hahn.
https://astra-mag.com/articles/role-p...
3.5 stars.
Astra magazine has the first chapter online for you to read; although it looks like the online version is translated from the Portuguese by Zoë Perry while the book is translated by Daniel Hahn.
https://astra-mag.com/articles/role-p...
3.5 stars.
June 14, 2022
Acidez no ponto. Eu senti falta de um maior desenvolvimento, principalmente da relação entre Vivian e Darlene, mas talvez seja típico da própria protagonista não querer saber nada da vendedora de Heinekens e manter esse abismo entre elas, ela talvez não poderia agir de outra forma. Mas a gente termina a leitura muito rápido e sente que falta algo.
June 16, 2024
Quippy, fast paced, and often funny. A satirical slice of life from the point of view of an ultra privileged young woman. Similar feeling to The Guest and Happy Hour with more of an extreme tilt.
April 21, 2025
role play follows our protagonist vivian, an upper class woman in brazil who works as an art curator and has specially crafted her life to appear as flawless as one of her exhibitions. one night, vivian witnesses an act of police brutality and she grapples with the situation and the violence of it all, her proximity to it all. at its core, role play is a character study, a satirical one at that, examining the facets of what makes vivian, vivian. from her social class to her struggles with mental illness to her sexuality, role play takes a magnifying glass to one wealthy woman’s life to show us what comprises her and how that has shaped who she has become.
while i did enjoy the analysis of vivian, i think we shifted too quickly from component to component and didn’t dive into topics as much as we could have. there was more room for exploration in nearly every chapter. a lot of her identity seemed to stem from parental trauma, and there were pieces of that in nearly every section, but i just found i wanted more. vivian is designed to be an unlikable and unreliable narrator, so i would have loved to dig further into each section to show us how truly she ended up that way.
additionally, we only really focused on darlene, the victim of the police violence vivian witnessed, at the opening and toward the closing of the novel. i think it works well as an opening because it sets the stage for vivian to reflect on her life and how and why her life contrasts so drastically from darlene’s. however, darlene was kind of lost (at least to me) during vivian’s character analysis. i forgot that the scene with darlene had even happened until we started to circle back to it at the end. i think it would have worked if we could have seen more of vivian processing the trauma of witnessing such an event while intertwined with her self-reflection. the occurrence didn’t need to be shoved down our throats, but seeing as the attack was the catalyst for vivian’s “class-consciousness awakening” i would think it would rear its head more frequently.
the writing style was really blunt and gritty, and i loved it. i think drummond did a great job at capturing the hypocrisy and contradictions of wealthy people in the modern world. the titular “role play” applies to vivian and all of those people she surrounds herself with—from presenting themselves as perfect on social media; to surrounding themselves with the coolest, most interesting people; to the concept of a social currency which allows people to climb some kind of status ladder. despite essentially all of vivian’s trauma stemming from her family and their hang-ups around money and their reputation, vivian tries to emulate the exact same thing in her own, more modern way.
while i did enjoy the analysis of vivian, i think we shifted too quickly from component to component and didn’t dive into topics as much as we could have. there was more room for exploration in nearly every chapter. a lot of her identity seemed to stem from parental trauma, and there were pieces of that in nearly every section, but i just found i wanted more. vivian is designed to be an unlikable and unreliable narrator, so i would have loved to dig further into each section to show us how truly she ended up that way.
additionally, we only really focused on darlene, the victim of the police violence vivian witnessed, at the opening and toward the closing of the novel. i think it works well as an opening because it sets the stage for vivian to reflect on her life and how and why her life contrasts so drastically from darlene’s. however, darlene was kind of lost (at least to me) during vivian’s character analysis. i forgot that the scene with darlene had even happened until we started to circle back to it at the end. i think it would have worked if we could have seen more of vivian processing the trauma of witnessing such an event while intertwined with her self-reflection. the occurrence didn’t need to be shoved down our throats, but seeing as the attack was the catalyst for vivian’s “class-consciousness awakening” i would think it would rear its head more frequently.
the writing style was really blunt and gritty, and i loved it. i think drummond did a great job at capturing the hypocrisy and contradictions of wealthy people in the modern world. the titular “role play” applies to vivian and all of those people she surrounds herself with—from presenting themselves as perfect on social media; to surrounding themselves with the coolest, most interesting people; to the concept of a social currency which allows people to climb some kind of status ladder. despite essentially all of vivian’s trauma stemming from her family and their hang-ups around money and their reputation, vivian tries to emulate the exact same thing in her own, more modern way.
May 16, 2024
ROLE PLAY |
Thank you @fsgoriginals @fsgbooks
This comes out June 4th
"I might not be the best art curator, but I know for sure I'm the best curator of people. Sometimes when we're all together I feel like I'm the main character in an imaginary movie that takes place over the course of a single night."
Daughter of an ultra wealthy family contemplates her own relationship with class, wealth, in the face of violence and inequity.
She witnesses a brutal act by the police against a street seller and can't stop thinking about it. But not in a way where she's reimagining how she could have played a different part to really help the woman but moreso why it couldn’t have happened out of her sight so she would not have been affected by it. She hadn't even known the woman's name who was always stationed outside. She's contemplating why she feels so ambivalent and unconcerned in light of the fact that something dreadful happened where she was inadvertently a part of it, observant to it. In that instance she could have probably significant helped the woman, put herself in between, knowing that no real harm would come to her physically, nor would any serious consequence after the fact. But even in her "guilty" reimagining, she can't quite let herself bear the brunt of it.
Raised with every possible excess, an excess of cars, help, attention, overly medicated, overanalyzed, overprotected, she leads a life of no consequence. She notes that people make all these rationalizations to climb, to overachieve, to keep plugging along in an endless battle when in the end everybody dies.
It's short and a bit fatalistic but the writing is so good. Not to be missed.
3.75
Thank you @fsgoriginals @fsgbooks
This comes out June 4th
"I might not be the best art curator, but I know for sure I'm the best curator of people. Sometimes when we're all together I feel like I'm the main character in an imaginary movie that takes place over the course of a single night."
Daughter of an ultra wealthy family contemplates her own relationship with class, wealth, in the face of violence and inequity.
She witnesses a brutal act by the police against a street seller and can't stop thinking about it. But not in a way where she's reimagining how she could have played a different part to really help the woman but moreso why it couldn’t have happened out of her sight so she would not have been affected by it. She hadn't even known the woman's name who was always stationed outside. She's contemplating why she feels so ambivalent and unconcerned in light of the fact that something dreadful happened where she was inadvertently a part of it, observant to it. In that instance she could have probably significant helped the woman, put herself in between, knowing that no real harm would come to her physically, nor would any serious consequence after the fact. But even in her "guilty" reimagining, she can't quite let herself bear the brunt of it.
Raised with every possible excess, an excess of cars, help, attention, overly medicated, overanalyzed, overprotected, she leads a life of no consequence. She notes that people make all these rationalizations to climb, to overachieve, to keep plugging along in an endless battle when in the end everybody dies.
It's short and a bit fatalistic but the writing is so good. Not to be missed.
3.75
July 3, 2024
a sharp, funny critique of self-obsessed, self-deceiving elites in brazil. really enjoyed the conversational, almost stream-of-consciousness prose, which allows us an unfiltered peek into our protagonist vivian's mind. appreciated how clara drummond wove some vulnerabilities and insecurities into vivian's character yet still kept her satire strong by showing how vivian still wants her privilege and the life she knows above all. a fun, thought-provoking read
September 28, 2022
Uma novela com humor autodepreciativo, retratando uma burguesia intelectual/artística e com uma falsa consciência de classe. A narradora é desprezível, o que mostra o talento da autora.
Embora curto, deixa um longo espaço para o debate. Gostei.
Embora curto, deixa um longo espaço para o debate. Gostei.
July 9, 2024
Read because Kaia Gerber said to (idk if I trust her yet)
September 16, 2024
Probably the fastest read of my life. Such an easy book to read honestly. I will say, this book is for a very niche audience. Not in a global sense, but in a way that it is catered to a very select group of people. Not everyone will understand this book.
To be honest, not even her public, which is mostly Brazil, will understand this book (I think). This is/was made for a very niche parcel of the Brazilian population. A group way too niche to the point where you need to almost have the same experiences and taste and references and lifestyle and aesthetic as the one of the main character, to properly understand a good chunk of this book. I read this in English, so I’m very much sure there were some things that were definitely lost in translation because we have some very specific ways of wording things in Portuguese.
Parts of this book has too much sexual descriptions of the main character’s sexual encounters. I don’t really love to read about that, so I think that brought my rating down a bit (it’s just a personal preference here)
Overall, this book makes some great commentary about Brazilian culture as a whole. There’s some funny references, mentions of traditional places that are embedded in Brazilian culture, commentary on lifestyles which will definitely remind us of at least someone we know. In true Brazilian fashion, this book feels very Brazilian. I do wish I had read it in Portuguese rather than English!
To be honest, not even her public, which is mostly Brazil, will understand this book (I think). This is/was made for a very niche parcel of the Brazilian population. A group way too niche to the point where you need to almost have the same experiences and taste and references and lifestyle and aesthetic as the one of the main character, to properly understand a good chunk of this book. I read this in English, so I’m very much sure there were some things that were definitely lost in translation because we have some very specific ways of wording things in Portuguese.
Parts of this book has too much sexual descriptions of the main character’s sexual encounters. I don’t really love to read about that, so I think that brought my rating down a bit (it’s just a personal preference here)
Overall, this book makes some great commentary about Brazilian culture as a whole. There’s some funny references, mentions of traditional places that are embedded in Brazilian culture, commentary on lifestyles which will definitely remind us of at least someone we know. In true Brazilian fashion, this book feels very Brazilian. I do wish I had read it in Portuguese rather than English!
July 31, 2024
like a fever dream! the first 80% of the book blended together for me, but the final few chapters clarified the project nicely. drummond writes a pas de deux between ultra-rich vivian's perennial complaining and snatches of seemingly legitimate trauma ... but she's so obviously out of touch that it's hard to empathize with or even believe her. the novella ends with vivian edging toward some kind of self-awareness, yet stops just short of epiphany. though this is more realistic (she has every incentive not to change her behavior and even owns to this herself), it felt to me like an indecisive narrative choice. still three stars for this glitzy satire and its absurd one-liners. would be a good book club pick: short and provocative.
"Superficial people experience great suffering, too, their pain is profound, it tears their souls apart."
"Superficial people experience great suffering, too, their pain is profound, it tears their souls apart."
January 10, 2025
Ok I finished this the other night as my fever was kicking in ….. me and sage are at odds about what it means. I think the protagonist is a rich girl who has enough self awareness to know that she SHOULD care about things - but can’t, and doesn’t, because she’s so rich and disconnected, it’s almost sociopathic. She is like centre of the universe and lacks the ability to empathize. But maybe I’m projecting the rich girls I know onto her (I don’t think that’s true though… why are they all kind of like this)
It’s a really good read, very fast, I learned about Brazilian things etc etc
It’s a really good read, very fast, I learned about Brazilian things etc etc
October 17, 2024
Good critique of the “familia tradicional brasileira” aka the traditional Brazilian family. Good sociological commentary in the form of stream-of-consciousness regarding the artistic strata of Brazil - pretentious people! I love how the main character is all bark, no bite. A complainer about the problems of the world but does nothing about it. A typical champagne socialist and Brazil is filled with those.
Non- Brazilians will not understand key significant social aspects that are mentioned in this book. Not only they give depth to the store, but they are very important for context. A Brazilian person will understand the difference between living in Leblon and living in São Conrado. A Brazilian person understands the socio-economic layers of the whole Daslu scandal. A Brazilian person understands this book’s layers in a way a foreigner won’t. It requires a lot of research if you don’t know key elements that make this book “Brazilian”, even if the critique seems universal.
Non- Brazilians will not understand key significant social aspects that are mentioned in this book. Not only they give depth to the store, but they are very important for context. A Brazilian person will understand the difference between living in Leblon and living in São Conrado. A Brazilian person understands the socio-economic layers of the whole Daslu scandal. A Brazilian person understands this book’s layers in a way a foreigner won’t. It requires a lot of research if you don’t know key elements that make this book “Brazilian”, even if the critique seems universal.
August 18, 2025
yay another mentally ill unlikeable rich woman on the verge of self awareness! she curates her life and the people around her to belong to her ideal social class but ultimately fails to do anything about her situation because she doesnt actually want to change. my only issue with this was the translation because it felt like it disrupted the flow of her monologue at times - like I hate seeing the words “‘cause” and “kinda” written down
December 8, 2024
hmmm this is bad. the first couple sentences were funny and i was excited. its the shortest book ever but because its so boring and irritating, it feels long. there’s no original thought or unique message whatsoever. the trope-y rich superficial main character had so much potential.
July 16, 2022
minha mais nova obsessão literária!
September 3, 2024
What a stupid fucking book wow is this how people feel when they read Colleen hoover
September 19, 2024
Loved this dazzling, sharp satire on the elite class in Rio. Vivian is an art gallery curator that definitely falls into the unlikeable, morally grey category of female protagonists. One day she comes face to face with an incident of police brutality and is forced to confront her wealth and class.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 226 reviews