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A Bíblia do Che
Herói do romance A primeira mulher, o professor Carlos Eduardo viveu a última década em reclusão total. Morando no centro comercial de Curitiba, o professor quer distância das mulheres e dos criminosos que marcaram sua última aventura, e passa os dias entre o consultório abandonado de odontologia onde vive e uns poucos restaurantes nas redondezas. Sua paz é interrompida pela visita de um velho conhecido, um operador financeiro que quer contratá-lo para uma missão insólita: localizar um exemplar da Bíblia com anotações que Che Guevara teria feito durante uma passagem pelo Brasil. A história conta que, numa temporada clandestina em Curitiba, Che teria se disfarçado de padre e carregado uma Bíblia, em cujas margens fez supostos comentários.
Para além da incerteza que ronda a jornada do revolucionário pelo país, a tarefa tem um complicador, justamente na forma de uma dama fatal, a esposa do operador que o contratou. Peça-chave no mistério da Bíblia do Che, Celina enlaça o professor ainda mais na teia de intrigas que circunda o livro. Em pouco tempo, o operador aparece morto e a investigação de Carlos Eduardo, que antes pertencia ao âmbito dos colecionadores de livros raros, evolui para uma rede de crimes que envolve governo, construtoras, dinheiro sujo de campanha e caixa dois.
A busca colocará o professor no centro de um furacão político que assola o país. Entre empreiteiros corruptos, políticos escusos e paixões desmedidas - que ele não pôde evitar -, Carlos Eduardo precisa percorrer um labirinto de mentiras e intrigas que pode significar a sua própria morte. Um dos grandes romancistas brasileiros em atividade, Miguel Sanches Neto faz do suspense e do mistério terreno fértil para uma reflexão sobre vida, morte, poder e arte.
Para além da incerteza que ronda a jornada do revolucionário pelo país, a tarefa tem um complicador, justamente na forma de uma dama fatal, a esposa do operador que o contratou. Peça-chave no mistério da Bíblia do Che, Celina enlaça o professor ainda mais na teia de intrigas que circunda o livro. Em pouco tempo, o operador aparece morto e a investigação de Carlos Eduardo, que antes pertencia ao âmbito dos colecionadores de livros raros, evolui para uma rede de crimes que envolve governo, construtoras, dinheiro sujo de campanha e caixa dois.
A busca colocará o professor no centro de um furacão político que assola o país. Entre empreiteiros corruptos, políticos escusos e paixões desmedidas - que ele não pôde evitar -, Carlos Eduardo precisa percorrer um labirinto de mentiras e intrigas que pode significar a sua própria morte. Um dos grandes romancistas brasileiros em atividade, Miguel Sanches Neto faz do suspense e do mistério terreno fértil para uma reflexão sobre vida, morte, poder e arte.
288 pages, Paperback
Published June 8, 2016
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About the author
Miguel Sanches Neto
54 books4 followersMIGUEL SANCHES NETO nasceu em 1965, em Bela Vista do Paraíso, Paraná. É autor de mais de trinta livros, entre romances, crítica, poesia, crônicas e contos. Dele, a Companhia das Letras publicou A máquina de madeira, finalista dos prêmios São Paulo e Portugal Telecom, Chá das cinco com o vampiro, A bíblia do Che e A bicicleta de carga.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 4, 2020
É um livro que cria a partir da passagem de Che Guevara pela Bolívia cria uma enredo que mistura fanatismo com loucura.
May 12, 2021
First, I wish I had time to write this review in Portuguese. I can read Portuguese comfortably, but it’s faster for me to write in English.
I enjoyed the suspenseful plot, which kept me turning the pages and guessing until the end. It’s a bit like a modern and Brazilian version of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, but instead of Mr. Kurtz and a voyage up the Congo River, we have Ernesto “Che” Guevara de la Serna of ubiquitous T-shirt and poster fame and an equally ill-starred voyage to La Higuera, Bolivia, where the guerrilla militant was killed by the Bolivian army in 1967. And instead of Marlow, we have a recluse of the past 10 years, Carlos Eduardo Pessoa, and his new heartthrob, Francelina “Celina” Paes, a generation his junior and much better looking (more about that below).
The suspenseful plot, along with the author’s mordant reflections on the banality of modern consumer society, make for great entertainment. There are some memorable quips about the emptiness of conspicuous consumption (flying to Europe for dinner) and the inconspicuous variety (buying a giant 4K television so as to watch banal, forgettable programming).
There's lots of interesting history, apparently factually based, about the guerrilla band’s last stand in the Bolivian mountains. Here’s an excerpt from pages 235. The speaker is a man, perhaps fictional but perhaps not, who claims to have witnessed events:
“ ‘I was thirteen years old and remember it very well,’ he began . . . . ‘The guerrillas were expected; they could appear at any moment. People were on edge. Through an emissary, the schoolteacher [Walter Romero, who is a real person] arranged a meeting with them at the school. But before that, they wanted to negotiate with the local residents. . . . As far as the people were concerned, these were bandits. The army was searching for them. And I got a shock when I saw dirty, ragged men, looking defeated. They had arrived here already dead, do you understand? It’s said that they were killed later, in La Higuera. But they had one foot in the grave already. Even though they walked. And talked. They bought clothing, shoes, and food. To pretend that they were not already dead.’
“ ‘[By the novel’s protagonist:] Did you want to join up with them?’
“ ‘At that age, I didn’t understand that they wanted to improve the lives of the poor. That was a message that we couldn’t grasp. People don't see themselves as poor. . . . So they talked about saving us. That was when I stopped being able to understand anything more. Those ghosts would save us? They would run the country? It didn’t make sense. Beforehand, people thought that the arrivals would be a sizable and strong force. But they were no more than a band of the starving. No one was going to want to follow those defeated people.’ ”
A biblía do Che would have been better if all of this exploration and intrigue weren’t regularly interrupted by the protagonist’s sexual adventures. Average-looking hermits in their 50s don’t often find extremely attractive women many years their junior throwing themselves at them. But that’s what happens here. I can’t tell if the author is engaging in a highly unrealistic exercise of the male gaze, or if, because both the protagonist and the ingénue are crazy (they are), the long hours of perfect sex, described in detail, are plausible. Either way, I found it distracting and the novel would have done better to avoid this sideshow.
I enjoyed the suspenseful plot, which kept me turning the pages and guessing until the end. It’s a bit like a modern and Brazilian version of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, but instead of Mr. Kurtz and a voyage up the Congo River, we have Ernesto “Che” Guevara de la Serna of ubiquitous T-shirt and poster fame and an equally ill-starred voyage to La Higuera, Bolivia, where the guerrilla militant was killed by the Bolivian army in 1967. And instead of Marlow, we have a recluse of the past 10 years, Carlos Eduardo Pessoa, and his new heartthrob, Francelina “Celina” Paes, a generation his junior and much better looking (more about that below).
The suspenseful plot, along with the author’s mordant reflections on the banality of modern consumer society, make for great entertainment. There are some memorable quips about the emptiness of conspicuous consumption (flying to Europe for dinner) and the inconspicuous variety (buying a giant 4K television so as to watch banal, forgettable programming).
There's lots of interesting history, apparently factually based, about the guerrilla band’s last stand in the Bolivian mountains. Here’s an excerpt from pages 235. The speaker is a man, perhaps fictional but perhaps not, who claims to have witnessed events:
“ ‘I was thirteen years old and remember it very well,’ he began . . . . ‘The guerrillas were expected; they could appear at any moment. People were on edge. Through an emissary, the schoolteacher [Walter Romero, who is a real person] arranged a meeting with them at the school. But before that, they wanted to negotiate with the local residents. . . . As far as the people were concerned, these were bandits. The army was searching for them. And I got a shock when I saw dirty, ragged men, looking defeated. They had arrived here already dead, do you understand? It’s said that they were killed later, in La Higuera. But they had one foot in the grave already. Even though they walked. And talked. They bought clothing, shoes, and food. To pretend that they were not already dead.’
“ ‘[By the novel’s protagonist:] Did you want to join up with them?’
“ ‘At that age, I didn’t understand that they wanted to improve the lives of the poor. That was a message that we couldn’t grasp. People don't see themselves as poor. . . . So they talked about saving us. That was when I stopped being able to understand anything more. Those ghosts would save us? They would run the country? It didn’t make sense. Beforehand, people thought that the arrivals would be a sizable and strong force. But they were no more than a band of the starving. No one was going to want to follow those defeated people.’ ”
A biblía do Che would have been better if all of this exploration and intrigue weren’t regularly interrupted by the protagonist’s sexual adventures. Average-looking hermits in their 50s don’t often find extremely attractive women many years their junior throwing themselves at them. But that’s what happens here. I can’t tell if the author is engaging in a highly unrealistic exercise of the male gaze, or if, because both the protagonist and the ingénue are crazy (they are), the long hours of perfect sex, described in detail, are plausible. Either way, I found it distracting and the novel would have done better to avoid this sideshow.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews