Bar Don Juan

by Antonio Callado

Retrato crítico do Brasil, durante o regime militar, mostra a densidade existencial de um dos mais conturbados períodos da história recente do Brasil. De um lado, supressão das liberdades democráticas e violenta repressão; de outro, jovens da Zona Sul carioca dispostos a enfrentar essa realidade tendo sobretudo a convicção de que nada poderia dar errado na sua luta pela liberdade.

218 pages, Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1972

About the author

Antônio Callado (26 January 1917, Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – 28 January 1997, Rio de Janeiro) was a Brazilian journalist, playwright, and novelist. Born in Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Callado studied law, then worked as a journalist in London for the BBC's Brazilian Service from 1941 to 1947. Callado began writing fiction in the 1950s. His first novel, A assunção de Salviano (The Assumption of Salviano), was published in 1954, and his last, O homem cordial e outras histórias (Men of Feeling and Other Stories), came out in 1993. Quarup (1967) is regarded as his most famous work. Callado has received literary prizes that include the Golfinho de Ouro, the Prêmio Brasília, and the Goethe Prize for fiction for Sempreviva (1981).

Reviews

[Julio The Fox]

An ode to the dreams of what Brazilians call "the alcoholic left." Trust me: There is an English language translation of this novel; one of the lost (to Americans, anyway) classics from Brazil's great Sixties and Seventies generation of writers. In Rio de Janeiro, a group of young men and women, gathered in the title pub, plan a revolution against the military dictatorship. A revolution that, alas, is never to be. Best scene: the characters discuss the merits of Stalinism versus Trotskyism in terms of different ways of taking a crap on the world.

[Christian]

Um livro que seria excelente, não fosse pela terceira e última parte, em que o autor tenta, às vezes de maneira poética, outras de maneira demasiadamente criativa, traçar o destino final de alguns personagens. O final da segunda parte já carrega simbolismo na medida certa para o que o enredo se propunha. O que veio em seguida pareceu desnecessário, tirando, para mim, o impacto desse final.