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A Miracle, A Universe: Settling Accounts with Torturers
During the past fifteen years, one of the most vexing issues facing fledgling transitional democracies around the world—from South Africa to Eastern Europe, from Cambodia to Bosnia—has been what to do about the still-toxic security apparatuses left over from the previous regime. In this now-classic and profoundly influential study, the New Yorker 's Lawrence Weschler probes these dilemmas across two gripping narratives (set in Brazil and Uruguay, among the first places to face such concerns), true-life thrillers in which torture victims, faced with the paralysis of the new regime, themselves band together to settle accounts with their former tormentors.
"Disturbing and often enthralling."— New York Times Book Review
"Extraordinarily moving. . . . Weschler writes brilliantly."— Newsday
"Implausible, intricate and dazzling."— Times Literary Supplement
"As Weschler's interviewees told their tales, I paced agitatedly, choked back tears. . . . Weschler narrates these two episodes with skill and tact. . . . An inspiring book."—George Scialabba, Los Angeles Weekly
"Disturbing and often enthralling."— New York Times Book Review
"Extraordinarily moving. . . . Weschler writes brilliantly."— Newsday
"Implausible, intricate and dazzling."— Times Literary Supplement
"As Weschler's interviewees told their tales, I paced agitatedly, choked back tears. . . . Weschler narrates these two episodes with skill and tact. . . . An inspiring book."—George Scialabba, Los Angeles Weekly
322 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1990
10 people are currently reading
282 people want to read
About the author
Lawrence Weschler
82 books124 followersLawrence Weschler, a graduate of Cowell College of the University of California at Santa Cruz (1974), was for over twenty years (1981-2002) a staff writer at The New Yorker, where his work shuttled between political tragedies and cultural comedies. He is a two-time winner of the George Polk Award (for Cultural Reporting in 1988 and Magazine Reporting in 1992) and was also a recipient of Lannan Literary Award (1998).
His books of political reportage include The Passion of Poland (1984); A Miracle, A Universe: Settling Accounts with Torturers (1990); and Calamities of Exile: Three Nonfiction Novellas (1998).
His “Passions and Wonders” series currently comprises Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees: A Life of Contemporary Artist Robert Irwin (1982); David Hockney’s Cameraworks (1984); Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder (1995); A Wanderer in the Perfect City: Selected Passion Pieces (1998) Boggs: A Comedy of Values (1999); Robert Irwin: Getty Garden (2002); Vermeer in Bosnia (2004); and Everything that Rises: A Book of Convergences (February 2006). Mr. Wilson was shortlisted for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award; and Everything that Rises received the 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism.
Recent books include a considerably expanded edition of Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees, comprising thirty years of conversations with Robert Irwin; a companion volume, True to Life: Twenty Five Years of Conversation with David Hockney; Liza Lou (a monograph out of Rizzoli); Tara Donovan, the catalog for the artist’s recent exhibition at Boston’s Institute for Contemporary Art, and Deborah Butterfield, the catalog for a survey of the artist’s work at the LA Louver Gallery. His latest addition to “Passions and Wonders,” the collection Uncanny Valley: Adventures in the Narrative, came out from Counterpoint in October 2011.
Weschler has taught, variously, at Princeton, Columbia, UCSC, Bard, Vassar, Sarah Lawrence, and NYU, where he is now distinguished writer in residence at the Carter Journalism Institute.
He recently graduated to director emeritus of the New York Institute for the Humanities at NYU, where he has been a fellow since 1991 and was director from 2001-2013, and from which base he had tried to start his own semiannual journal of writing and visual culture, Omnivore. He is also the artistic director emeritus, still actively engaged, with the Chicago Humanities Festival, and curator for New York Live Ideas, an annual body-based humanities collaboration with Bill T. Jones and his NY Live Arts. He is a contributing editor to McSweeney’s, the Threepeeny Review, and The Virginia Quarterly Review; curator at large of the DVD quarterly Wholphin; (recently retired) chair of the Sundance (formerly Soros) Documentary Film Fund; and director of the Ernst Toch Society, dedicated to the promulgation of the music of his grandfather, the noted Weimar emigre composer. He recently launched “Pillow of Air,” a monthly “Amble through the worlds of the visual” column in The Believer.
(from www.lawrenceweschler.com)
His books of political reportage include The Passion of Poland (1984); A Miracle, A Universe: Settling Accounts with Torturers (1990); and Calamities of Exile: Three Nonfiction Novellas (1998).
His “Passions and Wonders” series currently comprises Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees: A Life of Contemporary Artist Robert Irwin (1982); David Hockney’s Cameraworks (1984); Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder (1995); A Wanderer in the Perfect City: Selected Passion Pieces (1998) Boggs: A Comedy of Values (1999); Robert Irwin: Getty Garden (2002); Vermeer in Bosnia (2004); and Everything that Rises: A Book of Convergences (February 2006). Mr. Wilson was shortlisted for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award; and Everything that Rises received the 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism.
Recent books include a considerably expanded edition of Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees, comprising thirty years of conversations with Robert Irwin; a companion volume, True to Life: Twenty Five Years of Conversation with David Hockney; Liza Lou (a monograph out of Rizzoli); Tara Donovan, the catalog for the artist’s recent exhibition at Boston’s Institute for Contemporary Art, and Deborah Butterfield, the catalog for a survey of the artist’s work at the LA Louver Gallery. His latest addition to “Passions and Wonders,” the collection Uncanny Valley: Adventures in the Narrative, came out from Counterpoint in October 2011.
Weschler has taught, variously, at Princeton, Columbia, UCSC, Bard, Vassar, Sarah Lawrence, and NYU, where he is now distinguished writer in residence at the Carter Journalism Institute.
He recently graduated to director emeritus of the New York Institute for the Humanities at NYU, where he has been a fellow since 1991 and was director from 2001-2013, and from which base he had tried to start his own semiannual journal of writing and visual culture, Omnivore. He is also the artistic director emeritus, still actively engaged, with the Chicago Humanities Festival, and curator for New York Live Ideas, an annual body-based humanities collaboration with Bill T. Jones and his NY Live Arts. He is a contributing editor to McSweeney’s, the Threepeeny Review, and The Virginia Quarterly Review; curator at large of the DVD quarterly Wholphin; (recently retired) chair of the Sundance (formerly Soros) Documentary Film Fund; and director of the Ernst Toch Society, dedicated to the promulgation of the music of his grandfather, the noted Weimar emigre composer. He recently launched “Pillow of Air,” a monthly “Amble through the worlds of the visual” column in The Believer.
(from www.lawrenceweschler.com)
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
November 27, 2016
In 1964, the Brazilian military, backed by U.S. military and intelligence assets, deposed the elected president João Goulart and began a brutal twenty-year-long military dictatorship. The generals who led the coup felt that widespread use of torture and even more widespread knowledge among the population that anyone could be handed over to the officially sanctioned heartless brutes was necessary to implement economic reforms, especially “denationalization of the economy”. This meant opening everything to foreign capital, allowing easy credit and financial incentives for setting up headquarters of multinational companies in Brazil and quick and simple repatriation of profits. In order to lure foreign companies and convince them to stay the technocrats among the generals wanted and inviting economic environment—low wages, weak unions, a docile peasantry and lower taxes. The cuts in social services and jobs led to substantial opposition from the great mass of people whose livelihoods were suffering. Torture and the threat of torture was an important part of the suppressing any opposition to what the generals considered the destiny of the nation, to be the foremost nation in Latin America and world leader in economic growth. They wanted the field free for their “free market” reforms to thrive and propel Brazil into the front rank of world players in the East-West cold war.
In interviews several officials boasted that their torture techniques owed nothing to foreign countries or organizations but were already exporting knowledge on torture, such as refinements of the dreaded “parrot’s perch”. Others even claimed credit for the very idea of death squads—policemen assassinating their foes in secret—a tactic that began in Rio in the 1950s to deal with petty criminals who kept thwarting the corrupt courts. According to these officers the Brazilians and Americans together standardized techniques for torture and operation of death squads and exported them to Argentina, El Salvador, Chile and so forth. This is almost unbelievably vile, to take pride of authorship of such loathsome practices.
A major theme of Welscher’s book is how the newly elected civilian government would treat these men. What he called the “receding” security and military apparatus responsible for the majority of human rights abuses during the military regime retained tremendous power and would not allow any formal settling of accounts. They demanded blanket amnesty covering all acts committed during their tenure with the same treatment for those who worked for them and actually did the torturing. This became complete impunity—the right not only to enforce total official amnesia regarding their violations of the law but was unofficially acknowledged over time in those nations in which the government tortured or extra-judicially executed its citizens that even future acts would have the same immunity.
“A Miracle, A Universe” was published in 1990. The civil war in Guatemala still had years to go; death squads were operating in El Salvador with no end in sight to their predations; civilian rule had just been restored in Chile after 17 years of military rule, although General Pinochet was still Commander in Chief of the military; the restored civilian administration in Uruguay seemed helpless against the impunity of the former military leaders.
The book is a snapshot of a particular time and place—the military had ruled Brazil for over 20 years and in 1990 no one from that brutal regime had been brought to justice, since the military could take power again if they felt threatened. However the subject of officially sponsor terror during the dictatorship could at least be openly discussed in the press and on the streets. Later a National Truth Commission was created to look at abuses during the dictatorship and a Dilma Rousseff, a victim of torture was elected President and then impeached.
Although dated, “A Miracle, A Universe” should be on the bookshelf of anyone interested in the culture of impunity during and after dictatorship, transitional justice to address the legacies of human rights abuses and accountability for the victims of these atrocities.
In interviews several officials boasted that their torture techniques owed nothing to foreign countries or organizations but were already exporting knowledge on torture, such as refinements of the dreaded “parrot’s perch”. Others even claimed credit for the very idea of death squads—policemen assassinating their foes in secret—a tactic that began in Rio in the 1950s to deal with petty criminals who kept thwarting the corrupt courts. According to these officers the Brazilians and Americans together standardized techniques for torture and operation of death squads and exported them to Argentina, El Salvador, Chile and so forth. This is almost unbelievably vile, to take pride of authorship of such loathsome practices.
A major theme of Welscher’s book is how the newly elected civilian government would treat these men. What he called the “receding” security and military apparatus responsible for the majority of human rights abuses during the military regime retained tremendous power and would not allow any formal settling of accounts. They demanded blanket amnesty covering all acts committed during their tenure with the same treatment for those who worked for them and actually did the torturing. This became complete impunity—the right not only to enforce total official amnesia regarding their violations of the law but was unofficially acknowledged over time in those nations in which the government tortured or extra-judicially executed its citizens that even future acts would have the same immunity.
“A Miracle, A Universe” was published in 1990. The civil war in Guatemala still had years to go; death squads were operating in El Salvador with no end in sight to their predations; civilian rule had just been restored in Chile after 17 years of military rule, although General Pinochet was still Commander in Chief of the military; the restored civilian administration in Uruguay seemed helpless against the impunity of the former military leaders.
The book is a snapshot of a particular time and place—the military had ruled Brazil for over 20 years and in 1990 no one from that brutal regime had been brought to justice, since the military could take power again if they felt threatened. However the subject of officially sponsor terror during the dictatorship could at least be openly discussed in the press and on the streets. Later a National Truth Commission was created to look at abuses during the dictatorship and a Dilma Rousseff, a victim of torture was elected President and then impeached.
Although dated, “A Miracle, A Universe” should be on the bookshelf of anyone interested in the culture of impunity during and after dictatorship, transitional justice to address the legacies of human rights abuses and accountability for the victims of these atrocities.
March 4, 2014
What’s the longest you’ve kept a secret? And how about, if that secret involved a big group of people? Can you still trust that that secret is kept? In A Miracle, A Universe: Settling Accounts with Torturers, by Lawrence Weschler, an elite group photocopies millions of pages on the gruesome acts of the secret torturing in Brazil by their very own military-- in secret for 5 years until they decided to release a book, Brazil: Nunca Mas, containing everything they found out that was hidden away in the documents.
If you have little patience in reading, it would be hard getting through the first quarter of the book. It starts off alright but becomes very wordy and lengthy. The topic is interesting. The way it is written does not do this topic justice; the style makes it almost unbearable to read through. Paragraphs are a few pages long. Sentences are an average of 50 words in length. However, because of this, when there are short sentences, they are hugely emphasized and enjoyed thoroughly. The author knows when to add these shorter sentences on exactly the intense or big moments, but other than that, the rest is a bit melo.
Weschler uses a wide variety of punctuation in his sentences, containing semicolons, colons, parentheses, commas, and especially the use of dashes. His writing contains a certain flow, pacing readers to his tempo, allowing the rather long 50 word sentences to be somewhat digestible.
In addition, throughout the book, there is a continuous use of dialogue as a form of action. It moves the story forward, and makes it seem more realistic and more understandable. Through his well chosen quotes, powerful intent, meaning, and motion is displayed and can be felt by the readers. Without the dialogue, it would’ve been otherwise boring-- almost like a history textbook.
This book is quite touching; especially when personal records of the tortures are shown. What those imprisoned had to deal with is unimaginable, touching, and life changing. But ultimately, if you are more of a fast-paced thriller and action seeking reader, I would not recommend this book. This book is more for those readers that enjoy slow paced, yet interesting books. I personally, however, cannot handle reading lengthy books, and enjoy intense, on edge, suspense filled books. This book is intense in a different way due to the whole secrecy aspect and the consequences that await if discovered, but I did not enjoy the way Weschler wrote this book.
If you have little patience in reading, it would be hard getting through the first quarter of the book. It starts off alright but becomes very wordy and lengthy. The topic is interesting. The way it is written does not do this topic justice; the style makes it almost unbearable to read through. Paragraphs are a few pages long. Sentences are an average of 50 words in length. However, because of this, when there are short sentences, they are hugely emphasized and enjoyed thoroughly. The author knows when to add these shorter sentences on exactly the intense or big moments, but other than that, the rest is a bit melo.
Weschler uses a wide variety of punctuation in his sentences, containing semicolons, colons, parentheses, commas, and especially the use of dashes. His writing contains a certain flow, pacing readers to his tempo, allowing the rather long 50 word sentences to be somewhat digestible.
In addition, throughout the book, there is a continuous use of dialogue as a form of action. It moves the story forward, and makes it seem more realistic and more understandable. Through his well chosen quotes, powerful intent, meaning, and motion is displayed and can be felt by the readers. Without the dialogue, it would’ve been otherwise boring-- almost like a history textbook.
This book is quite touching; especially when personal records of the tortures are shown. What those imprisoned had to deal with is unimaginable, touching, and life changing. But ultimately, if you are more of a fast-paced thriller and action seeking reader, I would not recommend this book. This book is more for those readers that enjoy slow paced, yet interesting books. I personally, however, cannot handle reading lengthy books, and enjoy intense, on edge, suspense filled books. This book is intense in a different way due to the whole secrecy aspect and the consequences that await if discovered, but I did not enjoy the way Weschler wrote this book.
March 11, 2009
A good read about how activists in Brazil and Uruguay dealt with the legacy of torture under their respective military dictatorships. I appreciated two things about this book: 1. The indepth discussion of how the regimes came into place and the role of the U.S. in their ascension to power; 2. The focus on what everyday people - not courts or NGOs or whatever - did to try to first educate people about the military's atrocities and then to get accountability.
No happy endings here, though.
No happy endings here, though.
December 9, 2010
This book was absolutely amazing. It was well written and the pacing was great, but the story was incredible. I recommend this to any adult, but the scenes of torture described are pretty damn graphic, so I wouldn't recommend it to a child or even a teenager.
March 14, 2019
Military and cops trained by USA and funded in part by USA corporations brutalize their fellow countrymen and women and children to protect USA-style capitalism in the name of "national security." Terrifying here and now seeing how we're expected to worship troops and cops and capital is coming into question more and more.
July 29, 2009
I read this book for the first time in college. Almost 10 years later it is still powerful. It deals with the political, moral, and psychological aspects of how countries recover from the torture and repression of their recent pasts. I like how the roles and voices of ordinary people are highlighted. Although the book is tough to read, it is also amazing to see how people have challenged torture and worked to overcome it.
September 23, 2008
wow. a compelling, smart, readable book - about the worst things that humans do to each other, about how we recover from those things, and about how people work together heroically in order to overcome atrocity. even if reading about human rights atrocities doesn't sound fun - this is a wonderful, somehow joyous read.
February 12, 2008
Wow! It kind of blew my mind as to how so much deceit, torture, and really- pure evil could take place and be hid from the rest of the world for so long. Not really a "feel good" book, but very interesting.
April 10, 2012
Horrifying but incredibly well written with pages upon pages of illuminating and fascinating interviews, as well as important historical context surrounding the military regimes of Brazil and Uruguay.
July 8, 2012
Very good book on the nature of South American dictatorships of the mid to late twentieth century.
December 11, 2016
Critical history, beautifully and thoughtfully written. How all of this could have happened, and so recently, is both terrifying and important to remember.
Nunca Mas.
Nunca Mas.
December 9, 2007
Eye-opening...
January 27, 2015
Brazil and Uruguay's Civil Wars -- eye opening.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews