The World's Literature in Europe discussion

In October, we will be reading The Book of Chameleons by José Eduardo Agualusa. Agualusa got some attention earlier this year when he was on the shortlist for the 2016 Man Booker International Prize for A General Theory of Oblivion.

José Eduardo Agualusa was born in Huambo, Angola, in 1960, and is one of the leading literary voices in Angola and the Portuguese-speaking world. His novel Creole was awarded the Portuguese Grand Prize for Literature, and The Book of Chameleons won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize in 2007. Agualusa lives between Portugal, Angola and Brazil.

I'll be joining you for this featured book. Thanks for posting the info.

I've got the book from the library and started reading today.

Coincidentally I met someone from Angola just a few weeks ago and she told me her and the family's (particularly her father's) bad experiences in the current regime in Angola. She and some of her family managed to run to Portugal and live there. She later moved to the UK and married a Brazilian. (Her husband is my husband's colleague). I noticed that Agualusa too lives between Portugal, Angola, and Brazil - seems the three countries are particularly tight, with Angola and Brazil being former Portuguese colonies.

I have no idea what The Book of Chameleons is about, but I look forward to reading and learning a bit more about Angola :)

Dioni (Bookie Mee) wrote: "I've got the book from the library and started reading today.

Coincidentally I met someone from Angola just a few weeks ago and she told me her and the family's (particularly her father's) bad ex..."

Bad enough that in the more recent novel, A General Theory of Oblivion, a woman walls herself in her Angolan apartment and doesn't leave for 30 years. :)

Hah, yeah I'm being mild with the word "bad". It's actually so horrible, that the woman (I mentioned earlier) refused to ever go back to Angola even for a visit. Her father is not permitted to leave the country, so he's been living separately from his wife - who managed to run to Portugal with the kids. They're all old now, so this has been going on for decades.

It's an unusual narrator in this story! But I won't give that away at least not until the beginning of the discussion period.

I have not been active in this group since I joined, and it makes me sad as I see I have missed out on some amazing books. But I will join for this read if I can get my hands on a copy!

Elisabeth (Enthralled by the Written Word) wrote: "I have not been active in this group since I joined, and it makes me sad as I see I have missed out on some amazing books. But I will join for this read if I can get my hands on a copy!"
Happy to have you! That's why I posted it ahead of time. I hope you can find it!

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "Elisabeth (Enthralled by the Written Word) wrote: "I have not been active in this group since I joined, and it makes me sad as I see I have missed out on some amazing books. But I will join for thi..."

None of the libraries anywhere near me have it, so I grabbed an inexpensive copy on Amazon, and then will probably donate it to the library I work at so there IS a copy!

Elisabeth (Enthralled by the Written Word) wrote: "Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "Elisabeth (Enthralled by the Written Word) wrote: "I have not been active in this group since I joined, and it makes me sad as I see I have missed out on some amazing b..."

Win/win!

I just picked up my copy of this book from the library today. Look forward to reading this with the group.

I've perused this novel once and have started from the beginning. It's literary, not easy.

What about it makes a curious reader pause? References to unfamiliar dance and listening music--cuduro, quizomba, Banda Marvilha (like this one), Paulo Flores--by a gecko ('A little night-time god'.) The small, nocturnal (African) tiger lizard narrates, describing the house's characters, etc--Félix Ventura, Old Esperança Job Sapalalo, medlar tree, sapper, Mikhail Bakunin (19th c Russian anarchist). Félix, who gives bourgeois clients dreams of a fine lineage in old photographs and artifacts, is one evening asked by a new client to include passports in return for a large sum. That request for forgery makes Félix's hackles rise, interfering with his reading of Nicholas Shakespeare's Bruce Chatwin, and leading into the tale of Félix's life story.

Félix doesn't know his birth parents, only that a widowed second-hand book collector from a family of collectors found him atop several copies of The Relic by Eça de Queirós. He's "albino" with "widow's hands" and "tightly curled hair". As for what the gecko is like, he's knowledgeable and is adept at extravagant language--cynegetic activity (hunting), strophium (breast band worn by the ancients). Some geckos do have a call; in this novel it's a human-like laugh. This is a mythical tiger gecko with dots on its back.

"Strange gecko noises"

Two new characters appear: Félix's client José Buchmann and his girlfriend Ângela Lúcia. The gecko's life, too, is forthcoming about his past human life, “I lived for almost a century in the skin of a man”, and about his present fifteen years with the body and habits of a lizard.

He knows of other humans who unhappily found themselves transformed into animals. Despite the physical appearance and traits of a lizard (nocturnally hunting for mosquitoes; sleeping during the day), he is personified with human intelligence. He sees everything, converses with Félix, laughs, remembers his dreams after awakening, and narrates Agualusa's novel, which next introduces Ângela.

Visiting Félix, she brings along some splendorium (=slides) for their viewing. Félix enjoys cutting out articles and collecting photographs, which he might use for the invention of clients' pasts. Meanwhile, the subject turns to nineteenth-century writers, the realist Eça de Queirós and the romantic Camilo Castelo Branco, then to the city Cachoeira in the Brazilian state of Bahia, the part called Recôncavo surrounding the Bay of All Saints which includes Salvador.

The word cachoeira means waterfall, this one photographed by Washeik. According to Wikimedia Commons it's 106 meters and is located in the state of Paraná, Brazil.

Some of my notetaking on a few chapters:

A Gecko’s Philosophy

Jacaranda=a kind of flowering shrub or tree known for its profusion of blooms.

The gecko dreams about dining at a restaurant with Félix at the time the gecko was a 30 yr old human--“a tall man, with a big, long face, well built but weary, a little pale, with a barely concealed disdain for the rest of humanity--”.

Dreams.

Félix and the gecko get the same idea at the same time.

Spirit Scarers

Lampião=a Cangaceiro, that is he was a member of a Cangaço bandit group= Brazilian bandits of the Robin Hood variety, sometimes compared to “Jesse James”, in 1920s-1930s northeastern Brazil.

Fátima=the Portuguese village in which the Virgin Mary was sighted in 1917.

Zapatista=(from Emiliano Zapata 1879-1919)=member of a Mexican revolutionary group for social and agrarian reform which started the Chiapas uprising in 1994.

Dream No. 4

Opens with the Camusian scene of two people walking towards each other on the sun-glaring Algerian beach.

Melanin=a dark pigment in the skin which promotes tanning in the sun.

Limpid=glassy.

Are dreams madness? Is conversation with a gecko a dream?

I, Eulálio

Félix and the gecko share a consciousness, "No one is a name!"

Rain on Childhood

Quimbundo=a language spoken in Angola.

Maças-da-India.

Félix says that his father is Fausto Bendito; Félix’s youth spent in Gabela. (are those facts about his childhood invented?).

Acacia tree=a thorny tree or shrub with yellow or white flowers.

Names aren’t important to a child’s enjoyment of things.

Is Félix's childhood invented?

I read this a few weeks ago, but already much of it is slipping away from my mind, oops. I just read this review: https://www.theguardian.com/books/200...
The comment about the title is interesting:
"The only thing wrong with the book is its English title. The lizard in question is a gecko, as I have said, not a chameleon. There isn't a chameleon in the whole book (well, one, but only indirectly). Why didn't they simply translate the Portuguese, O vendedor de passados (The Seller of Pasts)?"

It did make me wonder about the choice for English title. The narrator is a gecko or lizard, but certainly not a chameleon. Does the word chameleon even come up anywhere in the book? I don't recall. Do you think "The Seller of Pasts" would've been a better English title?

Dioni (Bookie Mee) wrote: "I read this a few weeks ago, but already much of it is slipping away from my mind, oops. I just read this review: https://www.theguardian.com/books/200...
The ..."

Maybe The History Seller or Past Histories. The Seller of Pasts feels awkward to me! And The Book of Chameleons is memorable but this is funny how it doesn't mean anything.

It just struck me that as Chameleons is plural in the title, that it probably refers to all the characters who change their pasts, like chameleons change colours. If so, it's quite smart.

Dioni (Bookie Mee) wrote: "...Do you think "The Seller of Pasts" would've been a better English title? ."

Dioni, the present title The Book of Chameleons suits just fine! It carries an intimation of animation, hue, playfulness, and as your article points out, that here is storytelling inside. The literal translation of the original The Seller of Pasts lies corpselike, leaving out the presence of consciousness and the remaking of memory.

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "...The Book of Chameleons is memorable but this is funny how it doesn't mean anything."

What is more diaphanous than memory? The medium of film generally misses the role of mind :)

Dioni (Bookie Mee) wrote: "It just struck me that as Chameleons is plural in the title, that it probably refers to all the characters who change their pasts, like chameleons change colours. If so, it's quite smart."

Thanks for this.... It makes sense now. I started this novel yesterday and when I came across the part where it's revealed that the narrator is in fact a shy tiger gecko, I actually google-ed "difference between gecko and chameleon." Suffice it to say, there are differences between the two, but both inhabit tropical/sub-tropical areas.

Apart from the incredible narration style, the book deals with a number of interesting themes, such as truth/history/memory/re-writing the past. Very prevalent in post-colonial societies, where volatile changes in regimes leaves people very vulnerable. Today I may be in line with those in power, but who is going to be in charge tomorrow?

I just reached a "critical" point in the story, wonder what will happen next.

Missy J wrote: "Very prevalent in post-colonial societies, where volatile changes in regimes leaves people very vulnerable. Today I may be in line with those in power, but who is going to be in charge tomorrow?"

Yes, interesting point. It reminds me of a (minor) character in the book who was a hero, then made to be the bad guy, then someone wants to reverse that so that he's a hero again.

I have read about the shyness of some geckos, and that trait has influenced the gecko Eulálio of this story. The facts have been stretched with the introduction of his formerly human childhood. He has loved reading across the continuum of his two lives and has remembered his mother and his the effortlessness of his dreams.

Effortless also is José Buchmann's belief and pride in his new geneaology, which includes a liberator of Angola from colonial oppression, Salvador Correia de Sá e Benevides. He follows a trail to New York in hopes of finding his invented mother Eva Miller; he encounters Maria Duncan who has photographs. "Caramba!"

Here are some historical persons and unusual words which enter the narrative around this part of the story:

caramba=humorous expression of surprise;

carioca=native of Rio de Janeiro;

Muto ya kevela=councilor, then a leader in the Bailundo Revolt (1902-04) between the Ovimbundu kingdoms and the Portuguese;

Queen Ginga/Jinga/Queen Ana Nzinga=1583-1663, diplomat and warrior Queen of the Ndongo and Matamba Kingdoms; Agualusa wrote a book about her “A Rainha Ginga E de Como os Africanos Inventaram o Mundo” (2014);

N’Gola Quiluange, or Ngola the Kiluanje Inene (1515-56)=founded the dynasty which became the kingdom of Angola.

Salvador Correia de Sá e Benevides=a governor of Rio de Janeiro and of Angola who “in 1648 liberated Luanda from the Dutch”.

I'm in the middle so don't yet know the results of those revised lineages.

I thought that the resolution of mysteries concerning clients' past lives turned out well. We finally learned the true past of José Bachmann, of Ângela Luciá, and of Edmundo Barata dos Reis in the 1970s-ish period of Angolan history.

The story's beginning and middle presents those three characters as more or less unrelated to each other. I must admit, though, that Bachmann's and Ângela's demeanors upon being introduced to each other and their both being photographers raises questions. Also, social climber Bachmann's attraction for the foul-smelling Reis of the sewer at first seems genuine and odd at the same time. Most of the book is about intangible dreams (six chapters of them), memories, chimerical relationships, and subdued passion; however the realistic ending reveals the bona fide pasts of those three characters and permits them some decisive actions and a pandemonium of emotional responses (e.g., "revenge"). Even the formerly human gecko, who is the story's narrative voice and Félix's listener, withdraws, so that coolheaded Félix himself goes into action, i.e., no longer arranging documents, rather getting on a plane for Brazil. I found some real places near the ending:

Praça dos Restauradores=Restauradores Square located at one end of the Avenida da Liberdade, Barcelona;

Altair book shop, Barcelona;

numerous Brazilian localities.

The edition I read had an interview of Q&A between Agualusa and the translator Hahn, in which the author said: “Now, in my book Borges is reincarnated in Luanda in the body of a gecko. The gecko’s memories correspond to fragments of Borges’s real life story.” Also, it had Discussion Qs, some of which I paraphrased below:

Is the setting important here?

Your opinion of the gecko as narrator?

The dream chapters?

Memories of past lives?

Were you surprised the story turned out to be a murder mystery?

Did any of those stir up thoughts when you read the story?

A. Fedosia wrote: "Now, in my book Borges is reincarnated in Luanda in the body of a gecko. The gecko’s memories correspond to fragments of Borges’s real life story."

Thanks for that Asma. My copy doesn't have the interview with the author, and a blog review I read also mentioned the Q&A where Agualusa revealed that the gecko is supposed to be reincarnation of Borges. I definitely wouldn't get that by myself (doesn't seem to matter that I've read some Borges).

Throughout reading I did wonder about the gecko's past lives, as there are hints about it, but it was never explored further. In term of a stand alone work of fiction, I was a bit disappointed by that. I was hoping the gecko would reveal some secrets about itself. Not sure how I feel about him representing a real person, as I don't know the details about Borges's life, though I love his stories.

I find it interesting that the book feels closer in style and aspiration to South American literature than African.

Dioni (Bookie Mee) wrote: "...I find it interesting that the book feels closer in style and aspiration to South American literature than African."

In that same interview about Eulálio=Borges between Agualusa and Hahn, the literary influence of Latin Americans upon Agualusa is noted from "Garcia Márquez, Vargas Llosa and Borges. But also the Brazilian writer Rubem Fonseca [...and] Jorge Amado." In history, Africa and South America are closely related by culture.

I think that the gecko mentions only two lives. Both share the same soul, just the outer shape differing. Either Agualusa, Félix, or Eulálio calls himself an "animist", i.e., someone who believes that natural forms (plants, rocks, animals, humans, etc.) all have souls. I don't know whether the philosophy of animism occurs in Borges.

Missy J noted the influence of magical realism in this novel. When I looked into Wikipedia for a link between Borges and animism, I found a description of animistic realism in "Magic Realism" https://en.wiki2.org/wiki/Magic_reali... . The Wiki article linked Borges to the birth of magic realism.

The chapters which describe dreams have the title DREAM No. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6. Briefs of No. 1, 2, 3 are below:

1. Gecko: Having one soul which is now taking the shape of a gecko, Eulálio dreams that he’s walking in a crowded city: “I stop right in front of people, I speak to them, I shake hands with them, but they take no notice of me. They don’t speak to me […] In an earlier life, my life still in human form, the same thing used to happen to me quite frequently. I remember waking up afterward with a bitter taste in my mouth, my heart filled with anxiety.”

2. Gecko dreams he is a young man, meeting a boy outside the city. He climbs over a wall with the boy. While the boy swims across a river, the gecko stays on the shore mistaking the “hoarse” sound of a radio for God’s voice—“The worst of sins is not to fall in love,” said God, with the soft voice of a tango-singer: This broadcast has been sponsored by the Marimba Union Bakeries.”

3. Gecko dreams of being in his human shape (age thirties), taking tea with Félix in a café, chatting about Bachmann’s rapid expansion into the invented life of an Angolan with an illustrious lineage and about Félix’s creating genealogies for real people instead of for book characters. In an ironic conclusion to the chapter, Félix and Ângela talk about dreams, particularly a recent one in which Félix and the gecko are chatting in a café.

Dreams No. 4, 5, 6



4. Gecko dreams that he encounters Félix. They walk towards each other on a beach. The more or less eclectic setting puts together cacti and seashore by which the gecko recognizes a dream). It resembles a scene from Camus's The Stranger in its realistic detail.

“The sea, to my right, was smooth and luminous, turquoise blue, the sort of sea you only find in tourist brochures and happy dreams, and there was a smell rising from it, a hot smell of algae and salt. The man was walking toward me. Even before I could make out his features I knew right away that it was my friend Félix Ventura. I could tell that the sun was bothering him. He was wearing impenetrable dark glasses, coarse linen trousers and a loose shirt—also linen—that flapped in the breeze like a flag. His head was covered with a lovely panama hat, but neither this nor his elegant outfit seemed enough to save him from the torture of the sun.”

Are dreams and dreaming madness? they wonder.


5. Gecko dreams that he and Buchmann play chess in a luxury car on a steam train. As they move the game pieces, they discuss the inexactness of truth and and the clarity of lies. A tiny bit from this chapter follows:

"There is truth — even if there isn’t realism — in everything a man dreams. A guava tree in bloom, for instance, lost in the pages of a good novel, can bring delight with its fictional perfume to any number of real rooms.”

“I’ve never flown so truly, with such authority, as in my dreams."

“I hate lying, because it’s inexact.” (Buchmann remembers the quote from Ricardo Reis (a heteronym of Fernando Pessoa and later a character in José Saramago's The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis);

“Nothing seems true that cannot also seem false.” (Gecko attributes the quote to Montaigne).

6. The gecko (or perhaps the gecko's human form) dreams about his visit to Buchmann's invented home in the Angolan town of Chibia, a bucolic setting of all kind of birds and fruits tree, etc. In this dream, Buchmann reveals his real-life story which involves Ângela and Edmundo and which answers a mystery or two about the earlier storyline.

Thank you, Jenny, and all the participants for your comments on this thread :)

I'm chiming in a bit late here, but I read this book (and re-read it twice since the week I bought it last year.) I happen to love stories like these and Jorge Luis Borges is one of my favorite authors. I'm struck by the way this novel actually reads like something Borges would have written: so many of the themes are similar and Borges himself makes a somewhat...Borgesian appearance, right down to his tone of voice! Most spectacularly, however, is the title of the book: something that left me confused, until I realized that the characters interested in "new pasts" for themselves are the chameleons this book concerns itself with. Just a late little comment.

Dioni (Bookie Mee) wrote: "It just struck me that as Chameleons is plural in the title, that it probably refers to all the characters who change their pasts, like chameleons change colours. If so, it's quite smart."

That was my take when I first read the novel. I've since gone back to it (twice) and it still strikes me that not only are the characters chameleons, but also the very book itself. It changes to suit the reader, and as no two people ever approach a book with the exact same expectations; this book satisfies those expectations, especially changeable expectations.

Chip, this novel bears a resemblance to a labyrinth. Ventura's inscrutable, anonymous clients wish for invented genealogies in the wake of Angola's historic metamorphosis, then they pursue their newfound forebears in reality. The silently attentive gecko lends an ear to Ventura and concurrently thinks some of the genealogist's ideas. In the gecko's dreaming, he transcends his skin (since he's a shapeable soul in essence) and narrates dreams about his past life to the reader. Agualusa declares that real life reveals itself best in dreaming, or something.

I read that the novelist designed a Borgesian gecko. He made Borges the gecko.

Chip wrote: "...It changes to suit the reader, and as no two people ever approach a book with the exact same expectations ..."

It's mind-boggling until the end because reality and fantasy are uncertain.

Despite the fact that the bizarre story was nothing like my expectations, my enjoyment of the story probably was unlike someone else's pleasure in it.

A. Fedosia wrote: "Chip, this novel bears a resemblance to a labyrinth. Ventura's inscrutable, anonymous clients wish for invented genealogies in the wake of Angola's historic metamorphosis, then they pursue their ne..."

It's hilarious that for as much Borges as I've read, I got the labyrinth reference, but for some reason it didn't go "ding" in my head. Funny how that works, as soon as you mentioned that, the little bell in my mind went: "Oh, yeah, and by the way 'ding'..." a bit late. Funny how that works.

Chip wrote: "It's hilarious that for as much Borges as I've read..."

Many people like and understand Borges. If you know Borges well, then you understand this novel in a different way and take notice of Agualusa's meaning.

A. Fedosia wrote: "Chip wrote: "It's hilarious that for as much Borges as I've read..."

Many people like and understand Borges. If you know Borges well, then you understand this novel in a different way and take not..."

I definitely agree, and I like the fact that Agualusa was also skillful enough to tell a good story whether or not readers are familiar with Borges; for those who don't know Borges, the novel is still readable, but for those who know Borges, then the novel is both readable and has an few extra little treats. :)

I sometimes find online courses about Gabriel García Márquez's books. Jorge Luis Borges deserves one of those, too.

I just bought this book last month (it was the last copy the store had so it was on sale) and read it.
I did enjoy reading it. The pace of the story and the characters. I can't even complain about the translation.
Though the title has been translated a bit differently for us, as a "minevike müüja" - a seller of the pasts, or so.
I do think there could have been more to write about, for example about the gecko, but then it would've changed the atmosphere of the whole story. So I'm happy as was.

Truly, this storyline is delightful, Manni. The gecko is a continous presence in the story, yet there are only certain times when the reader is cognizant about the gecko's own lifetimes; that is when the gecko is the narrator of his own five dreams. On other occasions, the gecko is the raconteur of others' dreamed-up lives or is the silent lizard in the ell of wall boards. In one instance, Ventura is the voice for the gecko's thought.

I also enjoyed A General Theory of Oblivion. Like Chameleons, it featured a humorously improbable situation which measured up to the exigency of the times.