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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
About the author
Clara Drummond
13 books24 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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 119 reviews
November 12, 2022
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.
Já, se o intuito da escritora foi fazer uma crítica à 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.
Já, se o intuito da escritora foi fazer uma crítica à essa sociedade que vive em uma bolha de irrealidade, ela certamente logrou êxito.
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!
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.
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...
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
July 17, 2024
scat of the year
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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."
July 16, 2022
minha mais nova obsessão literária!
June 11, 2024
A serviceable critique of the Brazilian state of affairs: rich are being rich, men are being men, patriarchy is being patriarchy, vapidity everywhere.
June 4, 2024
ultra rich people just might all be sociopaths
April 22, 2022
Depois volto com calma pra escrever sobre esse livro, mas gostei bastante dele!
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.
April 5, 2022
o que é esse buraco no meu peito, é fome, é cólica, é falta de serotonina?
June 14, 2024
"It's my greatest commitment, I am what I think of myself. And reality can contradict me, that does happen sometimes, revealing unknown layers of my personality to myself and the world, layers that might not be very flattering, and I'll get a shock, and think: That's me, not cool, a bit selfish, kind of a jerk?"
‘Role Play’ by Clara Drummond is translated from Portuguese (we love translated literature!!). We follow Vivian, a wealthy young woman in Rio whose family and friends are part of the ultra-rich in Brazil. She is seemingly content in her curated life, from designer bags and expensive art to lavish apartments. But once she bears witness to a brutal police attack on a female street vendor, her bubble of privilege temporarily bursts and begins her contemplation and reflection of her life and topics such as wealth, class, ethics, privilege, and inequity.
I love satire, so lines like these made me laugh.
"Maria Elisa is more scared of waking up suddenly penniless than the manicurist who does our nails."
"You're not suffering from depression, Marina's always telling me, you're suffering from internalized capitalism."
If you do as well, you'll enjoy Vivian's voice, who is not likable, but I don't think that's the point/goal. It reads like a dark, candid, and funny stream of consciousness.
Her perception consumes her. She is self-aware enough to know her performative nature and that of others around her, but she is not interested enough in sacrificing for change.
I loved the writing (as you can see by the many lines I've shared in the slides). I have heard comps to The Guest and Happy Hour [cannot confirm as I haven’t read either, but throwing it out there, lol]
If you want a story, you can finish in an afternoon; this is it. Slightly over 100 pages. Short but anything but sweet.
Thank you, FSG, for the gifted copy.
‘Role Play’ by Clara Drummond is translated from Portuguese (we love translated literature!!). We follow Vivian, a wealthy young woman in Rio whose family and friends are part of the ultra-rich in Brazil. She is seemingly content in her curated life, from designer bags and expensive art to lavish apartments. But once she bears witness to a brutal police attack on a female street vendor, her bubble of privilege temporarily bursts and begins her contemplation and reflection of her life and topics such as wealth, class, ethics, privilege, and inequity.
I love satire, so lines like these made me laugh.
"Maria Elisa is more scared of waking up suddenly penniless than the manicurist who does our nails."
"You're not suffering from depression, Marina's always telling me, you're suffering from internalized capitalism."
If you do as well, you'll enjoy Vivian's voice, who is not likable, but I don't think that's the point/goal. It reads like a dark, candid, and funny stream of consciousness.
Her perception consumes her. She is self-aware enough to know her performative nature and that of others around her, but she is not interested enough in sacrificing for change.
I loved the writing (as you can see by the many lines I've shared in the slides). I have heard comps to The Guest and Happy Hour [cannot confirm as I haven’t read either, but throwing it out there, lol]
If you want a story, you can finish in an afternoon; this is it. Slightly over 100 pages. Short but anything but sweet.
Thank you, FSG, for the gifted copy.
August 1, 2024
Poucos têm minha fé no cenário da literatura contemporânea nacional, e Clara Drummond sem dúvida compõe esse pequeno grupo. Este é o segundo romance seu que leio e vejo nela e em suas obras algo viçoso e novo, algo de que sentia falta entre os nossos. Atitude despreocupada, irônica, engraçada e sagaz, uma comentarista da nossa elite desvairada, tão típica de hoje. Dito tudo isso, não acho que a Clara alcançou seu potencial máximo; consigo vê-la experimentando com a tinta, se divertindo e tentando encontrar não a si mesma (autoconhecimento não lhe falta), mas a forma que melhor lhe cabe. Os coadjuvantes diverte e entretém como Realidade, contudo com menos sutileza em âmbito geral e de maneira mais amorfa. É uma narrativa desossada, um tanto circular sem satisfazer a circunferência e curta demais. Quero ver Clara Drummond com mais estrutura, menos primeira pessoa e menos divagações sem rumo; um romance pauleira, foda. Acredito demais nela. Leitura prazerosa com seus short-comings mas vejo potencial, muito. Como diria minha amiga Letícia, um tanto mais fã e mais fervorosa quanto a (Maria) Clara do que eu, ainda vem seu Jabuti.
May 13, 2024
3.5/5. This book was very honest and raw in its depiction of our privileged protagonist. I appreciated the creative risks our author took in depicting a flawed protagonist, but felt that many of the chapters simply contributed nothing to our protagonists' very loose story.
I also struggled a lot with Drummond’s writing. Many of these sentences are super long trains of thought with many, many commas breaking the sentence apart. This flow of consciousness can certainly be appealing to some readers, but it was a huge part of my initial struggle with the story.
What bumped my rating up a decent amount was the last chapter of this book. I mean… just wow!!! It is extremely difficult to put into words how connected I felt to our protagonist in that moment. Drummond truly has a gift of making you take on the life of another person. The prose was utterly dreamlike and took on such a different, significant tone to me.
One of my favorite quotes from the last chapter was: “Sex fulfills the same function as dreaming, it reveals who we are through encrypted language – but we hardly ever remember our dreams.”
Thank you to the author, publishers, and NetGalley for access to this arc!
I also struggled a lot with Drummond’s writing. Many of these sentences are super long trains of thought with many, many commas breaking the sentence apart. This flow of consciousness can certainly be appealing to some readers, but it was a huge part of my initial struggle with the story.
What bumped my rating up a decent amount was the last chapter of this book. I mean… just wow!!! It is extremely difficult to put into words how connected I felt to our protagonist in that moment. Drummond truly has a gift of making you take on the life of another person. The prose was utterly dreamlike and took on such a different, significant tone to me.
One of my favorite quotes from the last chapter was: “Sex fulfills the same function as dreaming, it reveals who we are through encrypted language – but we hardly ever remember our dreams.”
Thank you to the author, publishers, and NetGalley for access to this arc!
June 16, 2024
It executes the balance between sympathetic details of Vivian’s life and childhood and then dropping in some truly absurd belief of hers very well I think. It all reads to me like someone really questioning everything about their life in their journal on a bad evening - wondering if they’re the worst person alive, justifying things to themself, deciding it’s actually all perfectly fine, that they’ve been wronged, trying to find the meaning of life etc etc. We get to eavesdrop.
“It’s all right, some clouds have a silver lining - I wouldn’t have done all this thinking, and transformed myself, if the police hadn’t murdered Darlene”
“It’s all right, some clouds have a silver lining - I wouldn’t have done all this thinking, and transformed myself, if the police hadn’t murdered Darlene”
May 4, 2024
Li com um sorrisinho nos lábios e gosto amargo na língua! Uma sátira social sobre os ricos de berço cariocas (mas que se encaixa perfeitamente nos paulistanos) que faz realmente uma crítica e não só encenação.
Entendo comparações com “a vida de Tina” mas acho que enquanto essa é um tapinha nas costas de autoindulgência fingindo ser autocrítica, o livro mostra bem claro que não é só uma questão de ser patético, mas também de ser cruel (lugarzinho que o tapinha nas costas não alcança).
Terminar lendo os agradecimentos (com os mil nomes e sobrenomes de alta classe dos amigos) e a biografia da autora (que, claro, se mudou para Portugal) é a cereja do bolo. Ótimo!
Entendo comparações com “a vida de Tina” mas acho que enquanto essa é um tapinha nas costas de autoindulgência fingindo ser autocrítica, o livro mostra bem claro que não é só uma questão de ser patético, mas também de ser cruel (lugarzinho que o tapinha nas costas não alcança).
Terminar lendo os agradecimentos (com os mil nomes e sobrenomes de alta classe dos amigos) e a biografia da autora (que, claro, se mudou para Portugal) é a cereja do bolo. Ótimo!
March 17, 2024
3.5
I love books with morally grey female protagonists and Vivian fit the bill perfectly. She was incredibly privileged, unlikeable but also funny. I enjoyed the humour and sarcasm. Despite being short, it packed a real punch and Vivian was well fleshed out. I also think the mental health portrayal was well done. Would love to read more of the authors work in the future.
Big thanks to NetGalley for the eARC!
I love books with morally grey female protagonists and Vivian fit the bill perfectly. She was incredibly privileged, unlikeable but also funny. I enjoyed the humour and sarcasm. Despite being short, it packed a real punch and Vivian was well fleshed out. I also think the mental health portrayal was well done. Would love to read more of the authors work in the future.
Big thanks to NetGalley for the eARC!
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
July 8, 2024
this absolutely had me until the end and i was going to give it a 5 but then the last chapter was a 2 so i’m docking points.
overall great though. author has a magical command of language.
“Suffering does have a transformative power, but that power is neutral, it can go any which way, and often that directions random, repressed someplace in the unconscious, and before we know it, there we are.”
overall great though. author has a magical command of language.
“Suffering does have a transformative power, but that power is neutral, it can go any which way, and often that directions random, repressed someplace in the unconscious, and before we know it, there we are.”
August 2, 2024
Short and sweet. A little dark. Kind of depressing. But very real, honest writing. A reflection on the contemporary world and the shallowness we exist in. I could see this being some sort of French indie film. Maybe A24 circa 2015, not now.
“Nobody thinks of themselves as superficial, and maybe no one really is, maybe human depth is uniform, like the arrangement of our internal organs is uniform, maybe it’s just in the workings there’s a difference.”
“Nobody thinks of themselves as superficial, and maybe no one really is, maybe human depth is uniform, like the arrangement of our internal organs is uniform, maybe it’s just in the workings there’s a difference.”
Displaying 1 - 30 of 119 reviews