A review by jcr610
Nowhere People by Paulo Scott

5.0

Perhaps it's my distance from the politics, the way this educated me about the social situation in Brazil. But this book broke my heart and rebuilt it in a way that is sadly rare for me with books these days. Flows from person to person showing members of Brazilian society encountering and changing one another, and how the structures they run up against can be the strongest forces of all. Hold on to the queasiness you feel with the Lolita-esque relationship in the first few chapters--your moral feelings will be proven right, but not without giving fair due to each perspective involved. It never preaches or moralizes, it dialecticizes. Similar to Coetzee's Disgrace, but told with impassioned language rather than cold remove.