/ARTS WEEKLY/ BRAZIL: Buarque’s Pen as Mighty as His Microphone

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct 28 2003 (IPS) - Chico Buarque de Hollanda, a Brazilian singer-songwriter of international fame, added literature to his artistic endeavours in 1991, and his third novel, "Budapest", has been on the national best-seller list for the past three weeks.

It would be difficult for the writer Buarque to someday be as famous as the musician Buarque. His book sales have not surpassed 300,000 copies (though enough for best-seller status in Brazil), while his albums have sold in the millions, and his songs have reached nearly every Brazilian in the country through radio, television, movies and theatre.

But the fact is that Chico Buarque was already a writer when he rose to fame as a singer and composer. His songs stand out largely because of their lyrics, and he has written several works for the theatre, but because they have been musicals, he has been credited as composer.

In 1975 he wrote a short novel, "Fazenda Modelo" (Model Farm), but his career as a novelist is considered to have reached maturity with "Estorvo" (Turbulence) in 1991, followed by "Benjamim" (Benjamin) in 1995, and the recently released "Budapest".

The issue of fame and the fact that it is often unrelated to talent is present in this latest book. It is the story of José Costa, a ghostwriter working in Rio de Janeiro, "a genius" of the written word who produces articles, theses, political speeches and biographies that are published under other people’s signatures.

His talents make the false authors famous, but he remains anonymous. His work calls into question the matter of identity, the distinction between reality and image.

It also serves to place the reader in a labyrinth, in the vertigo of an ambiguous, insecure character, whose mind is filled with images that confuse truth and fiction.

After two sombre novels, with dense surroundings and tormented characters, Buarque practically abuses irony in "Budapest". The profession of the protagonist, regularly sought by politicians and famous people who lack the talent to write, lends itself to extravagant situations.

And José Costa takes his unique job to the extreme. One night spent in Budapest, the result of an unplanned stopover on a flight back to Rio de Janeiro after attending a meeting of ghostwriters in Istanbul, he becomes enchanted with the Hungarian language.

Later, during one of his existential crises, he returns to Budapest in order to learn "the only language that the devil respects," falls in love with his instructor Krista, but returns to Rio nevertheless.

On his second language-learning attempt, this time a stay of several months, he is able to dominate the language, and in it reveals his talent for poetry, a genre that he never attempted in his native Portuguese in Brazil.

But Krista does not like the collection of poems he publishes, saying she detects a "foreign accent" in them. Before Costa is revealed as the author behind the pseudonym Zsoze Kósta, he once again heads back to Rio de Janeiro.

Costa maintains strict professional principles. It would be unthinkable to publicly reveal that he is the true writer of other people’s books. The truth about his identity is only recognised in closed-door meetings with colleagues.

Having lost his work, separated from his family, and without money or a future, the great clandestine author deteriorates Rio de Janeiro – until the Hungarian consulate sends him to Budapest as a special guest of a publishing house for a book release..

The book is, of course, "Budapest", an autobiographical novel ostensibly by Costa, though written by a local Hungarian ghostwriter, Krista’s first husband.

This is where the novel ends, with our hero playing the role opposite of what he has been for so long, and forced to accept it despite pangs of conscience.

Chico Buarque is a master of words, whether in song lyrics or novels, and he writes with a fluidity that absorbs the reader, in spite of the narrative voice’s many lofty turns of phrase.

"It is a novel of the surface… without metaphysics or psychology," but well plotted and well written, putting the reader in "a labyrinth of symbols", wrote psychoanalyst Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza in a review of "Budapest".

The "double" is a constant presence in the book, says Garcia-Roza who has himself recently risen to fame in Brazil for a series of crime novels written since he retired as a university professor.

José Costa exists in Rio de Janeiro while Zsoze Kósta exists in Budapest. And the Hungarian capital is presented as two parts, Buda and Pest, separated by the Danube, notes Garcia-Roza.

With the figure of ghostwriter, Buarque underscores the contradiction between the author submerged in anonymity in an era that so highly values fame.

The sales of his novels naturally mean more fame for the singer-songwriter, but this book could turn out better commercially than his previous novels because the theme, style and structure are attractive for a broader reading public.