Comprising 12 essays on Brazilian writer Afonso Henriques de Lima Barreto (1881-1921), this volume opens with an introduction by Aidoo and Silva. In a translated essay on agency, literature, and madness, social anthropologist Lilia Moritz Schwarcz sets the parameters for understanding Lima Barreto's role as both leading author of his day and marginalized, bitter critic of poverty, race, social hierarchy, and politics. Other essays place Lima Barreto, who was troubled by alcoholism and mental illness, in a pan-American context through comparisons with North American literature (essays by Earl Fitz and Renata Wasserman); foreground him as a spokesman against endo-colonialist structures (Nelson Vieira, Vivaldo Santos, Emanuelle K. F. Oliveira); and question his dual position as educated critic and victim of racism (Marc Hertzman, Mário Higa). Luiz Fernando Valente studies Lima Barreto's famous parody of patriotism, and Paulo da-Luz-Moreira considers his humor in the story 'The Man Who Spoke Javanese' against farces by Machado de Assis and Monteiro Lobato. . . .Summing Up: Recommended.

Choice Reviews

Lima Barreto's fiction, journalism, and diaries, as well as his personal and professional trajectories, remain a powerful challenge to most canonical interpretations of Brazilian race relations and national identity. This collection of critical essays achieves the important task of gathering a number of respected scholars from different regions and disciplines to offer a variety of highly innovative readings of his works, as well as rigorous analyses of life in early 20th-century Brazil. It offers an invaluable contribution to the fields of comparative literature, hemispheric studies, African diaspora, gender and race studies, and Decolonial thinking. It will certainly become an essential resource for both the specialist and those looking for an informed introduction to Brazilian culture.

Cesar Braga-Pinto, associate professor, Brazilian studies, Northwestern University

Bringing together original and intelligent essays across several disciplines, this well-timed anthology is the first book-length English publication to pay homage to one of the major Afro-Brazilian intellectuals of all time: Afonso Henriques de Lima Barreto (1881-1922). As both a victim and an outspoken critic of elite Brazilians’ racist backlash in the immediate aftermath of the Abolition of Slavery (1888), Lima Barreto, as demonstrated in these essays, left behind in his relatively short life a remarkable body of testimonies about the contradictions inherent in Brazil’s official entrance into modernity. Above all, the essays in this collection ably address the ideological contradictions and cross-social/racial tensions in a society struggling to reconcile modernity with the cultural legacy of slavery and colonialism. As argued by the organizers of this important anthology, Lima Barreto’s fierce opposition to the conciliatory ideologies of miscegenation and related cross-racial brotherhood still reverberates through the discourse and activism of contemporary Afro-Brazilians, and confirms the relevance of studying his work today.

Sonia Roncador, associate professor, Brazilian literature and culture, The University of Texas at Austin