Customer Reviews

City of God: A Novel

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Those familiar with the film will find almost instantly that it more or less borrows elements from this book and condenses story arcs. Rocket is not the narratator as in the film, and appears to be nothing more than a background character at first. His role still takes the inevitable course to photography. As with the movie the first part takes place during the early dawn of the City of God's development. the "Tender Trio" from the movie is a revolving door of characters with unfamiliar names. Segments like Hellraiser's pursuit of Berenice and the hotel heist are here as with many other elements. Other characters from the book become condensed in the film's take. The Lil' Dice/ Lil Ze'character becomes Pipsqueak and such. It truly is a flux of thoughts but becomes more involving with each page turn.

The fact that the film didn't win the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay proves that the Academy Awards are nothing more than a popularity contest. The chore of adapting this massive novel must have been an immense task (it took three drafts before they director and producers got a script they were satisfied with). What was on the screen was basically a summary of the novel.

For instance, Rocket is a minor character in the book, Lil Ze is based on a character named Tiny, and the 'Tender Trio' is based on the characters Squirt, Hellraiser and Hammer. Carrot (called 'Carrots'in the book) and Knockout Ned (simply called 'Knockout') are about the only characters in the book that fans of the movie will recognize right off the bat. There's no mention of The Runts specifically, but dozens of other youngsters are. So many characters are introduced and killed off that it was impossible for me to keep up, but fans of the movie will notice bits and pieces of specific characters. Almost all the characters in the film are creations from several other characters in the book.

The book is more violent than the film. Paulo Lins describes the massacred bodies in grafic detail. The last third of the book (well over 100 pages) deals with the war between Knockout and Tiny.

Cocaine and marijuana is mentioned repeatedly throughout the book. Almost every character seems to use or deal the drugs. The world of dope dealing is thouroughly investigated in this book.

Paulo Lins does an amazing job of telling the story of the City of God, but for me it was hard to keep up with the countless characters. The film makers did a great job of adapting this massive story. So if your a fan of the movie, and want to get a different perspective of this Brazilian hell-hole, then check out the book, just don't expect it to be just like the film.

For those who may think this is about St. Augustine's book, it's not. This movie is not for the faint of heart, so I well understand the 1 star reviewer who said his hand was trembling as he removed the DVD from his player. Slumdog Millionaire was a fairy tale while City of God is the real world of poverty where violence is brutal. FULL STOP. This film is for people who need or want to know.

During the time this movie was made there were 100,000 people involved in the drug trade in Rio. The City of Rio required 100,000 civil servants to run the city. The sole reason for the existence of the State (i.e., protection of the serfs) is taken over by the drug dealer (if you are in his good graces). Do you see what a government is competing with? As a result, the police in Rio are said to be the best trained urban street fighting outfit in the world because they have to operate like an army. How can there ever be enough money or police to stop the drug trade? Is it clear things have gotten out of control? And this is how it is all over the third world. So how did this happen? What do you do - you can't contain it within its favela walls? The job of the police is now to try to protect the neighborhoods of the rich and middle class. Is this the true state of capitalism with regard to rich and poor in most of the world? I fear City of God is just the tip of the iceberg.

Based on a true story, this movie is raw, unadulterated life in which people whose God is violence, sex, drugs or even a pair of Nikes are living and dying, where the family is the gang and manhood is proven in sadistic ways. Not being able to choose where you are born, how do you raise a child under these circumstances? If you are a missionary, how do you approach this place? How do you impart the wisdom of God to those who live by the wisdom of the world? Can you see how hard it is to save yourself? You have no bootstraps by which to pull yourself up if you have no boots. If as a viewer, you feel despair, how must it be for people who are raised in this beautiful place called hell who don't know they are living in hell but hell it is?

This is a groundbreaking film because it exposes everything naked before us, beautifully shot and acted by real children of the favelas. It is the place that should be envisioned when people want to practice their think tank-elitist theories on how to stop recruitment by Osama Bin Laden in the slums of Afghanistan or Pakistan or Palestine. Or how to continue a fight against drugs. Do the math. Understanding violence and its power is important by those of us who can't even dispose of a dead mouse in a mousetrap or who have never even seen one.

The film is based on a book of the same name. The director was given the book by a friend and told he needed to make this film. He said - I don't want to make a film about the favelas of Rio, but by page 100 he found himself making director's notes in the margin of the book. It is a great film and from a Christian perspective I believe despite the violence and cursing it is a must see film for anyone who wants to make a difference in the world or who is studying the human condition, including but not limited to diplomats, corporate CEOs, social scientists, social workers, cultural anthropologists, psychologists, criminal attorneys & missionaries. There is a documentary which accompanies this movie on the DVD which is excellent. City of God has a glimmer of hope with the

Most people coming here to look up this novel are likely already fans of the film. This is one of the rare cases where the movie is actually much better than the book. That's not to say that the book is bad. It is a decent novel, but with some issues.

For one thing, some of the writing seems a little bit simplistic at times. I have to wonder if this is due to Lins' style, or if some things get a little lost in the translation.

A bigger issue is that there are way too many characters to keep up with, and only a precious few of them are developed enough for them to leave a mark on your memory. The trouble with that is that characters' start blending together. Add to that the fact that the story tends to jump around quite often. You'll be reading about a moment in the life of one character, when the story will take an abrupt turn to that of another, and it can be confusing to try to follow. I would have liked to see more focus on some of the major characters, rather than bits and pieces about the myriad criminal exploits of probably 20 or so characters. It's as if you keep waiting for a particular part of the story to peak, and it never really seems to. It simply branches off into another section of the story, which will likely end up in more violence.

On the other hand, I have to allow for the possibility that this was maybe Lins' intention. That the lives of these lost souls in the slums of Brazil just blend together in this sea of tragedy and hopelessness. Each person is just another cog in the wheel of violence. I can appreciate that. The novel's lack of structure may not make for the best reading experience, but it is somewhat unique.

For fans of the movie, it's worth a read, if for nothing else than to see what inspired Fernando Meirelles' cinematic masterpiece.

This novel came out in 1997 and was translated into English in 2006. It was apparently based on real events known to the author. Parts of it were dramatized in 2002 in the stylistically dazzling, award-winning film by Fernando Meirelles.

The action was set in a suburb of Rio, in one of the hundreds of favelas that are estimated currently to house some 20% of the population. Most of the slum residents are working people; the focus here was on the criminal minority. The book's three chapters zipped through the 1960s, early 70s and late 70s/early 80s, a time of rising crime and exponential growth of Rio's slums.

The content was monotonous -- I assume intentionally so. For hundreds of pages, boy after boy in the slum turned to crime, robbed and killed, dreamed of escaping the cycle of violence and was murdered. Most of the violence revolved around squabbling over territory and money, drug-dealing and revenge killings. Brothers and friends were sucked into the endless cycle. This was a world of boys and young men, the women were accessories.

The "characters" numbered in the hundreds, most of them known only through nicknames -- Squirt, Tiny, Slick, Knockout -- and appearing sporadically. Other than, say, Knockout, who was sucked in deeper and deeper against his will, they were very limited in dimension. The body count was high, accelerating toward the end. The violence wasn't glamorized; most characters lived squalid, pathetic lives. The morality was stern: those who turned to the most serious crimes died violently; only a few of the more innocent hangers-on succeeded in escaping. Well before the end, the repetition had become numbing, and I assume this too was intentional.

Naturally the book contained many more storylines and characters than the film, which compressed much very skillfully. And the book paid little attention to the positive character named Rocket, who became the film's narrator and protagonist.

The back cover referred to the author years of research and firsthand experience of the slums. Despite this, the novel contained little background -- political or otherwise -- on how the slums got started and were allowed to continue.

A book of reportage on the city's slums in general is Favela: Four Decades of Living on the Edge in Rio de Janeiro (2011), by Janice Perlman.

Seller's description was totally precise! Time to deliver item was not even half of what expected. Would purchase again from this seller.

I bought this is England a while back and it is fantastic. The movie is spectacular and all, but this goes a step further when it comes to the story. There is just generation after generation of gangsters and warfare and brutality. It serves as a grim reminder of the favelas that exist in this world.

What a great story. The film shows a detailed and nuanced tail but still manages keep the viewers in rapt attention. This movie also benefits from not being your typical cliches story of the lives of the Brazilian poor.