The Inquisitors' Manual [Paperback]

Antonio Lobo Antunes (Author), Richard Zenith (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 8, 2004

Senhor Francisco, a once powerful state minister and a personal friend of the Portuguese dictator Salazar, is incapacitated by a stroke. As he lies dying in a Lisbon nursing home he reviews his life and his loves. The emotional turmoil enveloping Francisco's family finally catches up with him when the Carnation Revolution severs the dictatorship and the old regime tumbles. Beset by paranoia, Senhor Francisco remains a large but empty shadow of his former self. An international best-seller and the novel that established Antunes's reputation in Europe, The Inquisitors' Manual is a rewarding and stunning piece of art that shows the damage tyranny does to each layer of society.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Antonio de Oliveira Salazar is not the best known of 20th-century dictators, but he was as cruel and ruthless as any of them in his rule over Portugal from 1932 to 1968. In his 11th novel, Antunes (The Return of the Caravels; Act of the Damned) recreates the harrowing story of Salazar's regime, building gradually from the petty problems and thoughts of a host of characters, related in stream of consciousness, to blunt exposition of the inhuman inner workings and brutal violence of authoritarianism. An unseen contemporary inquisitor interviews a series of individuals, whose identities are gradually revealed to the reader. These shadowy characters stammer, lie to themselves and compulsively repeat phrases; occasionally, they are sarcastic to the questioner. The central figure is a minor eminence of the fascist government, Senhor Francisco, or "the Minister," whose triumphs and decline are narrated in fragmented and nonsequential fashion. Old, fat and abandoned by the Party as the novel begins, he is spending his last years in a hospital, derided by his nurses: "Time to go wee-wee, Senhor Francisco, time for wee-wee." The minister's son, Joao, is unambitious and simple, and Joao's illegitimate half-sister, Paula, is unattractive, jealous and vindictive, convinced her brother has cheated her out of her inheritance. Supporting characters include Titina, the minister's aging and vain housekeeper; Romeu, a slow-witted dreamer; Cesar, brutally beaten by plainclothesmen; Alice, who shares harsh recollections of Africa. Many of these speakers conjure up a collage of voices as they tell their stories, and the interviews become progressively more narrative, graphically describing the regime of Salazar. With this tapestry of harrowing testimonials, the supremely confident Antunes illuminates a dark corner of European history and produces a stunning piece of narrative art.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From The New Yorker

"We forget everything, we forget everything forever and ever," an old soldier declares about the nearly four decades when Portugal languished under the regime of António de Oliveira Salazar. But no one can, and "The Inquisitors' Manual" is a swirl of narratives and perspectives revolving around the family of a powerful, eccentric oligarch in Salazar's government. These orbits are wide: not only ministers but veterinarians, housekeepers, and social workers all have their say. Lobo Antunes, one of the most skillful psychological portraitists writing anywhere, renders the turpitude of an entire society through an impasto of intensely individual voices. Unable to filter present from past, dialogue from echo, his multiple narrators bring us with them as they eddy through the dark backwaters of a lost half-century.
Copyright © 2005 The New Yorker

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Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Grove Press (April 8, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802140521
• ISBN-13: 978-0802140524
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #677,851 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Magnificent work., October 22, 2004

By 

Teresa Motta (Estoril, Portugal) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Inquisitors' Manual (Paperback)

I just loved this book. It's deep,it's tragic, it's moving but it also has great humor.
It tells the story of the downfall of an upper class family following the leftist revolution that took Portugal by storm in 1974. It's told by several people, all inter-related,like Joăo, the helpless son of a powerful, arrogant land owner, close to the high ranks of Government, who now lays dying in a hospital bed, Joăo's wife, Sofia and her very rich family, the cook ,the father's former secretary and mistress,etc.
Thus a very rich portrait of the Portuguese political and social scene of the pre-revolution days emerges, with dictator Salazar reigning supreme.
The characters are very powerful.Some you hate, like the father, some you really feel for, like Joăo. He reminded me of the character named Balthasar in «TheBeastly Beatitudes of Balthasar B.» by J.P. Donleavy. Has the same kind of vulnerability.
This is my favorite book by Antonio Lobo Antunes. He really knows how to tackle all this powerful stuff, like love and hate and incest and rape. Still he manages to make you laugh, sometimes. And cry too.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Dictatorship Dementia, July 25, 2005

By 

doomsdayer520 (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Inquisitors' Manual (Paperback)

This Portuguese novel is a mesmerizing and surrealist look at an obscure episode of history, though it's rather drifty and inconclusive. The real-life dictatorship in Portugal of Admiral Salazar (1932-1968) is examined through the life and relations of his self-righteous lackey Senhor Francisco, who has become old and washed up, bitter about being passed over as Salazar's successor, and is now wasting away in a demeaning nursing home. Each chapter is narrated by different characters who reminisce, often bitterly or sarcastically, about Francisco's brutal rise and fall. This includes his neglected family members, abused employees, pampered but slipping aristocrats, and various sycophants and opponents. Antonio Lobo Antunes uses this expository method to delve into the trials and tribulations of people living under a dictatorship, and this is especially interesting when it reveals the harsh class segregation of Portugal during that period, with the upper class feeling entitled to the dictatorship's favor, oppressing the working classes, and complaining about more equitable social developments that they're too lazy to stop.

The thoughts of these types of characters, as well as underlings whose lives were damaged by Francisco's brutal treatment, are the true treasures of this novel, as we learn how average lives are distorted by bizarre politics, by way of real historical trends in Portugal. But the underlying difficulty of the book is that it is all in the form of fictional confessionals, with very little plot for the reader to hang onto, in favor of personal developments from an increasingly unwieldy cast of characters. Also, Antunes presents each character's thoughts in a non-linear, stream-of-consciousness style that surely represents the inner thought processes of confused and angry real people. The problem is that every single person thinks in this same style, making the book rather repetitive and drifty. Antunes' unique writing style and intriguing look at the human side of Portuguese history and politics are certainly fascinating and are likely to keep you interested. However, with the voluminous character-driven approach, you'll get the feeling that the novel isn't really leading anywhere conclusive. [~doomsdayer520~]

2.0 out of 5 stars disappointing, August 24, 2011

By 

juan - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Inquisitors' Manual (Paperback)

I am not sure whether, as some of the reviewers say, the monologues of the characters are actually streams of consciousness, given that there are indications at several points in the book that the characters are addressing someone else, who is kind of documenting their stories. Be that as it may, these monologues do indeed look a lot like streams of consciousness. Readers of such authors as Faulkner or Virginia Woolf will get nothing new from the point of view of literary technique out of this book.

Antunes has talent, but this book has a HUGE defect: all the monologues are in the same style. The guy from The New Yorker who said they are very individual must have been reading a different book or else he doesn't know what he is talking about. The book is in THE SAME STYLE from beginning to end. While this can be ok for one section, 430 pages is just too much. Listening to people reminiscing about their lives in the very same style, so that no one would be able to tell one from the other, is bound to get boring.