Pereira Declares: A Testimony [Hardcover]

Antonio Tabucchi (Author), Patrick Creagh (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1996

"One of the most intriguing and appealing character studies in recent European fiction, and easily the best work of Tabucchi's to have appeared in English translation."—Kirkus Reviews

Dr. Pereira is an aging, overweight journalist who has failed to notice the menacing cloud of fascism over Salazarist Portugal, until one day he meets an aspiring young writer and anti-fascist. Breaking out of his apolitical torpor, Pereira reluctantly rises to heroism.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Antonio Tabucchi has accomplished a rare feat: a socio-political novel with a decided left-wing slant that succeeds as a thriller. It is told through the voice of an aging editor at a Portuguese newspaper in 1938 during fascist rule. A murder inspires the editor out of acquiescence, and an underground movement ensues. The book rose to immediate success in Italy in 1994, a time when Italian fascism resurfaced, and Tabucchi's timely antidote to that movement was no doubt a factor in the novel's popularity. But widespread appeal of the book had as much to do with the page-turning nature of the work as its politics--a testament to Tabucchi's ability on both fronts.

From Publishers Weekly

Set in the sweltering summer of 1938 in Portugal, a country under the Fascist shadow of its neighbor, Spain, Italian author Tabucchi's movingly restrained novel tells a tale of quiet, reluctant heroism. Dr. Peirera, the overweight, middle-aged editor of the cultural page of a second-rate Lisbon newspaper, wants nothing to do with European politics. He's happy to translate 19th-century French stories and write droll pieces commemorating famous authors and, in general, is content to believe "that literature was the most important thing in the world." His closest confidante is a photograph of his late wife. All this changes, however, when he meets Francesco Monteiro Rossi, a brash and oddly charismatic young subversive. As Pereira tells his wife's photo, Rossi is "about the age of our son if we'd had a son." Pereira gives Rossi work preparing obituaries for still-living writers; but Rossi focuses on the wrong writers or lingers on the political implications of their lives. "Completely unpublishable," is Pereira's usual response. And yet, he continues to pay Rossi, even after discovering that the young man is using the money to recruit for the anti-Franco International Brigade. The narrative gathers its strange power-a sense of administrative, banality-of-evil dread-from a simple device: it's told by an unnamed interlocutor and appears to be the report of a government official to a superior. Tabucchi (Little Misunderstanding of No Importance) expertly chronicles Pereira's ascent to consciousness, which culminates in a quiet and reckless act of rebellion.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 136 pages
• Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation (April 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811213196
• ISBN-13: 978-0811213196
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #526,846 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #98 in Books > Literature & Fiction > World Literature > Italian

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tabucchi again shows considerable skill, August 5, 2000

By 

M. J. Smith (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pereira Declares: A Testimony (Paperback)

Pereira Declares is set in Lisbon as Portugal is sliding into an oppressive state. Pereira is the editor of a cultural page where his work reflects not what he would wish to write but rather what is acceptable to write. He life revolves around his dead wife, food and his dream of writing a book. After seeing a piece by Monteiro Rossi, a recent university graduate in philsophy, he hires Rossi to write a column for the cultural page. Rossi is as politically aware and active as Pereira is blinded and inactive. The story is of the growing relationship between the two men and the choices Pereira is forced to make as he starts participating in life.

While the plot is predictable in the sense that people are predictable, the writing and wit of the novel not only is entertaining but also forces the reader to consider their own stance regarding death, religion and politics.

This novel is well worth your time.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The turning worm, January 21, 2000

By 

Stewart Lloyd-Jones - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pereira Declares: A Testimony (Hardcover)

Afirma Pereira is a wonderful short tale about one man's abrupt inclusion into the world of political opposition within a society that had sullenly accepted the gradual emergence of a paternalist authoritarian State.

Pereira, the main character, is an ageing intellectual who has never fully recovered from the premature death of his wife. He believes that he is a Catholic, although his mind is full of doubts that his religious faith cannot resolve. He edits the cultural section of a small newspaper that 'tends towards Catholicism', and which believes in the ressurection of the soul. He is preoccupied with death and reincarnation - a concern that brings him into contact with the cause of his own reincarnation in the form of the young half-Italian, Monteiro Rossi.

Set in Lisbon at the height of the Spanish Civil War, Tubucchi uses his undoubted lyrical skills to paint a picture of a Lisbon that is, at first sight, at peace with itself. Under the surface, however, it is clear that all is not right - and this is what Tabucchi brings out so clearly.

Pereira's curiosity in Rossi - the son he never had, and the youth he never lived - gets the better of him, and he gets drawn in to the younger man's life. Pereira had always been aware that the political regime in Portugal was intolerant of opposition, but, like the majority of Portuguese, he preferred not to think about it - a walking example of Portuguese 'fado'. His gradual awakening becomes apparent as the news arrives that some workers had been killed by the police in the Alentejan town of Evora. Normally Pereira would have allowed this to simply wash over him - now it becomes a cause for concern. Suddenly he is more aware - he notices the graffiti on the Jewish butcher's shop, and realises that it offends him. He begins to resent his housekeeper, whom he suspects of being a police informer. He begins to question why it is that he is restrained from pubishing some material in his newspaper. The censorship that prevented him from writing about Foucault was not imposed by the State, but rather it was a form of self-censorship. He begins to rail against this, feeling that he has nothing to lose.

This leads him to an encounter with his employer in what is one of the most humorous and, simultaneously, sad parts of the book.

As for Rossi - well, he comes in and out of the narrative at frequent intervals - usually at the point that Pereira is beginning to have doubts about his own doubts. In this way, Pereira is encouraged to continue his small acts of rebellion until, at the end, they reach their dramatic conclusion.

Despite some small and relatively insignificant historical errors, this is a wonderful little allegorical tale about the condition of the Portuguese people under the Salazarist regime at the peak of its fascistic phase. It plays on the Portuguese characteristics of 'saudadismo' (yearning) - illustrated by Pereira's imaginary conversations with his dead wife - and its 'fatalidade' (or 'situationism') - the sullen acceptance of what is, reinforced by the Catholic values of the political regime.

This work achieves the feat of interweaving these ultimately pessimistic traits with the optimistic and active energy of youth - given material form in the shape of the young protagonist.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A modern narrative masterpiece, April 30, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Pereira Declares: A Testimony (Hardcover)

The inevitable descent of the prematurely old journalist from the ethereal heights of romantic literature to the brutality of the late 30's fascism and a political statement.

However, I believe Tabucchi's greatest achievements are the beautiful structure of the novel, the interweaved use of humor and tragedy, and the portrait of a beautiful and stagnant Lisbon. My urge after reading the last sentence was to read Pereira's declaration again and again. Delightful masterpiece. A must.