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Book reviews for "Ramos,_Graciliano" sorted by average review score:

Barren Lives
Published in Hardcover by Univ of Texas Press (1965)
Authors: Graciliano Ramos, Charles Umlauf, and Ralph E. Dimmick
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"Barren Lives" is the REAL LIFE we are all afraid of.

I believe that "Barren Lives" could never be fully understood by any foreigner. I mean foreigner as someone who has not lived and grown up in Brazil. "Barren Lives" deals with the essence of human souls, when there is nothing left to believe in, nothing left to look foward to, nothing to relish, nothing to praise, when it all comes down not to being humans, as we're not, but to being animals. It sounds and looks very deep and poetic, but the strenght of this novel comes from its veracity. It is a a story that has happened to several families of people in Brasil. It doesn't make us, readers, wonder about our fragility or our values. It wants to sting us with the indignation of living our mediocre lives. It exposes human mediocrity. Far beyond social critic, it is a social attack. Ramos is dry: he saves up words, writing solely what's essential. He would condense it even more, to short sentences, litlle phrases, single words. He wouldn't even write, if he had the chance. A real genius of literature who has captured sentiments with completely detachment, subverting his own magistral reasoning. A book that MUST be read, although I couldn't trust an English version of it


São Bernardo : a novel
Published in Unknown Binding by Taplinger Pub. Co. ()
Author: Graciliano Ramos
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Like a Latin American soap opera
This novel is like one of those typical Latin American soap operas where the bad guy is absorbed with money and power and blind to love and compassion and the heroine/victim is a person only capable of love and compassion with no greed or ambition (the Mexican soap opera "Te Sigo Amando" produced by Televisa comes to mind.)

The character-development of the narrator/bad guy/main character is well done. And for his excellent construction of character and command of narrative, Ramos with this novel has a permanent place in the history of Brazilian literature.

But in his later life Ramos became a communist, and you only have to scratch the surface to discover the anti-capitalist overtones in this novel. Paulo Honorario is a bad man because his sense of self-worth is driven by the accumulation of capital. He treats his relations with others as primarily economic ones. For Paulo, life is all about the accumulation of power, symbolized by the Sao Bernardo ranch which Paulo worked so hard to acquire. As a character foil, his wife is all about relating to people with love and compassion. She does not burden her relationships with economic ties. Paulo victimizes her but in this Marxist morality tale ultimately recognizes at the end of the novel that he has ruined his own life as a result of his cruel ambition. We all get the point. We have just been preached to. This book is not a "masterpiece" by my judgement, but it has enough redeeming qualities in terms of style, character development, etc not to fall into the pile of "revolutionary novels" produced in the first half of the 20th century that in retrospect are so heavy handed and obviously political (Andre Malraux comes to mind, for example).

My Favorite Author
O.K,there are a lot of people who say that Machado de Assis is one of the "monsters" of South American Literature,no doubt about that!,BUT Graciliano Ramos is my favorite author,there is,also,no doubt that his style is so interesting and São Bernardo is,let say,one of his best(Angustia and Vidas Secas come to mind)..

10\10,Please read this one and don't be foolish by those stupid "capitalist" fanatics that hate Ramos just because his was a comunista,AND SO WHAT!!!?
If you read this novel,and by the end,you think that greed is good,so,please,grow up :)

PS: Really sorry about my english...My second linguage is German,so...the things get a really complicated :)

One of the best books ever wrought!!
Paulo Honorio is a tough man who does everything to earn more money and to be more powerful. But, when he knows Madalena, a game of interests begins. His world, dominated by the use of force and represented by Sao Bernardo, his farm, is questioned by Madalena's world, built on a base of love and charity. This fight leads to a astonishing and perfect end, in which Paulo Honorio realizes that he is a "pig" which can't be able to forgive and to change its way of life.


Anguish
Published in Unknown Binding by Greenwood Press ()
Author: Graciliano Ramos
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Cadeia
Published in Unknown Binding by J. Olympio Editora ()
Author: Clara Ramos
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Catálogo de manuscritos do arquivo Graciliano Ramos
Published in Unknown Binding by EDUSP ()
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Childhood (UNESCO Collection of Representative Works. Brazilian Series)
Published in Hardcover by Peter Owen Ltd (1982)
Author: Graciliano Ramos
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Corpos escritos : Graciliano Ramos e Silviano Santiago
Published in Unknown Binding by Edusp ; Editora UFMG ()
Author: Wander Melo Miranda
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Ficção e confissão : ensaios sobre Graciliano Ramos
Published in Unknown Binding by Editora 34 ()
Author: Antônio Cândido
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Graciliano : retrato fragmentado
Published in Unknown Binding by Editora Siciliano ()
Author: Ricardo Ramos
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Graciliano Ramos
Published in Unknown Binding by Twayne Publishers ()
Author: Richard A. Mazzara
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