Eulálio Montenegro d’Assumpção – descendant of Portuguese nobility, former weapons dealer, great-great-grandfather of a Brazilian drug dealer – lies in a hospital bed in his one-hundredth year of life and remembers. As Eulálio says, “Memory is truly a pandemonium, but it’s all in there: after rummaging around a little the owner can find all manner of things.” In his old age and infirmity, his stories blend and blur, weaving together past and present through images, emotions, and associations in a rich tapestry of national and family history. Chico Buarque’s newest novel, Spilt Milk, from Grove Press, is told in Eulálio’s voice – compelling, relentless, and full of character. The short novel was awarded two of Brazil’s leading literary prizes when it was originally published in Portuguese in 2009. Alison Entrekin’s translation from the Portuguese is vivid and lively. Buarque is well-known as a musician in Brazil, and his prose has a rhythmic, musical quality to it that carries the reader forward effortlessly.The story reveals Brazilian history through the decline of the Assumpção family. Eulálio’s great-great-grandfather arrived in Brazil with the Portuguese court. His grandfather was an aristocratic plantation owner. His father was a powerful, womanizing senator. Our narrator Eulálio has lost power, his wealth, and his wife. The Eulálios that follow in the family line are criminals and drug dealers. They become interchangeable. His family line is inextricably tied to the changing social structure of Brazil: “…Rio de Janeiro looks like a family tree; if you don’t believe me have an errand boy go buy a map of the city.” The family (mis)fortunes are reflected in the changing geography: from the grand plantation, to Copacabana, to, first, a pair of apartments in the city, then a single apartment, to a hospital room, and eventually to a stretcher in a hospital hallway.Eulálio tells of his family and his colleagues, but most of all, he talks of Matilde: Matilde, his wife, who abandoned him; Matilde, who haunts him. He returns again and again to his recollections of his wife with skin the colour of cinnamon. Episodes are retold (sometimes with different details), but according to Eulálio, “…if with age we tend to repeat certain stories, it’s not senility, but because certain stories don’t stop happening in us until the end of our lives.” The people and the events at his emotional core, that shaped his life, are the ones that keep recurring in his mind. People, places, and times become confused: “My memories, and memories of memories of memories, are so numerous that I’m not sure in which layer of recollection I was just now.” But even in his senility and confusion, the story of Eulálio’s life reveals how personal history engages with national history.Spilt Milk is a masterful novel about memory, family, nation, and self. Do yourself a favour and pick it up. Se «Budapeste» figura como um dos meus livros de eleição, o mesmo não posso dizer deste Leite Derramado, embora reconheça que se trata de um romance sui generis, num estilo totalmente diferente do que por aí anda. O imenso Chico Buarque criou um personagem que se vê confinado a uma cama de hospital e que, a partir daí, nos conduz ao longo da sua vida numa viagem de memórias, umas mais lúcidas que outras. Faz assim um retrato de várias gerações de brasileiros, cuja ascendência portuguesa não é esquecida, e também o seu próprio retrato enquanto neto, filho, marido e pai. Porém, a senilidade do narrador parece latente, vindo ao de cima com frequência e fazendo com que as suas estórias tenham rumos diferentes. Isto sim, é genial e reflecte a genialidade do autor, pelo que se recomenda a leitura.«Com o tempo aprendi que o ciúme é um sentimento para proclamar de peito aberto, no instante mesmo da sua origem. Porque ao nascer, ele é realmente um sentimento cortês, deve ser logo oferecido à mulher como uma rosa. Senão, no instante seguinte ele se fecha em repolho, e dentro dele todo o mal fermenta. O ciúme é então a espécie mais introvertida das invejas, e mordendo-se todo põe nos outros a culpa da sua feiura. Sabendo desprezível, apresenta-se com nomes supostos, e como exemplo cito a minha pobre avó, que conhecia seu ciúme como reumatismo.»
What do You think about Leche Derramada (2009)?
Um livro sobre os erros cometidos pela vida, narrados no leite de morte. Pungente.
—shaza
chico shows dreams, memories and mistakes of a person on his deathbed.
—ganinochka
Assim, assim...uma especíe de 'Memoria de mis putas tristes'....
—IPufos
