While Portugal's literary
mogul José Saramago may have recently captured the American scene with
is novel, "Blindness," and the subsequent Nobel prize that was awarded
to him, another of the country's gems can be found in Antonio Lobo
Antunes. Having previously read his, "Act of The Damned," I sat down
over the break and opened what many reviewers and readers call his
"pinnacle" novel, "An Explanation of The Birds."
Concerned with the
demise of Rui S, an overweight professor with thinning hair and
borgeouis tendencies, over the period of three days, Lobos Antunes
constructs a surreal tale in which the characters of Rui's life comment
and analyze their relationships with him.
Throughout the novel, the one central image is of Rui's only remaining
glint of happiness, his memory of the birds as explained to him by his
father during his adolescence. In the progression of the story we find
this central imaged morphed and constricted into a new image, an image
of Rui's father--a privileged member of Lisbon's elegant capitalist
structure--collecting the birds and butterfly's of Rui's memories and
pinning them, along with other various items and people in Rui's life,
to cardboard sheets and filing them away in display cases besides their
identifying cards.
Rui's family members, ex-wives, and associates all comment on the man's
decline, illuminating his faults as the circus gathered together to
watch Rui's decay observe his struggle as it approaches it's ultimate
act, suicide on Rui's part. Suicide as a release is no secret, instead
being divulged almost as quickly as the novel begins. But that's not
the point of Lobo Antune's novel. Instead, the author has committed to
capturing the last moments of this desperate professor, offering
poignant descriptions of his failures and shortcomings.
Labeled as one of Portugal's "pre-eminent writers," Lobo Antunes
dispenses with the traditional narrative and instead delivers an
abstract and sometimes humorous portrait that propels the plot along
with an intensity that builds and builds until its stark and haunting
climax.