By DANIEL BRAZIL*
Commentary on the recently released book by Edmar Monteiro Filho.
“Truth wears seven skirts. Who knows what’s under the last one?”
(Uricana, protagonist of the novel Seven Skirts).
Exactly in the middle of the 20th century, a film from the East came to transform the Western vision of narrative, causing an enormous impact. Rashomon (1950), by Akira Kurosawa, won the Golden Lion at Venice and the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, among other awards, by bringing to the screen an adaptation of two short stories by Akutagawa, the Japanese master of short stories, which in turn were inspired by a story from the XNUMXth century.
The influence of Rashomon It wasn't just in cinema, but also in literature. Escaping from the Cartesian logic of detective fiction, which had the obligation to reveal a criminal at the end, writers of various genres had long been experimenting with unconventional narratives, where the way in which it was told became more important than a one-dimensional conclusion. Obviously, the film didn't invent relativism, but it crystallized for millions of people the perception that the truth is never absolute.
The new novel by Edmar Monteiro Filho, Seven Skirts, is developed in this fictional universe. The author, an award-winning short story writer, moves confidently through the long narrative (he has already published another novel, Blue Ribbon, finalist for the São Paulo Literature Prize) and is known for obsessively researching his themes. This was the case in the volume of short stories Atlas of the Impossible (Penalux, 2017), where he dialogues with the fantastic work of MC Escher, unfolding and adding meaning to the engravings of the Dutch genius. Or in the almost 40-page short story Portrait of Rashmila, set in a meticulously described Nepal, published in his latest book, The Insensitive Chord of God (Original Orange, 2022).
Em Seven Skirts The author makes a risky move: he transports the plot to the 1930s, in the Brazilian backlands. More precisely, it is a story of bandits, in the middle of the backlands of Alagoas. A theme that many consider exhausted, not exactly by literature, but by national cinema. Lampião, although not a character in the novel, is present in dialogues and is the inspiration for Mariano's gang, which opens the narrative by kidnapping a young woman, Marianita, who he intends to make his wife.
The central character is Uricana, a member of the group and Mariano's friend. Sometimes a narrator, sometimes a character, his story is developed in an ingenious way. Police reports and inquiries (with the spelling of the time!) reveal several sides of a crime, in which Marianita and another bandit, Santa Cruz, were killed. There is a love triangle, but it could be quadrangular. There are bandits who could be heroes, revolting against an unfair and corrupt system that favors politicians and colonels. There are brave soldiers who could be traitors. There are faithful women who may not be…
Addressing these universal issues in such an aesthetically demarcated territory is a challenge that Edmar Monteiro Filho rises to very high standards. Let us remember that the author is from São Paulo, born in Amparo. At no point does he seem to be a “foreigner” speaking, but rather someone who is naturally familiar with the universe he is addressing. He manages to keep the reader guessing until the end, and offers the reader a rich foray into the Northeastern imaginary of that period.
We therefore have a Rashomon Brazilian literature, where the pleasure of following the multiple views of a crime is added to the admiration of seeing the author wisely mix official and individual views of a fact, with a tasty language that is coherent with geography and history. Doesn't there be an ending? Of course there is. But it is up to the reader to believe it or not.
* Daniel Brazil is a writer, author of the novel suit of kings (Penalux), screenwriter and TV director, music and literary critic.
Reference
Edmar Monteiro Jr., Seven Skirts. Cotia, Urutau, 2024, 152 pages. [using this link]
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