What Is Mine
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- 5,49 €
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- 5,49 €
Beschreibung des Verlags
In What Is Mine, sociologist José Henrique Bortoluci uses interviews with his father, Didi, to retrace the recent history of Brazil and of his family. From the mid-1960s to the mid-2010s, Didi's work as a truck driver took him away from home for long stretches at a time as he crisscrossed the country and participated in huge infrastructure projects including the Trans-Amazonian Highway, a scheme spearheaded by the military dictatorship of the time, undertaken through brutal deforestation. An observer of history, Didi also recounts the toll his work has taken on his health, from a heart attack in middle age to the cancer that defines his retirement. Bortoluci weaves the history of a nation with that of a man, uncovering parallels between cancer and capitalism – both sustained by expansion, both embodiments of 'the gospel of growth at any cost' – and traces the distance that class has placed between him and his father. Influenced by authors such as Annie Ernaux and Svetlana Alexievich, What Is Mine is a moving, thought-provoking and brilliantly constructed examination of the scars we carry, as people and as countries.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this riveting debut, sociologist Bortoluci presents six interviews he conducted with his father, Didi, a long-haul truck driver in Brazil. Bortoluci opens with a portrait of his childhood, which was economically precarious but emotionally tender, even as his father was absent for long stretches of time. In the 2010s, as Didi's health declined due to cancer, Bortoluci sat down to record the details of his father's adventures. From the 1960s through the early aughts, Didi saw more of Brazil than most of its citizens. He illuminates for Bortoloci how regime changes influenced the country's infrastructure, and how his and his friends' attitudes about social mobility shifted as they learned just how perilous their work was and how underpaid they were for it. Didi's evocative account of life on the road touches on the obstacles (mudholes) and distractions (brothels) faced by time-crunched drivers, but most memorable is his chilling description of the 1970s construction of the Trans-Amazonian Highway connecting the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, which tore through small towns and caused massive deforestation. With its twin focus on family and country, this unique memoir makes for moving and edifying reading.
