Synopsis

“Livro que Vende (São Paulo: Altana, 2003) é um romance satírico de Regina Rheda. Ele combina uma intriga numa editora de livros didáticos, um conto infanto-juvenil e um folheto de cordel maluco intitulado Rockordel . -------------------------------- Livro que Vende (São Paulo: Editora Altana, 2003) is a satirical novel by Regina Rheda. The title translates as “book that sells.” This novel combines an intrigue within a textbook-publishing company, a short story for young adults, and a crazy piece of cordel literature (a type of folk chapbook in Brazil) entitled Rockordel . Translation of the jacket blurb of Livro que Vende : The sabotage of the instructions for an experiment in a science textbook leads to explosions that injure school children around the country. Soon after the news appears on TV, the cleaning lady of the main suspect in the terrorist act finds her body covered in sheets of paper containing a long poem called Rockordel , which is attributed to the teacher who authored the sabotaged textbook. Two time frames reveal the schemes related to the explosions and present, with humor and agility, a Brazil that enters the third millennium limping along between anachronism and modernization. This is the fourth book of fiction by Regina Rheda, whose work is characterized by compelling narration, exuberant creativity, shameless eroticism, and fine irony. A delightful read, permeated with sharp insights into human behavior, Livro que Vende is composed of a main story and two stories-within-the-story. The main story, in prose, is built upon intrigues within the textbook-publishing business, offering a provocative view of the effects of economic and cultural globalization on human relations. The second story is an enlightening fable for young adults, written by a character in the main story; in this fable, teenagers travel through fantastic situations toward the most exciting adventure of all (which the reader will discover). The other framed story is an extravagant epic, a delirious postmodern folk chapbook that plays with different versifications, themes, and ideologies of the Brazilian cordel literature. If the main story is globalized, Rockordel is universalized, with biblical, mythical and science-fiction characters migrating through the cosmos, changing their identities in search of a better life. The title Livro que Vende suggests why the author has based her novel on best-selling genres such as thrillers, textbooks, children's and young adult literature, and cordel . It is also worth remembering that the epic Rockordel is a novel in two senses: in Portuguese, the word for "novel" is "romance," which, in turn, is the name given to Iberian epics from the Middle Ages, as well as to a cordel of 32 pages or more. It is difficult to classify Regina Rheda’s work within any literary trend. With a voice of her own, and her vivid imagery, she structures a surprising multilayered novel, of stories within a story, a novel within a novel, and books that sell within a “book that sells.””