nine nights it is a romance, by Bernardo Carvalho, belonging to contemporary Brazilian literature. In this fictional work, a man tries to discover the reason for the suicide of a real character - the American anthropologist Buell Quain - which occurred in Brazil, in 1939, during the Estado Novo.
Thus, the book has two narrators: Manoel Perna (Quain's friend) and an unidentified narrator (possibly the author himself). Manoel Perna recounts the nine nights he experienced a strong friendship with the protagonist. already the storyteller unidentified, in 2001, reports his investigation into the life and death of the anthropologist.
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work summary nine nights
It is a work of contemporary Brazilian literature.
Its author is the writer and journalist Bernardo Carvalho.
The book starts from a fact: the suicide of the anthropologist Buell Quain.
Buell Quain's death takes place in Brazil, during the Estado Novo.
The work features two narrators-characters who narrate at different times.
The first narrator is Manoel Perna, a friend of the dead anthropologist.
The second narrator is not identified, but is confused with the author.
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Video lesson about the book Nine nonights
Analysis of the work nine nights
→ Characters of the work nine nights
Alfred Métraux: anthropologist
Andrew Parsons: photographer
Buell Quain: American Ethnologist
Charles Wagley: Anthropologist
Diniz
Eric P. Quain: father of Buell Quain
Fannie Dunn Quain: Mother of Buell Quain
Heloísa Alberto Torres: director of the National Museum of Rio de Janeiro
Ishmael: indigenous
John: indigenous
José Maria: anthropologist
Lévi-Strauss: anthropologist
Luiz de Castro Faria: anthropologist
Manoel Perna: first narrator
Maria Júlia Pourchet: assistant to Heloísa
Marion Quain Kaiser: Sister of Buell Quain
Mrs. Lowell
teacher person
Ruth Benedict: Buell Quain advisor
Ruth Landes: anthropologist
Schlomo Parsons: son of the photographer
Second narrator: possibly, the author himself
→ construction time nine nights
Part of narrative is centered on Buell Quain's suicide, which took place on August 2, 1939, in addition to the events that preceded and the years that followed after the death of the ethnologist. The other part starts on May 12, 2001, when the main narrator first reads Quain's name in a newspaper article and starts looking for information about him.
→ construction space nine nights
The main spaces of the narrative are the cities of Carolina and São Paulo.
→ plot of the work nine nights
The novel starts from a fact, the suicide of the American anthropologist Buell Quain, on August 2, 1939, at the age of 27. The narrator — Manoel Perna — identifies himself as a friend of the dead man, who “killed himself without apparent explanations, in an untimely act of frightening violence”.
The American arrived, in March 1939, in the city of Carolina. On August 9, 20 Indians entered the city to report Dr. Quain's death and deliver the dead man's belongings to the narrator. This narrator has a recipient for his narrative, someone he calls “you”:
“Since then I've been waiting for you, whoever you are. I knew that he would come in search of what was his, the letter he had written to him before he killed himself and that, to be safe, I'm sorry, I kept it to myself, suspicious, already that he couldn't understand what was written there — although he suspected — nor take the risk of asking Professor Pessoa to translate those lines for me.”
He composes this narrative six years after Quain's death, and keeps a letter from the dead man, who waits all these years for it to be delivered to this as-yet-unidentified recipient. After that moment, the story takes a leap in time, goes to May 12, 2001, when a second narrator reads “the name of Buell Quain for the first time in a newspaper article”.
He contacts the author of the article. In addition, he conducts research in Brazil and the United States, and goes on to narrate the death of Buell Quain. Before killing himself, the ethnologist left seven cards. Four of them addressed to:
“[…] her advisor, Ruth Benedict, from Columbia University in New York; Mrs. Heloísa Alberto Torres, director of the Museu Nacional, in Rio de Janeiro; to Manoel Perna, an engineer from Carolina with whom he had become friends; and to Captain Ângelo Sampaio, chief of police of the city.”
So, in hindsight, the narrator tells the story of the protagonist before his arrival in Brazil. In this way, he tries to unravel the mystery, that is, the reason for the suicide. In one of the letters Quain wrote before killing himself, addressed to Heloise, he states: “I am dying of a contagious disease. You will receive this letter after my death. The letter must be disinfected”.
Then, the first narrator says to his interlocutor:
“This is for when you come. It was only nine nights. If I acted as if I ignored the reasons that led to his suicide, it was to avoid the inquiry. The police learned of the case and carried out an inventory of the facts and the assets at the request of the Americans. Don't misjudge me.”
In your research, the 21st century narrator discovers that Quain declared himself married upon arriving in Brazil, in 1938, but there was no reference to the spouse's name. The anthropologist then went to live among the Indians, and on the day of his suicide he was in the company of the Indians João and Ismael.
The account is surrounded by mysteries. According to the first narrator, Quain claimed that "he was watched wherever he was". When the second narrator meets the son of photographer Andrew Parsons, to whom the first narrator's narrative is directed, a mystery is possibly solved.
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→ narrator of the work nine nights
The work features two narrators-characters belonging to different epochs. The first — Manoel Perna — is a friend of the protagonist and lived with him for nine nights. The second is confused with the author, as it seeks to discover the reason for the suicide of the American Buell Quain. In this way, the narration is alternated between these two narrators.
→ Characteristics of the work nine nights
Bernardo Carvalho's book, which belongs to contemporary Brazilian literature, is composed by 19 chapters. It's a work of fiction, but presents features of a journalistic novel, as one of the narrators recounts his steps during an investigation in which he seeks to find the reason for the protagonist's suicide.
Furthermore, the work uses the resource of the flashback, to return not only to the past of the American Buell Quain, but also to the past of the main narrator. Thus, the narrative becomes fragmented and mysterious, in addition to, based on the protagonist's suicide, reflecting on sociopolitical issues in Brazil and on the reality of Brazilian indigenous peoples.
Bernardo Carvalho
Bernardo Carvalho was born on September 5, 1960, in Rio de Janeiro. In addition to being a writer, he is a journalist, graduated from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, in 1983. Soon after, he moved to São Paulo and worked at Sheet of S. Paul from 1986. For that newspaper, he served as an international correspondent in Paris and New York.
In 1993, completed his master's degree in cinema at the University of São Paulo. In 1995, he published his first novel — Eleven. In 2003, he received the Portugal Telecom Award for Brazilian Literature and the Jabuti, for his work nine nights, in addition to winning the São Paulo Association of Art Critics Award, for his book Mongolia.
Historical context of nine nights
O new state emerged with a coup d'etat on November 10, 1937, when Getúlio Vargas (1882-1954) implemented a dictatorial government. Thus, with nazi-fascist characteristics, the regime began to severely combat the communism in Brazil. For this, it used violent police repression.
Furthermore, the regime was supported by strong nationalist propaganda, consistent with the fascist and Nazi movements in Italy and Germany. Because of this, it imposed restrictions on immigration, to benefit Brazilian workers. It also censored all media through the Press and Propaganda Department (DIP).
The DIP was also responsible for promoting the Estado Novo, in order to create a heroic image of the president Vargas, considered the “father of the poor”. However, for economic reasons, Brazil ended up supporting the United States during the Second World War and opposing Germany. With the weakening of the regime, the president was deposed in 1945, with the end of the Estado Novo.
Image credit
[1] Company of Letters (reproduction)
[2] Georges Seguin (Okki) / commons
by Warley Souza
Literature teacher