The Slope of Memory

It is not truly possible to compare the literature from different worlds, but if forced to find a comparison to Vieira from English literature, one would perhaps nominate the longer novels of William Faulkner as being similarly absorbed in locale, similarly offering convoluted timelines, similarly drifting on a sea of similes. Where Faulkner inhabits the swamps and deltas of the American South, Vieira explores the outposts of urbanity carved from the Brazilian rainforest. Faulkner shows us the agrarian society of andowners, tenant farmers, and freedmen. Vieira shows us the world of the Brazilian literati, floating like a lily pad on the surface of a still-wild landscape, over a lower class of workers of which they are barely conscious. Both show great affection for their different societies while at the same time exposing their frailties.