"The Air You Breathe" is a 2018 novel by Brazilian writer Frances de Pontes Peebles. It is set in Brazil and later, in the United States. As far as I can tell, despite the author being a native Portuguese speaker, it appears the book was originally written in English. The book is a socially realistic, history-based novel that tells the story of two girls, Graça and Dores (who I will call Grace and Doris for simplicity's sake), who grow up together, and how they interact with Brazilian society.
Almost a year ago, I wrote that the basis of "Literary Fiction" is people trying to find fulfillment in a world where institutions were safe and predictable. To which at least one person responded that I should find a book not written by a white male. After all, books written by educated middle-class men from Connecticut will often be about educated, middle-class men from Connecticut. This book was written by a woman from a "developing country", and a woman who is "not white" in the United States, where speaking a language changes your race, apparently (but that is another story entirely). So I thought it would give me a different perspective, and would be less dull than the typical "University writing professor faces a mid-life crisis" of literary fiction. And, for the most part, it did.
The book starts in 1920s Brazil, where Dores is the illegitimate daughter of a kitchen maid, raised as a servant girl with no status. The sugar cane plantation she is raised on is bought by another rich family, who have a daughter her own age--- Grace. Grace and Doris, despite their wide class differences, become friends from an early age. From the beginning, their friendship is challenged by their difference in status: Doris is both servant, and friend to the strong-willed Grace. As the girls grow up, at each phase in their life, this is the basic dynamic: Grace is in charge, but she needs Doris. The girls grow up, discovering music through an early radio, and forming plans to be a singer. But at the same time, Grace is approaching the age where she should be, in the strict social customs of the time and place, married off to another rich man. Grace, wanting to avoid this, fakes a suicide attempt and is sent off to boarding school in Rio de Janiero, with Doris as her servant. The girls escape, and at the age of 15, move into one of Rio's low-rent bohemian neighborhoods and work their way up to stardom.
The largest section of the book describes this: the two girls, from the area of Recife, are young and naive and in a very rough area of Rio de Janiero. They fall under the patronage of "Madame Lucifer", a vicious yet artistically inclined gang leader. The girls end up meeting a circle of local musicians (including Vinicius, the only other important male character, who will become a lover to them both) and make their way to local stardom. They become so popular that they are chosen to move to the United States to play character roles as musicians in a series of Hollywood B-Movies. At this point, the bohemian life that they enjoyed starts catching up with them, and drugs, fighting and fading popularity start taking their toll, especially as Grace is a movie star and singer at a time when women were past their prime at 25.
All of the above is not that new of a story, and in fact is the classic story of "small town girl goes looking for fame, finds it, and it destroys her". There are more plot twists than I described above, but that gives the basic shape of the plot. And its a familiar enough plot: as I coincidentally mentioned a few weeks ago, the basic trajectory of the rock star bio are an established genre, although this is a Samba star and not a rock star. The basic adventure story of two girls finding their way in the big city is a good traditional plot. But beyond that, books of this type are expected to give some critical appraisal of the world around them, and this book does accomplish that. You don't have to read between the lines too much to see all the ways this book criticizes Brazilian society of the time: women had no legal rights, but were controlled by their fathers and husbands, there was a sexual double standard where men were allowed to harass and assault women, but women had to be sexy while remaining virgins, there was a small oligarchy of wealthy individuals controlling everything, while the media created an endless parade of diversions: all of this is addressed with some level of explicitness in the book. I did find some unevenness in this treatment: the traditional power structures of family, church and state are roundly criticized, but gangster Madame Lucifer, who is just as sadistic and domineering, is treated as a type of picaresque hero of sorts. As far as social commentary goes, at truly dissecting why and how Brazil at the time could maintain its level of dysfunction, injustice and hypocrisy, the book didn't particularly offer me any new insights.
For me, perhaps the most interesting, and relevant part of the story is how it describes the act of maturation, especially when a break with society's roles. Or, perhaps, the lack thereof. Grace is impetuous and headstrong, and knows that she wants to break away from the role expected of her. When the girls reach Rio, they find a new community and new perspective on life, as they find themselves in a loose, open society and they find the power of music to help them express their emotions, and understand the complicated history of the world around them. Grace comes from a very wealthy background, and from the Northeast of Brazil, and while Doris is a kitchen maid, she too is out of her depth in Rio de Janiero. But after the initial euphoria of music in the cafe at nights, and revolution in the air, the girls become entertainers, are shipped off to the United States, and don't grow further. And this is a universal story: I have known many kids who went through a revolutionary change in understanding the world in their late teens, but many of them either burn out or just stall out in their early twenties, as their initial fervor disappears into hedonism. In other words, if you went to Burning Man, you would find a lot of people that fit Grace's mold. The basic character drama of the book, how Grace is dependent on Doris but won't view her as an equal, has sociopolitical roots: Doris was a maid, and Grace continued to view her as subservient, even when they become friends (and quasilovers). Grace's journey away from the patriarchal society she was raised in doesn't extend to her maturing in how she treats others: she remains a spoiled "Little Miss" even as she dives into society's bohemian side.
I can't tell how much of this was the author's intent. The book works, on one level, as a pretty typical adventure story about small town girls trying to make it in the big city, and it has its good points with that somewhat-melodramatic plot. On a slightly deeper level, it works as a history and critique of Brazilian society, and of its oligarchic, hierarchical nature. But for me, the biggest impression it made was as a story of stalled development, how someone can make a big break in their late adolescence, challenge the world in an unexpected way---but still be left unable to leave the psychological and social world they were raised in. And that, to me, was the most interesting part of the book, although I don't know if it was the intended message.
At times, I am worried that people might think I read only kitsch from the Dollar Tree for ironic purposes, such as "Creeper Invasion". I wanted to review this book to show that I read serious business literary fiction with feminist and post-colonial themes, as well. Although to be honest, I also bought this book from the Dollar Tree.