Verissimo, Luis Fernando 1936–

PERSONAL: Born September 26, 1936, in Porto Alegre, Brazil.

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Author Mail, New Directions Publishing Company, 80 8th Ave., New York, NY 10011.

CAREER: Writer. Writes a column for Veja. Also plays saxaphone in a jazz band.

WRITINGS:

Bits and Pieces, translated from the Portuguese by Ana Beatriz Davi Borges Duarte, Riocell (Porto Alegre, Brazil), c. 1970.

O popular; crônicas; ou coisa parecida, J. Olympio (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 1973.

As cobras, Editora Milha (Porto Alegre, Brazil), 1975.

A grande mulher nua: crônicas, Livraria J. Olympio Editora (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 1975.

Amor brasileiro: crônicas, Livraria J. Olympio (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 1977.

Brazilian Writer Luís Fernando Veríssimo Reading from His Work (sound recording), Archive of Hispanic Literature on Tape, Library of Congress, (Washington, DC), 1977.

As cobras & outros bichos, inclusive o homem, L&PM Editores (Porto Alegre, Brazil), 1977.

O rei do rock: crônicas RBS/Editora Globo (Porto Alegre, Brazil), 1978.

As cobras do Veríssimo, Editora Codecri (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 1979.

Ed Mort e outras histórias, L&PM Editores (Porto Alegre, Brazil), 1979.

Sexo na cabeça (articles), L&PM Editores (Porto Alegre, Brazil), 1980, reprinted, Objetiva (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 2002.

O analista de Bagé L&PM Editores (Porto Alegre, Brazil), 1981.

O gigôlô das palavras: crônicas, edited by Maria da Gloria Bordini, L&PM Editores (Porto Alegre, Brazil), 1982.

A mesa voadora: crônicas de viagem e comida, L&PM Editores (Porto Alegre, Brazil), 1982.

Outras do analista de Bagé, L&PM Editores (Porto Alegre, Brazil), 1982.

(With Edgar Vasques) O analista de Bagé: em quadrinhos, L&PM Editores (Porto Alegre, Brazil), 1983.

A velhinha de Taubaté, L&PM Editores (Porto Alegre, Brazil), 1983.

A mulher do Silva, L&PM Editores (Porto Alegre, Brazil), 1984.

Aventuras da família Brasil, L&PM Editores (Porto Alegre, Brazil), 1985.

(With Miguel Paiva) Ed mort em procurando o Silva, L&PM Editores (Porto Alegre, Brazil), 1985.

A mãe do Freud, L&PM Editores (Porto Alegre, Brazil), 1985.

O marido do Dr. Pompeu, L&PM Editores (Porto Alegre, Brazil), 1987.

Zoeira, edited by Lucia Helena Verissimo and Maria da Glória Bordini, L&PM Editores (Porto Alegre, Brazil), 1987.

O jardim do diabo, L&PM Editores (Porto Alegre, Brazil), 1988.

Glauco Rodrigues, Salamandra (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 1989.

(With Miguel Paiva) Ed mort em conexão nazista, L&PM Editores (Sao Paulo, Brazil), 1989.

Orgias, L&PM Editores (Porto Alegre, Brazil), 1989.

Peças íntimas, L&PM Editores (Porto Alegre, Brazil), 1990.

(With Joaquim da Fonseca) Traçando New York, Artes e Ofícios (Porto Alegre, Brazil), 1991.

(With Jô Soares and Millôr Fernandes) Humor nos tempos do Collor, L&PM Editores (Porto Alegre, Brazil), 1992.

O suicida e o computador, L&PM Editores (Porto Alegre, Brazil), 1992.

Traçando Paris, Artes e Ofícios (Porto Alegre, Brazil), 1992.

Aventuras da família Brasil. Parte II, L&PM Editores (Porto Alegre, Brazil), 1993.

Traçando Roma, Artes e Ofícios (Porto Alegre, Brazil), 1993.

América (articles and essays), illustrated by Eduardo Reis de Oliveira, Artes e Ofícios (Porto Alegre, Brazil), 1994.

Comédias da vida privada: 101 crônicas escolhidas, L&PM Editores (Porto Alegre, Brazil), 1994.

(With Joaquim da Fonseca) Traçando Porto Alegre, Artes e Ofícios (Porto Alegre, Brazil), 1994.

Comédias da vida pública: 266 crônicas datadas (articles), L&PM Editores (Porto Alegre, Brazil), 1995.

Novas comédias da vida privada: 123 crônicas escolhidas, L&PM Editores (Porto Alegre, Brazil), 1996.

A versão dos afogados: novas comédias da vida pública (articles), L&PM Editores (Porto Alegre, Brazil), 1997.

Aquele estranho dia que nunca chega (articles), Objetiva (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 1999.

A eterna privação do zagueiro absoluto (articles), Objetiva (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 1999.

Histórias brasileiras de verão (articles), Objetiva (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 1999.

(With Luiz Pilla Vares and J. Luiz Marques) Marcos Faerman, profissão repórter, organized by João Batista Marçal, Corag (Porto Alegre, Brazil), 1999.

(With others) O desafio ético, organized by Ari Roitman, Garamond (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 2000.

Borges e os orangotangos eternos, (fiction), Companhia das Letras (São Paulo, Brazil), 2000, published as Borges and the Eternal Orangutans, translated by Margaret Jull Costa, New Directions (New York, NY), 2005.

O clube dos anjos, (novel), Objetiva (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 2002, translated by Margaret Jull Costa as The Club of Angels, New Directions (New York, NY), 2002.

Banquete com os deuses (articles), Objetiva (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 2003.

Contributor to Oito ou nove ensaios sobre o Grupo Corpo (essays), Cosac & Naify (São Paulo, Brazil), 2001. Also contributor to numerous periodicals, including Americas.

SIDELIGHTS: A popular writer in his native Brazil who is known for his satirical columns, Luis Fernando Verissimo is also an accomplished novelist. His first novel to be translated into English, The Club of Angels, is about a group of wealthy Brazilians who call themselves the Beef Stew Club and who meet once a month for a gastronomical feast prepared by one of their members. When the club's leader, Ramos, dies from AIDS, his place is taken by the mysterious Lucidio. The feasts that Lucidio prepares rank among the best. However, it does not take long for members to become aware that after each one of Lucidio's meals, one of their members dies. The remaining club members do not banish Lucidio and refuse to eat his meals. Rather, they keep on gathering as always, their taste buds strangely tantalized by the knowledge that the delicious meal will mean death for one of them when the final extra serving is handed out.

Writing in the Review of Contemporary Fiction, Chad W. Post noted that the author really "doesn't answer the question of why these members allow themselves to be poisoned, a question that lends a certain allegorical weight to the novel." A Publishers Weekly contributor wrote that, "on the way to his maniacal conclusion, Verissimo serves up a critique of male bonding … along with a withering probe into the motivations of his eccentric characters." The reviewer also noted the book's "witty and deft illustrations by Verissimo himself."

In Borges and the Eternal Orangutans Verissimo pens another mystery that includes famed writer Jorge Luis Borges as a character. The novel's narrator, Vogelstein, attends a Buenos Aires meeting of devotees to the works of Edgar Allan Poe. When a German Poe expert at the conference is killed inside a locked room, Vogelstein teams up with Borges, who is also attending the conference, to try and solve the mystery. At the heart of the murder are a series of growing disputes among some of the Poe scholars, including a belief by one that Poe had encrypted the Necronomicon, a famous mystical book of the dead, into his stories and writings. When one of the Poe scholars announces his intention to make a presentation on this topic, another vows to stop him. Verissimo's book contains many overt and subtle references to Poe's works. He borrows the basis for the story's plot from Poe's Murders in the Rue Morgue, in which a woman is found murdered in a locked room. The title of Verissimo's book also refers to Poe's tale, which involved an orangutan, and the name of the local detective assigned to the case, Cuervo, means "raven" in Spanish. The book is also replete with many other literary references as well as references to magic and the occult.

In a review in the Los Angeles Times, Thomas McGonigle called Borges and the Eternal Orangutans "a perfect novel," and added that "the reader will mourn because the novel is so short." James Francken, writing in London's Sunday Telegraph, noted that "detective fiction excited Borges's imagination." "Verisimmo's elegantly constructed caper works in Borges's enthusiasm," Francken added, "and ratchets up the tension before its final, fateful disclosure." Washington Post Book World contributor Melvin Jules Bukiet called the novel "an authentic whodunit as well as a loving homage to its eponymous detective and a serious meditation on the truths that Borges himself lived to reveal, intuit and invent." In a review that appeared in the Philadelphia Enquirer, Carlin Romano wrote: "Try combining three especially artful forms … the detective tale, Borgesian philosophical story, and 'Small World' takeoff of academic life … and only masters need apply. Treat yourself, then, to Luis Fernando Verissimo." Romano went on to note that the author "makes lovely music from all the literary strings it strums, keeping a smile on your face throughout." A Kirkus Reviews contributor called the novel "an exquisite feat of literary legerdemain," while another reviewer, writing in Publishers Weekly, commented: "Borges claims that one 'write[s] to remember,' but Verissimio … demonstrates that one also writes to pay homage, to provide pleasure and to have fun."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Kirkus Reviews, March 15, 2005, review of Borges and the Eternal Orangutans, p. 316.

Los Angeles Times, July 3, 2005, Thomas McGonigle, review of Borges and the Eternal Orangutans.

Philadelphia Enquirer, June 8, 2005, Carlin Romano, review of Borges and the Eternal Orangutans.

Publishers Weekly, April 8, 2002, review of The Club of Angels, p. 202; April 11, 2005, review of Borges and the Eternal Orangutans, p. 32.

Review of Contemporary Fiction, fall, 2000, Chad W. Post, review of The Club of Angels, p. 159.

Sunday Telegraph (London, England), June 27, 2004, James Francken, review of Borges and the Eternal Orangutans.

Washington Post Book World, June 5, 2005, Melvin Jules Bukiet, review of Borges and the Eternal Orangutans, p. 7.