Brazzil
Literature
September 2002
The Scent of God
A goodbye to author Roberto Drummond
"I write to change the world… I really wanted to punch
literature in the face, and I think I did it. Nowadays
I want to
kiss literature's mouth, but it's a vampire's kiss."
Adelaide Bouchardet Davis
Second part of a two-part article.
An interview with Roberto Drummond
I had a trip to Brazil set for the end of September, 2001. I commented with Roberto that I would like to interview him and write an article about his work to make it better known in the United States. He was very happy about this, and agreed to set a time. The event of 9/11 didn't scare me, and I went to Brazil, not having visited my country for seven years. I put in my purse my little tape recorder and some new tapes.
When I arrived in Belo Horizonte, Roberto's novel O Cheiro de Deus had just been released—what a pity I couldn't be there. He was traveling (as he told me by phone), and I called the day he told me he would be back. We set our meeting for October 3, Wednesday, at UNI-BH (a private college in Belo Horizonte) where he was doing a presentation about O Cheiro de Deus, to be followed by a dialogue with students, scholars, and readers in general. His book was included in a list of books to be read for the entrance exam of the Centro Universitário de Belo Horizonte (UNI-BH) for 2002.
With my friend Maria Geralda, I went to UNI where the college had organized this stimulating cultural event. And there, finally, I met my "accidental" friend Roberto Drummond. We talked rapidly as he signed autographs for the readers who surrounded him with questions and compliments. So there he was, with all that unpretentiousness, patience, and kindness for everybody—exactly the person with whom I talked many times by phone. After the successful presentation Roberto stayed there to talk with the students and other fans. We set the time for the interview for the coming Friday.
On October 5, 2001, we met at Ana Cecília's office. Roberto was punctual, and he brought me some of his books as a present. (Ana gave me others and then my collection was complete.) I forgot and left my tape recorder at home, but we did the interview anyway. Roberto spoke slowly to give me time to make notes so I could take down all the details.
The first question was a general one, as an invitation to be free to talk about what was going on with his life at that point.
Brazzil—Roberto, how is your life with the release of O Cheiro de Deus? Is this one becoming a miniseries also? (Roberto started telling me, with great pleasure, what was going on. His eyes were shining; the emotion came out through his pores.)
Roberto Drummond—The book O Cheiro de Deus was included in the list of books for the entrance exam of UNI-BH (about 11,000 candidates) and Instituto Cultural Newton de Paiva Ferreira (around 12,000 candidates). There are rumors about it's becoming a miniseries and in this case the Rede Globo has the preference to do the miniseries, but nothing is confirmed yet. In 1988—in Ontem à noite era sexta-feira—the idea for O Cheiro de Deus had been initiated. The title was born like this. I worked with the book for at least 11 years. Hilda Furacão was written in 64 days and was "stolen" from O Cheiro de Deus. She was a support character in O Cheiro de Deus.
When she "left" O Cheiro de Deus, the book had a "hole" and had to be re-worked. From the moment that Hilda Furacão was released, I became a hostage of that book and of the real story. Everybody wants everything in Hilda Furacão to be true. When people ask questions they insist—even though it is a novel—that everything I answer should be true. There are taxi drivers that tell me the story as if they are the author of the story and not me.
A Morte de D.J. em Paris and Hilda Furacão were also included in the list of books for the entrance exam of PUC-Minas (Catholic University in Belo Horizonte). Already with the book I had become a hostage of Hilda Furacão, and this became even stronger with the miniseries. I heard questions such as: `Did Hilda Furacão exist? Did you make love with Hilda Furacão? Why did Hilda Furacão abandon everything? Did you become one of Hilda Furacão lovers?'
Because the TV has phenomenal strength, I was suddenly in everyone's home, and everybody thought they "knew about my life" through the lives of the characters of the miniseries, who were part of the story. To write O Cheiro de Deus I had to be free of Hilda Furacão's power. Everything was mixed together, the character in the TV, in the book, and in real life.
Hilda Furacão opened the doors for O Cheiro de Deus but I was concerned with the possibility that there could arise a comparison between Hilda Furacão and O Cheiro de Deus and people would start saying that Hilda Furacão was better than O Cheiro de Deus. I even dreamt that Hilda Furacão was coming to make me pay up for the existence of the character Hilda Furacão.
O Cheiro de Deus is totally different from Hilda Furacão. It's a classical novel with post-modern freedom. Nothing has only one interpretation. O Cheiro de Deus means the death of sin in the Brazilian heart and land. There is a family in O Cheiro de Deus—the Drummond family. Thomas Mann once said: "If you have a family, write about it; don't invent another one." So this is what I did. The Drummond family was always the incest daughter blessed by the Church and the State, a family where relatives get married to each other.
O Cheiro de Deus is the saga of the Drummond family. `Vó Inácia Micaela' is the central character, and it is she who wants to smell `the scent of God'. In the book the narration happens like a whirlpool, sucking in all the people who become part of the story. It's a fast book, full of mystery. The background is Belo Horizonte, a kind of city-sanatorium; and the book is full of political fights.
The book eventually tells what `the scent of God' is, but only at the end. Another important point is the treatment of time in the story. Time in the book is relative (happiness passes fast—suffering lasts; as is explained in relativity theory). It's a simple book, a tale, a story, but at the same time it's a complex book.
Brazzil—After living for thirteen years with those characters, what is the sensation of letting them go? Of sharing them?
RD—Finishing a book is difficult. One lives so much time with the characters. It doesn't matter what problems collect around you, because you live the book. I feel an enormous loss when it's finished. The success makes me feel happy, of course, but the loss is humongous. I fell in love with the characters. When I finished O Cheiro de Deus, I felt a huge loneliness. Instead of enjoying the good things, I felt the loss. I can't read the book now, so I just talk about it. With Hilda Furacão I could only talk to people that talked about her, but with O Cheiro de Deus I just talk and think about it. I'm not very accommodating because besides talking and thinking about the book I only talk to people who are interested in the book.
Brazzil—Who is Roberto Drummond? How did the success affect your life?
RD—The big mystery of my life is myself. I tried to figure this out on the analyst's couch, but luckily I couldn't. Great! I'm strong in difficult times, I have the secret of passion, and literature is the love of my life. I live with the success. After winning the Prêmio Jabuti (a prestigious literary prize given to the best writer of Brazil each year) with A Morte de D.J. em Paris, I had a taste of success. But everything really changed with Hilda Furacão, which has now sold 170,000 books and became a Globo miniseries, sweeping the country like a hurricane and enchanting Brazil.
It had been difficult to live with that success, and now this success is increasing with O Cheiro de Deus. To be famous in Brazil is as Tom (Jobim) used to say "like cursing someone else's mother, to betray your country". The readers shower you with flowers, but the `envy and rancor army' pelts you with stones. The danger is to doubt the flowers and believe the stones. I never talked about this before, but this is the way I feel. And this gives you a huge amount of stress, an enormous tiredness. I'm discovering each day that the worst kind of loneliness in Brazil is success. It's made of parties, hugs, kisses, one's name in the magazines and on TV, but there is a side of it that's like war.
Brazzil—Talk about numbers, related to the sales of your books Hilda Furacão and O Cheiro de Deus.
RD—Up to the 17th edition Hilda Furacão still hadn't sold 4,000 books; with the success of the miniseries, the sales jumped to 1,000 books per day. O Cheiro de Deus had initial sales stronger than Hilda Furacão; in two months it had sold 12,000 books.
Brazzil—Why do you write? To whom do you write?
RD—I write to change the world, to be the spokesperson of those who don't have a voice, but I also write to contest traditional literature. I really wanted to punch literature in the face, and I think I did it. Nowadays I want to kiss literature's mouth, but it's a vampire's kiss. I write also to make people happy and to keep them amused. The word of mouth for O Cheiro de Deus was stronger than for Hilda Furacão. People say that they can't stop reading it and this is really good. I don't think specifically about my audience, but when I wrote Sangue de Coca-Cola I did; this gets away from what literature is about. I write as a suitor that sings beneath the window of his lover, hoping she'll come to the window. I'm the son of Russian and French literature.
Brazzil—Do you have a preference or a special feeling about some of your books? Which ones?
RD—I have for A Morte de D.J. em Paris, Sangue de Coca-Cola, Hilda Furacão, and O Cheiro de Deus. But this doesn't mean that they are the best; even though maybe they are. Now that O Cheiro de Deus arrived, I'm like a father relating to his youngest son—all the attention is on him.
Brazzil—How did the commercial success influence your work?
RD—Writing for me is like breathing—I can't live without it. Hilda Furacão was chosen in 1991 by a panel of literature experts as one of the 100 best books of the twentieth century written in Portuguese. In Switzerland, in France, in Portugal, and in Italy, the success was huge. In Brazil the big strength was the devotion of the teachers and the word of mouth spread by the women. And after this, the miniseries (that I loved!) opened the doors of success for me. Then it was difficult writing O Cheiro de Deus. Hilda Furacão, which I wrote in such a short time, took its place and achieved so much. Then came Inês é Morta, which I had stopped and then recommenced.
Hilda Furacão "swallowed" all my books, before and after. The success of Hilda Furacão helped O Cheiro de Deus and helped me. I moved from one publisher to another—I left Siciliano and went to Objetiva. I made an exhaustive literary effort to build O Cheiro de Deus. It cost me much sweat and tears. My luck (most writers compete with each other, but I compete with myself) is that my fear made me work a lot. O Cheiro de Deus is strong and a book that thrills the reader. I need to stop and put my head in order.
I'm the author of 10 books—the father of 10 children—and all of them have their own place. It's not the media that sells the other books but the dedication of the reader. I can't stop. Big contracts are a knife with a double blade. Since O Cheiro de Deus was released I'm in the middle of a cyclone. I work a lot, I travel a lot but I need to relax, go to the movies. But I make a "tour de force". All writers make this effort. Now I'm in a war to overpower Hilda Furacão. I need to stop to breathe and review everything I did. Stop.
As John Lennon used to say "I need a roof to shelter myself". I'm having problems with the love relation of a big group and the hate of a small group. This last one is always exacting a higher standard even though I'm giving my best; I write one thing and it's interpreted in another way. But this is nothing compared to this marvelous thing that is happening. Today a blind guy went to the presentation (UNI-BH, 2nd presentation—October 5, 2001) and I learned that O Cheiro de Deus will be published in Braille.
Brazzil—How did you feel when you saw the final results of the Hilda Furacão miniseries?
RD—I participated significantly in the adaptation phase, the filming. There was a great expectation about the exorcism in the red light district scene, a decisive point in the book and in the miniseries. I saw the episode without music, without special effects. The music was the last thing to be inserted. The soundtrack was special. The miniseries changed the life of Roberto Drummond, and the lives of Ana Paulo Arósio, Tiago Lacerda, Rodrigo Santoro, and Danton Mello.
The music was exceptional. The marvel of seeing all of that and Hilda Furacão, obliterated all the resentment. The miniseries changed everything. The pain lasts much, the happiness is short-lived. I need to be quiet and remember the good things. The review was sensational. The book makes us laugh and at the same time kills traditional literature. I need my roof to shelter myself from what has passed over it.
Roberto ended the interview saying: "About Hilda Furacão the review says that the book is better than the miniseries. But I don't think so. I think both are good and complete each other. I don't separate the things. People who loved Hilda Furacão are now reading O Cheiro de Deus and they say that O Cheiro de Deus is better than Hilda Furacão—this hurts. I think both are good independently."
After the interview, my friend Ana Cecília and I went to take Roberto home. We stopped first at Ana's house. I wanted to give Roberto some presents I brought from Denver for him—a Judy Garland CD, where she sings "Somewhere over the rainbow", and a soccer hat (Colorado Rapids). He was really happy with those items.
I didn't meet Roberto any more because of his obligations and my plans to visit friends. When I was at the airport, coming back to the U.S., Roberto called me through Ana Cecília's cellular phone. He told me he was sad because we didn't meet again before my return. I told him that my books didn't have his autograph; he told me that when he comes with Bela B. to visit me, he would sign all of them. He promised he would come as soon as he had a chance (even though he hated flying!) The good-bye was melancholic, without hugs, but the friendship was sealed and the promises would be carried out one day, I was sure about that.
We made many other contacts by phone. Roberto was interested in publishing his books in the U.S. He asked me for names and addresses of some translators from American universities; he told me he had a promise from someone in Brazil that would sponsor the translation. One of the translators was Gregory Rabassa. I don't know if he ever contacted any translator and what kind of arrangements was made. I hope one day his books will be published in English. The American reader deserves to read the beautiful work of Roberto Drummond.
The world of Hilda Furacão
In the early 90's, Roberto Drummond met a fortuneteller that presaged how he would be successful: when he would publish a book whose title would be a woman's name, and when a Mineiro were elected Brazil's president. Roberto thought that there was a fat chance for this to happen because Fernando Collor de Mello, the President at the time, was from Alagoas (northeast of Brazil), and because the book he was writing was O Cheiro de Deus.
But, suddenly, Itamar Franco (from Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais) became the President (with Collor de Mello's impeachment), and Roberto stopped writing O Cheiro de Deus and started to write a memory book that he called Hilda Furacão. Madame Janete, the fortuneteller, was right and national success knocked at Roberto Drummond's door. The book, released by Editora Siciliano, was written in 64 days and became a national hit.
The book mixes real facts and people with others created by the extremely fertile imagination of the author. He is part of the story and also the narrator. The narrative involves the reader so that he or she feels transported to the Belo Horizonte of the early 60's, "the Mineira capital with the smell of flowers and the tear gas from the bombs thrown by the police" during the students' protest parades.
The reader can't stop reading because it is too enjoyable to interrupt the pleasure of diving into that magical world that Roberto has created. For example, the main character, Hilda Gualtieri Von Echveger was the "girl with the golden bathing suit" who used to bewitch the men around the swimming pool of the traditional Minas Tênis Clube, in Belo Horizonte.
Beautiful, adored, selected as Miss Summer '59, Hilda abandoned her fiancé, the guests who were waiting for the bride at the church, the family, a guaranteed future, and moved, still dressed with the bride's gown, to Guaicurus Street, the center of the red light district. She went to live in Room 304 of the Maravilhoso Hotel with prostitutes, drifters, transvestites and pimps.
From there Hilda Furacão was born, the sexual myth that became the men's dream and the women's nightmare. Using the perfume Muguet du Bonheur and elegant clothes that she used to dress for the balls in Minas Tênis Clube, she conquered many clients and admirers who daily formed a queue at her door. Hilda's life crossed with the life of three young men who came to Belo Horizonte seeking their childhood dreams and leaving behind the city of Santana dos Ferros.
The three inseparable friends who were born on the same day, month, and year became enchanted with the city and the novelty of a life far from the family they left behind. They're sure that the change will help them realize their longstanding dreams. Roberto (Drummond) wants to lead the communist revolution, have his own "Sierra Maestra"; Malthus, known since he was a child as "the Saint," wants to become a Dominican friar; Aramel, the Beautiful, intends to be an actor in Hollywood and become a "Don Juan" for rent.
The story tells the reader about five years in the life of the characters and the country between 1959 and 1964. Santana dos Ferros represents innocence, tradition, and the struggle not to allow the changing times to invade the city and modify the mind of its citizens. Belo Horizonte represents the modernity of the times, the city of sins where young people are becoming corrupted and where the mothers are becoming part of the "Tradicional Família Mineira" (TFM) to fight against the downfall, as the fathers secretly visit the world of Hilda Furacão.
When the miniseries (with the same name) made by TV Globo was released on May 27, 1998, Roberto Drummond said in an interview: "The book changed my life as a writer. The miniseries will complete the change because it changes my life as a world writer." Wearing his heart on his sleeve, Roberto was completely involved with the Rede Globo production and confessed all his jealousy in relation to everything and everybody that surrounded the main character and her story.
The Mineiro who declared himself hypochondriac, passionate, and emotional said that everything related to Hilda Furacão made him cry because it all reminded him of the acme of his youth, when he was in love with Bela B. with whom he got married. Watching his life being "presented" on the TV, he used to feel a lump in his throat, and the scenes made in Praça da Liberdade put him in tears.
When the miniseries was released, TV Globo also released a special booklet about it. This booklet, which according to Roberto (in his letter to me when he sent me a copy of the booklet) became a rarity, presents pictures (Jorge Baumann/Nelson de Rago) and texts (Mara Bernardes) about the exceptional work done by the network, along with comments by the author and Glória Perez, the adaptor. Asked about what made him go back to the 60's to write Hilda Furacão, abandoning temporarily O Cheiro de Deus, he was already writing, Roberto said, "probably destiny".
"The first time I heard about Hilda Furacão was in a bar close to the high school where I used to study. As time went by, I published many books and was writing articles about soccer for Estado de Minas. Every time we had soccer games at Mineirão (the soccer stadium), after the game we formed a huge group and went to the bar to `kill time' and then I used to tell a bunch of stories.
"The friends loved those stories and this used to make me irritated because they were more successful than my books that were already released, even though I had already received two of the greatest Brazilian literary awards. I used to be really upset with this thing that was being spread about my story telling. I arrived in a party, the party started to bog down, I started to tell stories, and the party perked up. But I never felt that I had a book in my hands, a true book with the truth a little fictionalized."
According to Mara Bernardes (Estado de Minas, April 18, 2001), "the book came to life when Roberto Drummond needed to write a story of 50 pages, to comply with a contract. The story written with total freedom grew, and became Hilda Furacão. And because it had exceeded 50 pages (the book has 298 pages), the author thought it would become a fiasco."
"What is truth and what is fantasy in Hilda Furacão?" is the question that everybody asks when reading the book. To this question Roberto provides answers full of mystery, leaving still more doubts in the reader's mind. And he tells why his answers about this are always vague: "I had a tragic experience about this. Once in a debate in Foz do Iguaçu, my young readers, boys and girls around 14 to 17 years old, thought that everything that was in the book was true because the narrator has my name and I really met Hilda Furacão. One of them asked me if a specific character existed or not and I said "no". They started crying! Then I needed to say I was kidding. Sure he existed, he was my friend, it's in the book! Since then everything that people ask me about, I say it exists." This is the kind Roberto who didn't want to disappoint his readers. This is the writer who knew as no other how to create for the pleasure of his readers stories that sound true.
The magic of O Cheiro de Deus
The "story teller" didn't stop there. If "writing is like breathing" for Roberto Drummond, his pen couldn't stop. And many, many pens were necessary to write the 23 versions, written by hand, during 11 years, of his last novel O Cheiro de Deus. The same publisher, Editora Objetiva, that publishes Paulo Coelho and Luis Fernando Veríssimo, signed a lucrative contract with the Mineiro author to publish the book that was released in Brazil in September, 2001 (O Cheiro de Deus, in Portuguese, can be bought in Luso-Brazilian Books, in NY - www.lusobraz.com).
As the good Mineiro he was, Roberto never revealed the amount of this contract. He used to say, "Let's say that with this it's possible to live comfortably without being dependent on work; enough for buying a BMW, after I learn how to drive; and when I feel the urge, to take an airplane and spend a late afternoon at the pergola of the Copacabana Palace Hotel, in Rio de Janeiro."
Besides Objetiva, four other big Brazilian publishers also competed for the contract: Siciliano, Globo, Geração, and Nova Fronteira. According to the editing director, Isa Pessoa, "It's one of the biggest contracts that Objetiva ever signed" and it includes, besides O Cheiro de Deus, another unpublished work and the re-release of all of Roberto Drummond's books, which will have the stamp Biblioteca Drummond "as a graphic standard for recognizing the author's books".
O Cheiro de Deus tells the story of the Drummond family re-invented. In it Roberto reveals the secrets, the lies, the incest, and the passions of his characters. And everything happens in Minas Gerais—in the Contestado region (in a fictional city called Cruz dos Homens) and in Belo Horizonte from the 1950's and 60's. In the novel, the "war" between the two political parties—PSD of Inácia Micaela and UDN of Coronel Bimbim—represents the struggle between opposites.
A powerful woman—vó (grannie) Inácia Micaéla—commands the clan where madness and incest are part of the story. It's the saga of a family matriarch who wants to discover the scent of God before death comes and time ends. The supernatural strolls throughout the book as something ordinary and totally acceptable—ghosts, a wolf man, Lilliputian Indians, a man with the devil's face, a white woman who becomes black when she feels the cold front coming from Argentina, a Colonel with three hearts. Roberto's narrative has the effect of a trip to familiar surroundings, but also to places never dreamt of before. The frenzy of sensation is incredible, and just the privileged mind of an exceptional storyteller could write such a work.
In an article for O Estado de São Paulo, André Nigri talks about Roberto Drummond's anguish when he was finishing his O Cheiro de Deus. Roberto said to the journalist: "When I looked at what was left over from that story, I perceived that I had the obligation to re-write it, and now that it's almost at the end I feel anguished." Roberto became sad when he finished the book he started to write in 1989. The first version was ready in 24 days, but it took around 11 years to come to the final version.
The release of the book, which took place in Viçosa (a small city 240 km from Belo Horizonte), was at the door of Santa Rita's Church, Roberto's saint of devotion to whom he made that promise if he managed to finish the book. The "communist" from the 60's finally came to terms with his religious side.
In the interview with Mariana Peixoto (Estado de Minas, April 18, 2002), the reporter states that "Roberto Drummond doesn't deny he would like to see an adaptation of O Cheiro de Deus in the movies or TV, as happened to Hilda Furacão." He told the reporter, "I received proposals from four filmmakers to do the movie and nobody even knows the book." He also disclosed the filmmakers' names, citing Ruy Guerra, Neville D'Almeida, the Farias family, and Paulo Thiago.
He continued saying: "Mário Lúcio Vaz, from Rede Globo asked me during a lunch: `Do you think it can become a miniseries?' I said: `Yes'. Then Mário Lúcio said that Rede Globo has the preference." According to Mariana Peixoto, Drummond stated: "I wrote the book to be read, not to be a miniseries. What comes after this will simply be a consequence."
Marcelo Marthe, in his review of O Cheiro de Deus for weekly magazine Veja (July 25, 2001) said, "Drummond is an involving narrator, he jumps from one situation to another without loosing the clue to the puzzle." This is the legacy of the unforgettable Roberto Drummond.
Thanks to: Estado de Minas, O Globo, Folha de S. Paulo, O Estado de S. Paulo, Superesportes, Veja magazine, Quem magazine, Central Globo de Produções (booklet)
Thanks to: Jim Davis, who edited the English text.
Adelaide Bouchardet Davis, born in Visconde do Rio Branco, Minas Gerais state, is a writer and professor of Portuguese at Denver University, state of Colorado. You can reach her via e-mail: addavis@du.edu
