Master
Illusionist

"The written word always attracted me. I still didn't know how to read, but loved to keep watching the letters on pieces of paper, on all kinds of labels, on wall calendars and then I would try to copy the letters with coal on the sidewalks and walls, or on the floor with a little stick. As soon as I learned how to read I suffered a kind of disappointment. To me the stories I read seemed inferior to those that I imagined when I only could look at the letters. But that was because I lived in a very small town where all there was to read was the schoolbook. Only at age 12 when they took me to a bigger city I had access to other books and the enchantment came back and continues till this date."

Considered the most important Brazilian master of the fantastic realism current, José J. Veiga, who died September 19 from pancreatic cancer, at age 84 in Rio, didn't like to give interviews. The quotation above comes from one of the rare occasions in which he agreed to talk publicly about himself and his work. Probably he wouldn't care to know that his death was almost completely ignored by the Brazilian press.

The Goiás media were among the few to mention his passing. After all José Jacinto Veiga was a son from that state even though he had spent his life in Rio. Veiga was born on February 2, 1915 on a ranch between Corumbá and Pirenópolis. He moved to Rio when he was 20, after having finished high school at the Liceu de Goiás in Goiás Velho, the former capital of the state.

In Rio he was a shop attendant, prescription drugs peddler, radio announcer, and public servant. He graduated from Rio's law school Faculdade Nacional de Direito in 1943, but opted for being a journalist. In 1945 he moved to London to work for the BBC radio programs in Portuguese as a translator and commentator. After coming back to Brazil in 1949 the writer worked as journalist for the dailies O Globo and Tribuna da Imprensa, and for the Reader's Digest Brazilian edition.

His debut as a fictionist happened in 1958 with the publication of a series of short story in the Sunday literary supplement of Jornal do Brasil. Veiga was already 44 when he published in 1959 his first book, Os Cavalinhos de Platiplanto (Platiplanto's Little Horses), a collection of short stories, which won two national literary prizes: the Prêmio Fábio Prado de Literatura from the Brazilian Chamber of Book and the Prêmio Monteiro Lobato. Extremely shy, the writer spent two weeks locked in his house soon after the publication of the book.

Regionalist, gothic and leading representative of the Brazilian fantastic realism were some of the labels attached to Veiga's literary production. His work was translated to several languages, including English, Russian, Czech, Swedish, Spanish and French. In 1997 the ABL (Academia Brasileira de Letras—Brazilian Academy of Letter) gave him a life-achievement award, but he didn't care for the Academia and was opposed to literary theory, which according to him was a hindrance to literary creativity.

He was a good friend of late Guimarães Rosa, considered Brazil's greatest contemporary fictionist. Curiously they were both cat lovers and became friends after their wives struck up a friendship, having met in a veterinarian's office waiting room.

Bibliography:

A Hora dos Ruminantes (The Hour of the Ruminants), 1966

A Máquina Extraviada (The Misplaced Machine), 1968

Sombra de Reis Barbudos (Shadow of Bearded Kings), 1972

Os Pecados da Tribo (The Tribe's Sins), 1976.

De Jogos e Festas (Of Games and Parties), 1981

Aquele Mundo de Vasabarros (That World of Vasabarros), 1982

Torvelinho Dia e Noite (Whirl Day and Night), 1985

A Casca da Serpente (Serpent Skin), 1989

O Risonho Cavalo do Príncipe (The Prince's Laughing Horse), 1992

O Relógio Belisário (The Belisário Clock), 1995

Objetos Turbulentos (Turbulent Objects), 1998

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