The Writer
By Regina Zilberman*
“Childhood is fundamental. It is always a good place for a writer to start telling his story.”
Moacyr Jaime Scliar was born on March 23, 1937, in Porto Alegre (RS). His parents, José and Sara, were Europeans who emigrated to America in search of a better life. As Jews, they had been victims of persecution in their homeland, and Brazil presented itself as a welcoming nation, friendly and promising to those who sought it.
He spent most of his childhood in Bom Fim, a neighborhood in Porto Alegre. It was home to most of the Jews who chose to live in the state capital. He was taught to read and write by his mother, who was a primary school teacher.
From 1943 he attended the School of Education and Culture, known as the Yiddish School. In 1948, he transferred to Rosário College, where he finished high school.
His first experiences with literature date from this time. It was also during this period that he received a literary prize, the first of many that would follow throughout his life. Professionally, however, he chose medicine, entering the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) in 1955. Medicine was also the subject of his first novel, Histórias de um médico em formação (“Stories of a Doctor in Training”), published in 1962, the year he graduated from the university. From then on, the two careers – writer and doctor – were pursued together, complementing each other.
The doctor dedicated himself mainly to public health, although he also worked as a professor at the Catholic Faculty of Medicine (now the Federal University of Health Sciences of Porto Alegre). His teaching career began in 1964, and in 1969 he began working as a civil servant in the State Health Department, where he participated in campaigns to eradicate smallpox, yellow fever, and poliomyelitis, among other diseases that affected the well-being of the community, especially the low-income people.
The following works were also short stories: Tempo de espera (“Waiting Time”, 1964), published in collaboration with Carlos Stein, and O carnaval dos animais (“The Carnival of the Animals”, 1968), a work he considered superior to its predecessors. In fact, this was a mature short story writer, aware of the characteristics of the genre in which he was working and of his own potential. Among these are the option of fantastic literature and the writing of short narratives, anticipating the minimalism advocated by the postmodernist current. There is also the introduction of characters of Jewish origin, be it the thinker Karl Marx, fictionally retired in Porto Alegre, or little Joel, who will soon play the main role in A guerra no Bom Fim (“The War at Bom Fim”), when Moacyr Scliar makes his debut as a novelist.
In the 1970s, he went to Israel to pursue post-graduate studies in medicine and also obtained a Doctor of Science degree from the National School of Public Health.
“I grew up in a neighborhood with an intense community life, very Jewish, at a time when a generation of immigrant children was being born.”
A guerra no Bom Fim appeared in 1972, importing some of the characteristics suggested in O Carnaval dos Animais. The orientation towards the fantastic genre is fully adopted, as is the revelation of the Porto Alegre setting promised by the title of the novel. Another promise of the previous work is fulfilled: this one is populated by characters of Jewish origin. However, they are transformed from minor characters into protagonists who centralize the fictional scene. The main character, as we’ve seen, is Joel, but alongside him are his family, friends, and neighbors, united by their Hebrew ethnicity, their origins – they migrated from Central Europe to southern Brazil – and their life in Bom Fim.
The knowledge derived from activities related to medicine and public health appears in novels and essays. Doutor Miragem (“Doctor Mirage”), published in 1978, tells the story of the character identified in the novel’s title, who through his chosen profession seeks to achieve a high position in society, at the cost of renouncing ethical principles. If, with Felipe, the protagonist of Doutor Miragem, Scliar denounces the pragmatism of his peers, with Osvaldo Cruz, the central figure of Sonhos Tropicais (“Tropical Dreams”), from 1992, the writer exposes the idealistic side of the profession, narrating the life of the doctor who dedicated himself to fighting collective diseases, such as yellow fever and smallpox, at the beginning of the 20th century in Brazil.
In essays such as Do mágico ao Social (“From Magical to Social”) and Cenas médicas (“Medical Scenes”), both from 1987, he gives voice to a thinker who reflects on the evolution of medicine and its practices; after that, in A paixão transformada (“The Transformed Passion”), he shows how literature has translated the theme into works of fiction, once again uniting the two sides of his professional life.
However, it is his condition as a Jew and the son of European immigrants that provides the writer with the wealth of experience that fertilizes his work, from the first to the last novels.
Moacyr Scliar belonged to the generation of Brazilian Jews whose parents left Europe in the early decades of the 20th century, seeking in America the opportunity not only to prosper socially and financially, but above all to find a welcoming country where they would not be victims of prejudice and racism.
The writer thus belonged to a group of people who simultaneously shared two different, but not necessarily antagonistic, cultural situations: on the one hand, that of an heir to the Jewish and European tradition, characterized by an appreciation of knowledge and writing, summed up in the reading of the Pentateuch, the foundation of the Hebrew trajectory in the Ancient World; on the other hand, that of a Brazilian participating in a society marked by economic inequalities, but constantly changing in its effort to progress, sometimes generous, sometimes repressive, but inevitably restless and constantly changing.
Two another novels, Os deuses de Raquel (“Rachel’s Gods”) and O ciclo das águas (“The Cycle of the Waters”), from 1975 and 1977 respectively, continue the theme of depicting Jewish life in Porto Alegre. Os deuses de Raquel moves the character to another neighborhood in the geography of Porto Alegre: the Parthenon, whose classical name only emphasizes the idiosyncrasies highlighted in the work, materialized in the behavior of the protagonist. O ciclo das águas, also set in Porto Alegre, deepens a process that has already been manifested in A guerra do Bom Fim: the generation gap between immigrants, who have not lost their traces of origin, and Jews born in Brazil, who want to assimilate and erase the signs that associate them with an ethnicity not always appreciated.
“We use the imagination to fill in the gaps in life, to provide explanations for things we don’t understand, to retrace paths, and to understand the past.”
This tone reaches one of its high points in O centauro no jardim (“The Centaur in the Garden”), from 1980. In the narrative of Guedali Tartakovsky’s trajectory, we can see the fundamental characteristics of Scliar’s fiction: the employment of fantastic elements – in this case, the creation of a character who is no less human because he is a centaur –, and the presence of Jewish culture, divided between the heirs of the European past and those who have adapted to Brazilian life and are forced to choose between these two conditions.
Two other novels, A estranha nação de Rafael Mendes (“The Strange Nation of Rafael Mendes”), published in 1983, and Cenas da vida minúscula (“Scenes from Tiny Life”), from 1991, complete this cycle. The first emphasizes the historical perspective, highlighting the participation of Jews in the Brazilian history, which was also marked by persecution and adaptive challenges. The second recalls some aspects from O centauro no jardim, since it values the narrative’s framing in fantastic literature. Above all, by importing characters from the Old Testament, such as King Solomon, Scliar paved the way for the series of plots with biblical characters that occupied the last ten years of his literary career.
However, the novelist did not abandon the short story, with which he began his career as a writer. A balada do falso Messias (“The Ballad of the False Messiah”), from 1976, marks his return to the short story, setting the narratives – with the exception of the one that entitles the novel – in the urban and contemporary world. Histórias da terra trêmula (“Stories of the Trembling Land”, 1977), O anão no televisor (“The Dwarf in the TV”, 1979), O olho enigmático (“The Enigmatic Eye”, 1986), and A orelha de Van Gogh (“Van Gogh’s Ear”, 1989) define Moacyr Scliar’s contribution to the genre, as does the aforementioned choice of minimalism. Another of his hallmarks is the presence of characters who escape the normality of everyday life. They portray anomalies that symptomatically reflect ethical or psychological deviations caused by a violent and unequal society.
In the short stories, there is a criticism of capitalist society, whose perversities are materialized in the behavior or extravagant appearance of the heroes. The Jewish theme recedes into the background, showing the pluralism of the issues addressed by the writer.
This pluralism is also evident in his other novels and soap operas, in which two distinct themes can be identified. In one of them, Scliar draws on his experience as a doctor and health researcher to create characters who are emblematic of his profession.
The social and militant aspects of medicine are shown in another novel, Sonhos tropicais (1992). Focusing on the career of Osvaldo Cruz, the paladin of the struggle for a vaccine against yellow fever and smallpox in Rio de Janeiro, at the beginning of the 20th century, Scliar reveals the difficulties faced by the idealistic professional. The writer’s knowledge of these issues is evident not only in his other novels, but also in the short stories and essays that appeared in the local press, later published in Do mágico ao social (1987), Cenas médicas (1987) and A paixão transformada (1996).
Another line of action in Scliar’s work concerns his approach to political issues, especially those have played an important role in our history. In Mês de cães danados (“Mad Dogs Month”), from 1977, the writer deals with the episode known as The Legality Campaign, when the people of Rio Grande do Sul mobilized to guarantee the assumption of João Goulart as President of the Republic, succeeding Jânio Quadros, who had resigned. In Cavalos e obeliscos (“Horses and Obelisks”), published in 1981, he goes back in time to narrate the popular participation, again, in the Revolution of 1930. Max e os felinos (“Max and the Felines”) from the same year, places the political theme in a broader geographical context, as the protagonist comes from Europe and faces the oppression of power, which he is forced to confront as a condition of guaranteeing his identity. In A festa no castelo (“Party at the Castle”), from 1982, episodes arising from the 1964 Brazilian coup d’état hint at the novel’s background.
Scliar’s latest novel, Eu vos abraço, milhões (“I Embrace You, O Millions”), published in 2010, belongs to this group. Set in the 1930s, at the time when Getúlio Vargas came to power and began to control the national State, the novel tells the story of a leftist character who is initially seduced by communist ideology, but gradually becomes disillusioned with the Party’s bureaucracy, the difficulty of translating words into action, and the inaccessibility of its leaders.
The short story is a direct expression of human nature and the desire for literary perfection.
Short stories, novels and soap operas suggest that Judaism was not the only focus of Moacyr Scliar’s entire work. But there is no doubt that issues related to the Hebrew ethnic group, its history, traditions, and personalities were present at every step of his journey. In Os voluntários (“The Volunteers”), from 1979, it is the return to Jerusalem, the Zionist goal of one of the characters, that drives the plot, with failure being a sign that it is an arduous task for everyone, Jews and non-Jews alike. In A majestade do Xingu (“The Majesty of Xingu”, 1997), Scliar also contrasts two characters to translate the two paths taken by Jewish immigrants: the commercial activity, limited and frustrating, embodied by the protagonist and narrator; and political activism, summarized in the actions of Noel Nutels, the doctor and indigenist who dedicated his life to his ideals. In Na noite do ventre, o diamante (“In the Night of the Womb, the Diamond”), from 2005, immigrants are also the main characters of the plot: people who fight for their freedom as they try to escape the Nazi threat.
With A mulher que escreveu a Bíblia (“The Woman Who Wrote the Bible”) in 1999, Os vendilhões do templo (“The Peddlers of the Temple”) in 2006, and Manual da paixão solitária (“Manual of Solitary Passion”) in2008, Scliar made his definitive contribution to Brazilian literature with a Jewish theme. These novels are based on paradigmatic figures from the Bible: Solomon, Jesus, and Onam. However, these figures from the historical or mythical past are not the protagonists of the action; echoing the narrative process experimented in Sonhos tropicais and A majestade do Xingu, Scliar presents them in a subsidiary way, under the gaze of another character, much closer to the reader.
In A mulher que escreveu a Bíblia and Manual da paixão solitária, this gaze is directed by a woman; in Os vendilhões do templo, by the modest and anonymous merchant of sacred objects, whose table was overturned by Christ during a visit to the synagogue in Jerusalem. The effect of these encounters, however, is decisive and can be creative, as in the case of the young writer of the Holy Scriptures, or devastating, as in the case of the merchant. But it’s never indifferent. It allows Scliar to reflect on the consequences of great personalities’ actions on ordinary people, who don’t always know how to react in the face of historical milestones.
In addition to demonstrating the pluralism and diversity of his writing, Scliar has dedicated himself to multiple genres. Short stories, novels, soap operas and essays are lined up alongside chronicles, as exemplified by A massagista japonesa (“The Japanese Masseuse”), from 1984; or his experience with comics, as in Pega pra Kaputt!, from 1977 (a writing project he shared with Josué Guimarães, Luis Fernando Verissimo and Edgar Vasques).
He was also responsible for a significant number of children’s and teenage books, some of which were memoirs, as Memórias de um aprendiz de escritor (“Memoirs of a Writer’s Apprentice”, 1984). Others were of a historical nature, such as Os Cavalos da República (“The Horses of the Republic”, 1989) and O Rio Grande Farroupilha (1993); without forgetting the adaptations of Brazilian classics, such as Câmera na mão, o Guarani no coração (“Camera in Hand, the Guarani in the Heart”, 1998), O mistério da casa verde (“The Mystery of the Green House”, 2000) and O sertão vai virar mar (“The Hinterland will Turn into the Sea”, 2002). But most of them came from his imagination, allowing him to interact with teenage readers who loved O tio que flutuava (“The Uncle who Floated Away”, 1988), Uma história só pra mim (“A Tale Just for Me”, 1994), and O irmão que veio de longe (“The Brother Who Came from Far Away”, 2002), among many other stories rich in fantasy and entertainment.
“I remember the reader I was in my youth, looking at books for pleasure, entertainment, and answers to life’s problems. I hope readers may find the same in my books.”
Children’s literature is another genre to which Scliar has devoted himself. In most of his books, the protagonists experience existential situations that are crucial to their upbringing: children try to win the affection of their parents and siblings; adolescents seek self-affirmation and to strengthen their identity. Moacyr Scliar wants the reader to identify with the character through whom he learns to understand his own aspirations, so he creates fictional characters who are of the same age as the reader.
What’s more, their personalities are well defined, which doesn’t prevent them from expressing problems of which they are not always aware, until they are revealed and solved, partly on the hero’s initiative, partly thanks to the generosity of a supportive adult (father, uncle, family friend, teacher).
Scliar has won several literary prizes, including: three Jabuti awards (in the categories “Novel” and “Short Story, Chronicle and Soap Opera”); the Paulista Association of Art Critics award in 1989, in the “Literature” category; and the Casa de las Americas award in 1989, in the “Short Story” category. His works have been translated into many countries, including England, Russia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Sweden, Norway, France, Germany, the United States, the Netherlands, and Spain.
In 1993 and 1997, he was a visiting professor at Brown University and the University of Texas, both in the USA.
After suffering an ischemic stroke in January 2011, Moacyr Scliar died on 27 February. According to his publisher, Luiz Schwarcz, “he had a unique eye with which he created a fantastic world in which man was always at the service of literature”.
Moacyr has written for the newspapers Zero Hora and Folha de São Paulo and has had books adapted for the cinema. In 2003 he was elected to the Brazilian Academy of Letters. According to the writer Luiz Antônio Assis Brasil, “every reader of Scliar’s work has their own favorite genre. But everyone recognizes in him, above all, whether in fiction, essays or chronicles, a highly humanist style that makes him the possessor of universal values”.
Experienced in literature, as well as in healing his patients and in dealing with health issues, Moacyr Scliar is a writer to be loved by young people and admired by everyone.
* PhD in Romanistics from the University of Heidelberg, Germany. She is currently an adjunct professor at the Institute of Languages and Literature of UFRGS, working in the Graduate Program in Languages and Literature.
