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Roses for the Dead by Paulo da Costa
Roses for the Dead is the first short story in the book The Scent of a Lie by Paulo da Costa that I have mentioned previously. The story tells us an episode in the life of Padre Lucas, a priest from a small town in Portugal, in the day of the funeral of the most powerful man in town, Mr. Ambrósio Mateus. The story is very descriptive and tries to capture the feeling of a small rural town, sometime in the past, its peoples, the landscape and the frame of mind. I must say that this purpose is fully achieved.
The fact that the first story of the book starts by portraying a priest and a powerful landlord is symptomatic, as they are the two most important figures in any rural village. They open the door to the painting the same way they would be the most exposed characters in any small town, it is only after knowing them that we are allowed to know the "smaller" people.
The priest and the landlord are also depicted in an ironic way that prepares us to what is coming next. We are given a hint of who the author is siding with in the book. We also become aware of the fact that the main character in this story is the place and the people as a group more than any individual characters.
And this brings me to another observation: as I read the story, I knew that the author was Portuguese, thinks Portuguese, writes Portuguese (although in English), sees the world "in Portuguese". It is most interesting how this is possible when he is actually writing in English. I didn't think that could be possible: I thought I was reading Portuguese the whole time when I knew it was English. It would be very interesting in the future to see if Paulo da Costa can write Canadian and Canadian themes, considering he has been living in Canada for almost two decades (?). From his prose, it seems he never quite left and I don't mean this as any form of criticism, just an interesting observation, something like those Chinese landscapes that "look Chinese" when painted by Chinese artist and look so totally western when painted by Europeans. (Europeans in the 19th century actually thought China was like in the Chinese watercolors...)
"Padre Lucas found rest under an olive tree. He pressed his handkerchief to the halo of white hair around his skull, attempting to suppress the beaded sweat drenching his face. He leaned against the olive trunk, contemplating the green quilt covering the valley floor, tracing the corn patches and grape fields stitched together by a thread of stone hedges."
And this is how the story starts, an introdution to the Padre but above all to the area: it colors, the trees, the heat. Later on we get to know the Padre a bit better: "He now clasped a rosary in the infernal heat and muttered a string of curses under his breath. Parishioners he encountered on the dusky trail asked him to add their intentions to his prayers." I absolutely loved this bit here, the image we can see and the sense of humor. The Padre then calms down a little and becomes more tame until the end of the story when once again we are surprised by his true nature.
We also get to know a little of Ambrósio's life and how he got to be so powerful and wealthy after a chilhood of misery and hunger, how he liked to choose his servants, how with women "he searched for tender flesh barely in the threshold of womanhood" for his own future pleasure, how he blackmailed his first employer, the secret of his childhood.
All in all, it is a good introduction to the book. I will continue in future postings.
Roses, Lilacs and Chrysanthemums, another story by Paulo da Costa I just found online.
All my postings about Paulo da Costa:
The Scent of a Lie
Roses for the Dead
Garden of Dreams
A Millstone, Always a Millstone