Perfect days

Title:

Perfect days

Author:

Montes, Raphael, 1990- author.

Added Author:

Entrekin, Alison,

Personal Author:

Montes, Raphael, 1990- author.

ISBN:

9781594206405

Physical Description:

264 pages ; 22 cm

General Note:

Originally published as Dias perfeitos (São Paulo : Companhia das Letras, 2014).

Abstract:

"A twisted young medical student kidnaps the girl of his dreams and embarks on a dark and delirious road trip across Brazil in the English-language debut of one of Brazil's most celebrated young crime writers. Teo Avelar is a loner. He lives with his paraplegic mother and her dog in Rio de Janeiro, he doesn't have many friends, and the only time he feels honest human emotion is in the presence of his medical school cadaver--that is, until he meets Clarice. She's almost his exact opposite: exotic, spontaneous, unafraid to speak her mind. An aspiring screenwriter, she's working on a screenplay called Perfect Days about three friends who go on a road trip across Brazil in search of romance. Teo is obsessed. He begins to stalk her, first following to her university, then to her home, and when she ultimately rejects him, Teo kidnaps her and they embark upon their very own twisted odyssey across Brazil, tracing the same route outlined in her screenplay. Through it all, Teo is certain that time is all he needs to prove to Clarice that they are made for each other, that time is all he needs to make her fall in love with him. But as the journey progresses, he keeps digging himself deeper and deeper into a pit that he can't get out of, stopping at nothing to ensure that no one gets in the way of their life together. Both tense and lurid, and brimming with suspense from the very first page, Perfect Days is a psychological thriller in the vein of Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley--a chilling journey in the passenger seat with a psychopath. It marks the English language debut of one of Brazil's most deliciously dark young writers"-- Provided by publisher.

Subject Term:

Abduction -- Fiction.

Man-woman relationships -- Fiction.

Medical students -- Fiction.

Stalkers -- Fiction.

Women screenwriters -- Fiction.

Geographic Term:

Brazil -- Fiction.

Genre:

Psychological fiction.

Suspense fiction.

Summary:

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Shelf Number	Status
Searching... Main Library	Book	FICTION MONTES	Searching... Unknown
Searching... West End	Book	FICTION MONTES	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

A twisted young medical student kidnaps the girl of his dreams and embarks on a dark and delirious road trip across Brazil in the English-language debut of Brazil's most celebrated young crime writer.

Teo Avelar is a loner. He lives with his paraplegic mother and her dog in Rio de Janeiro, he doesn't have many friends, and the only time he feels honest human emotion is in the presence of his medical school cadaver--that is, until he meets Clarice. She's almost his exact opposite: exotic, spontaneous, unafraid to speak her mind. An aspiring screenwriter, she's working on a screenplay called Perfect Days about three friends who go on a road trip across Brazil in search of romance. Teo is obsessed. He begins to stalk her, first following her to her university, then to her home, and when she ultimately rejects him, he kidnaps her and they embark upon their very own twisted odyssey across Brazil, tracing the same route outlined in her screenplay. Through it all, Teo is certain that time is all he needs to prove to Clarice that they are made for each other, that time is all he needs to make her fall in love with him. But as the journey progresses, he digs himself deeper and deeper into a pit that he can't get out of, stopping at nothing to ensure that no one gets in the way of their life together. Both tense and lurid, and brimming with suspense from the very first page, Perfect Days is a psychological thriller in the vein of Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley --a chilling journey in the passenger seat with a psychopath, and the English language debut of one of Brazil's most deliciously dark young writers.

Reviews (1)

Kirkus Review

Psychopathology, Carioca style: well-paced but troubling thriller by Brazilian novelist/lawyer Montes. "He didn't want to come across as sick or a psycho": Hannibal Lecter he's not, not yet, but when we learn that the only person medical student Teo Avelar likes is his dissecting corpse, Gertrude, who, "in the pale lighttook on a very peculiar brownish hue, like leather," well, we're sure that bad things are about to ensue. Teo lives with his crippled mother and her dog in a Rio walkup, scarred by unhappy memories. A vegetarian, nondrinker, and otherwise abstemious chap, Teo nonetheless finds himself at a party, where he is smitten by the tiny but overflowingly confident Clariceher name not just that of a Brazilian novelist ("For God's sake," our Clarice yells, "don't talk to me about Clarice Lispector, because I've never read anything by her!"), but also that of Hannibal Lecter's bte noire, Clarice Starling. Accident? It wouldn't seem so, any more than the poor dog's passing is, and certainly not when Teo kidnaps Clarice, trusting that one day she'll love him as much as he loves her. Their interaction is ugly and violent, and it's not entirely believable that Clarice is able to turn the tablesand then Teo, and then Clarice, until the game of cat and mouse seems more like cat and cat. The suggestion that Clarice is complicit in her own captivity is both daring and controversial; John Fowles did it neatly in The Collector, but half a century on, Montes handles the question somewhat less deftly, and in any event, the characters seem incomplete, their motivations not quite clear save that Teo has a Norman Bates-ian sensitivity to matters maternal. The ending in particular lies on the very border of good and bad taste, but Montes gets points for neatlyand appallinglyconnecting it to the opening of his narrative, ironic title and all, in a most unpleasant full circle. Readers of Thomas Harris and Henning Mankell may feel that they've been here before, but a fast and fluent read all the same. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.