Urso de Óculos

The novels of Nick Hornby are already well known in Brazil, via translated versions of most of his books, including Fever Pitch, How to be Good, A Long Way Down and Slam.

And now lusophone fans can get an insight into Hornby’s own reading habits with the recently published Brazilian edition of The Complete Polysyllabic Spree: The Diary of an Occasionally Exasperated but Ever Hopeful Reader.

It’s a collection of Hornby’s  “Stuff I’ve been reading” column in the American magazine The Believer, written between 2003 and 2006, in which he gave monthly commentaries on the books he bought and the books he read. It’s his honest personal take on specific books and writers (including a character analysis of Adrian Mole, the feelings evoked when reading Kurt Vonnegut’s “A Man without a Country”, and what people might imagine when they see the cover of Philip Larkin’s letters), plus plenty of comment on the concept of literary criticism itself.

But I’m not going to go into more details of the original book here. Intelligent readers of The Spectacled Bear Reports already know that Hornby is one of the most engaging writers in Britain, and this title has been reviewed everywhere since its publication in 2006.

What is of interest here is the new Brazilian edition, translated by Antonio E de Moura Filho with the grand title Frenesi Polissilábico – O diário de Nick Hornby: um leitor que perde as estribeiras mas nunca perde a esperança.

I read the translation with three questions in mind:

Is the translation any good?,  Is this book of any value to Brazilian readers? and: What relevance does this new edition have to English readers?

“Yes!”, “Yes!” and “A lot!”

The translator’s challenge with this book was not only to reproduce Hornby’s own unique style, but also to translate the many different types of writing in the extracts of the books being described. And Moura Filho’s translation ticked all the right boxes. The Portuguese manages to capture Hornby’s voice, alongside well translated sections of the books mentioned.

It is an excellent read for Brazilians because, although it has as strong a London flavour as any of Hornby’s fiction, the Portuguese is brilliantly fluid.

My only concern with this edition would be that the book might cause some frustration if readers start looking for Brazilian versions of all the titles mentioned (it would be interesting to read opinons from Brazilians who have read it – please feel free to comment below).

And for the English speakers among you, I have long believed that a great way to learn a foreign language is by reading translations (as long as they are good translations). With an easy to read style like that used in the Polysyllabic Spree, you can improve your skills in reading in Portuguese whilst staying within an anglophone comfort zone in terms of cultural allusion and, in the case of this particular title, literary cross reference.

So if you’re yearning for easy reading, North London style AND are keen to read something in Portuguese, get this book.

You can buy this title in any good independent bookshop in Brazil (including Urso de Óculos – that’s us, by the way), or directly from the publisher.

And, wait for it: FREE BOOK ALERT!:

If you ARE in the vicinity of the most international bookshop in Bahia, come on over as fast as your legs will carry you, as we’ve got one FREE copy of Frenesi Polissilábico to give away to the first person who comes into the shop and tells us the answer to this question:

What football team does Nick Hornby support?

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Frenesi Polissilábico
Nick Hornby / Tradução de Antonio E. de Moura Filho
ISBN: 9788532524072
Editora: Rocco (2009)