The Past is an Imperfect Tense (el. knyga) (skaityta knyga) | knygos.lt

Aprašymas

A well-to-do white couple living in São Paulo, Brazil, adopt a black baby. The Past is an Imperfect Tense tells the story of this father-son relationship, which begins with great love and affection but ends up in ruin and rejection. Things start to go wrong in the boy's adolescence, when he becomes involved with marijuana, amphetamines and crack cocaine, a process the narrator calls "the frenzied pursuit of an artificial paradise."

Three factors come together in the story of the boy's life: adoption, drug addiction and racism. The father, who narrates the story, asks himself, "Would it have been possible, at any point, to change the course of this story? Or was it all destined to be?"

Uncomprehending, the father seeks explanations in psychology and psychoanalysis, consulting research on drugs and adoption. He attends support groups for the families of addicts. And he comes face to face with the impotence and cynicism of psychologists and psychiatrists who have no clue how to deal with the curse of addiction. He shares his discoveries and reflections, his pain and bewilderment.

The result is a poignant novel which confirms Bernardo Kucinski as one of Brazil's leading contemporary authors.