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The Elderly

(Tradução do livro Os Velhos)

Nourished by (more or less) ordinary existences, ‘The Elderly’ nevertheless offers the experience of the unusual and the excessive, because the novel emanates the ‘raw nakedness of truth’. It is this truth that, setting the tone for the pages of the book, creeps up on the reader and makes them sympathise with the lives that are built up and that we follow at various stages, especially old age. Among the inhabitants of an old people’s care home, all in a state of sadness, loneliness and hopelessness, Maria de Fátima, Ernestina dos Anjos and Bernardo Augusto, whose lives are the subject of study, stand out throughout the book. At home, in their old age, these (and other) characters find the reverse of what the word home should mean. Alone, although the space is that of many men and women, disillusioned, forgotten about life, lost in hope, the characters practically only realise that the old people’s home is the last phase of what life was like, a phase of abandonment, although apparently they lack nothing – they lack flowers and sunshine and laughter and love.
Alongside the present of the characters mentioned, there is a flashback to their past. From the present day, we move on to the thirties, forties, fifties, sixties and seventies of the 20th century. Maria de Fátima is the character who represents the typical woman of the years mentioned above, resilient in her role as daughter, wife and mother. Ernestina dos Anjos is a woman marked by misfortune from birth and, as an adult, is the victim of the most brutal forces of domestic violence. Bernardo Augusto is an idealist who fights against and is victimised by the Estado Novo. We are thus faced with the diversity of the human. More relevant, however, is the ambience of the present, in the old people’s care home, where the old people go because they are uncomfortable or because they have no other option and where they lose track of time, because each day is the same as the last and they forget hope and joy. ‘The Elderly’ is a novel that is a portrait of our times, described with crudeness and strength of language, in which time is too precious to “waste” on those who supposedly have nothing to offer. Although the narrator makes plenty of comments, there are no moralisms in the pages of the book – these are left up to the reader.

Paula de Sousa Lima’s new book is a ‘find’: it is arranged in two sequences of dimensions, each organized in three movements. The choice of these partitions seems particularly fortunate in that the musical concepts of sequence and time “fit” perfectly into the fictional order (…).

Luísa Mellid-Franco • Expresso

(…) For this reason, the structure of the novel is divided into “Sequences” and these into three “Andamentos” corresponding to each. The interior of each “Andamento” is temporally divided into “Before,” the equivalent of the character’s past, and “Now,” his life at home, creating a very original time puzzle, framing the history of Portugal in the 20th century. (…) The infantilization of the routine life of older people is very well described in what, as far as we know, is the best Portuguese novel on this delicate subject.

Miguel Real • Jornal de Letras

This novel by Paula de Sousa Lima is magnificently structured like a sonata of the despair of her characters trapped, once again, in a home whose good intentions include everything but adult sensitivity towards the rich and poor, who suffer from physical weaknesses or the loneliness of total abandonment. (…) For a long time now. Paula de Sousa Lima has maintained this dialogue with her readers through her exceptional writing in various forms and genres. Her novel O Paraíso was a finalist for the LeYa Prize in 2016.

Vamberto Freitas • Açoriano Oriental

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Author: Paula de Sousa Lima