The Devil to Pay in the Backlands



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"“Do you know, sir, why I had gone to those places? You needn’t ask, I’ll tell you. How is it that you can like the true in the false? Friendship with the illusion of disillusionment? I had it easy, but with dreams that left me tired. The sort from which you wake up slowly. Love? A bird that lays iron eggs. It was worse when I started staying awake all night, not able to sleep. Diadorim was one of those inscrutable persons —he never revealed his inner thoughts, nor what he was surmising. I think I was that way too. Did I really want to know him? I did and I didn’t. Not even if you bury it in silence can a thing that doesn’t make sense be dealt with.”"

Acclaimed as one of the most important books ever written in Portuguese language -- maybe in the whole world -- and compared to works like The Iliad and the Divine Comedy, The Devil To Pay In The Backlands (Grande Sertão: Veredas, or Big Backcountry: Tracks in English) had its first edition published in 1956, being the only novel written by the Brazilian author João Guimarães Rosa.

The book is best know for mixing Neologisms with orality in a non-linear narrative, making it very difficult to understand at first reading, and for its more than 600 pages. It's also studied in Brazilian schools.

Talking about the story, it consists of Riobaldo, an ex-jagunço (mercenary), telling his past to a man from the city. What follows is betrayal, war, secret identity, conflicts with religion, friendship, homosexuality, deal with the devil and journey of revenge. Everything set in the almost mystical space of the backlands.

The book had two adaptations, one to the big-screen in 1965 and another in a mineseries from 1985.


 * Action Girl:.
 * Anachronic Order: The events are not narrated in chronological order at all. But Riobaldo justifies himself saying that, to tell any memory that way, it must be a thing of little value.
 * Anti Heroes: Mostly of the jagunços. They can kill you for money or for any other reason - but mostly for money - and do your ladies, but they can also give you food, protection and -- well -- money.
 * Asskicking Equals Authority: All the jagunços's leaders are pretty awesome. The leader of the leaders is even compared to God.
 * Attractive Bent Gender:.
 * Author Avatar: One can believe that the man listening to Riobaldo's narrative is João Guimarães Rosa.
 * Badass Adorable: Diadorim likes birds and is lovely with children, but don't try to fight him.
 * Badass Army
 * Black and Gray Morality
 * Catch Phrase: "To live is dangerous."
 * Cool People Rebel Against Authority: They are the authority! Rebelling against the other authority!
 * Crossing the Desert: Not quite a desert, but is a extremely dry and big land,.
 * Daddy Had a Good Reason For Abandoning You: Joca Ramiro had a good reason for abandoning Diadorim.
 * Deal with the Devil: Did by Hermógenes and, later,.
 * Disappeared Dad: Riobaldo didn't know his father and really didn't care about it. When his mother died, he went to live with his godfather and discovered he was his father, in the end. Then he just runs away.
 * Devil in Plain Sight: Hermógenes, maybe because we already know he is going to kill Joca Ramiro before his first appearance.
 * Doorstopper
 * Flower Motifs: When Riobaldo asks Otacília what a flower name means, she says "marry me". Bacause of this we know that she wants commitment, not just a one-night thing.
 * Beyond that, when Riobaldo tells her to say the same thing to Diadorim, she stays still, and Diadorim has a little jealous moment.
 * Futureshadowing: Since everything is out of chronological order, a lot.
 * Gayngst: Riobaldo, after he stops seeing himself and Diadorim as Heterosexual Life Partners.
 * Green Eyes: Diadorim has green eyes.
 * Gods Need Prayer Badly: Riobaldo believes in that.
 * The Gunslinger: Riobaldo.
 * Heterosexual Life Partners: Riobaldo sees himself and Diadorim as this trope for a long time.
 * Holding Hands: You saw the image of this page.
 * Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Nhorinhá.
 * I Have Your Wife: Not in the usual way, because it's the heroes who kidnap Hermógenes's wife to use her as bait. Eventually, she becomes Diadorim's friend.
 * It's the Journey That Counts:.
 * Knife Nut: Apparently, Diadorim. Even more after the fight with Hermógenes.
 * Loads and Loads of Characters
 * Love Triangle: Otacília loves Riobaldo, who likes her and could even love her back if he wasn't already in love with Diadorim - who seems to love him too - but he has his own reasons - besides they being both male - to stay quiet.
 * Meaningful Rename: After, Riobaldo claims to be "The White Rattler".
 * Neologism: João Guimarães Rosa's works in a whole are well known for including a lot of neologisms, mostly of them very hard to translate, since they are all made-up to work in Portuguese.
 * No Periods, Period: How  hid it every month?.
 * Not So Different: Hermógenes was a fucking killer and made a deal with the devil, but was not so different.
 * Once More with Endnotes: Sometimes; to explain that things like "danse" were on purpose.
 * Only Known by Their Nickname: It would be difficult to find characters with real names.
 * Properly Paranoid: Riobaldo and all his religious anguish, that makes him go to extremes such as pay two women to pray for him every day. It makes sense,.
 * Pet the Dog: When the jagunços aren't kicking it.
 * Real Name as an Alias:
 * Retired Badass: Riobaldo was truly badass when young; now is just a Cool Old Guy.
 * Revenge: The goal of all the jagunços.
 * Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Diadorim can't stand living without his revenge, and will do anything to have it.
 * Romantic False Lead: Riobaldo was jealous of Joca Ramiro and Diadorim relationship for a long time. Which is quite funny, since Joca Ramiro was his father, after all.
 * Satan: A pretty important character,.
 * Secret Identity: Reinaldo is Diadorim.
 * Shoot the Dog: Riobaldo almost does it literally once. In the normal meaning, many times.
 * Straight Gay: Riobaldo, although this is subject to never-ending discussion due to the way the plot resolves.
 * Talking to the Dead: "My love!"
 * Unusual Chapter Numbers: No chapter, or just one really big chapter.
 * Walking the Earth: Every jagunço, somehow, but Up to Eleven with Medeiro Vaz, who burned his own house before joining them, so he wouldn't have to come back.
 * War Is Hell
 * Where Are They Now? Epilogue: Not on the epilogue, since the book has a Anachronic Order.
 * Will They Or Won't They:
 * You Killed My Father: Joca Ramiro was Diadorim's father.
 * You Killed My Father: Joca Ramiro was Diadorim's father.

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