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The Devil to Pay in the Backlands: Difference between revisions
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{{Infobox book
| original title = Grande Sertão: Veredas
| image = 21 MHG tonybrunca 7552.jpg
| author = João Guimarães Rosa
| central theme =
| elevator pitch = "''Grande Sertão: Veredas'' is the complex story of Riobaldo, a former jagunço (mercenary or bandit) of the poor and steppe-like inland of the Rio São Francisco, known as Sertão, of the states of Minas Gerais and Bahia in the dawn of the 20th century." ''(Wikipedia)''
| genre =
| publication date = 1956
| source page exists =
| wiki URL =
| wiki name =
}}
{{quote|
Acclaimed as one of the most important books ever written in Portuguese language -- [http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/may/08/books.booksnews maybe in the whole world] -- and compared to works like ''[[
▲{{quote| ''“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.”''}}
The book is best know for mixing [[Neologism|Neologisms]] with orality in [[Anachronic Order|a non-linear narrative]], making it [[Mind Screw|very difficult to understand]] at first reading, and for [[Doorstopper|its more than 600 pages]]. It's also [[What Do You Mean
▲[[File:21_MHG_tonybrunca_7552.jpg|frame|Riobaldo and Diadorim, as they appear in the [[Miniseries|miniseries]].]]
Talking about the story, it consists of Riobaldo, an ex-jagunço (mercenary), telling his past to a man from the city. What follows is [[Trope Overdosed|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.
▲Acclaimed as one of the most important books ever written in Portuguese language -- [http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/may/08/books.booksnews maybe in the whole world] -- and compared to works like ''[[The Iliad (Literature)|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 [[Useful Notes/Brazil|Brazilian]] author João Guimarães Rosa.
▲The book is best know for mixing [[Neologism|Neologisms]] with orality in [[Anachronic Order|a non-linear narrative]], making it [[Mind Screw|very difficult to understand]] at first reading, and for [[Doorstopper|its more than 600 pages]]. It's also [[What Do You Mean Its Not Didactic|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 [[Trope Overdosed|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 [[The Film of the Book|big-screen]] in 1965 and another in a [[Miniseries|mineseries]] from 1985.
{{tropelist}}
▲=== ''The Devil to Pay in the Backlands'' provides examples of: ===
* [[Action Girl]]: {{spoiler|Diadorim}}.
* [[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
* [[Asskicking Equals Authority]]: All the jagunços's leaders are pretty awesome. The leader of the leaders is even compared to God.
* [[Attractive Bent Gender]]: {{spoiler|Diadorim is a case of [[Sweet
* [[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.
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* [[Crossing the Desert]]: Not quite a desert, but is a extremely dry and big land, {{spoiler|and a lot of characters die trying to cross the place}}.
* [[Daddy Had a Good Reason For Abandoning You]]: Joca Ramiro had a good reason for abandoning Diadorim.
* [[Deal
* [[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 [[Anachronic Order|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]].
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* [[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
* [[I Have Your Wife]]: Not in the usual way, because it's the [[Anti
* [[
* [[Knife Nut]]: Apparently, Diadorim. Even more after [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|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 {{spoiler|the [[Deal
* [[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 {{spoiler|Diadorim}} hid it every month?.
* [[Not So Different]]: Hermógenes was a fucking killer and made a deal with the devil, but {{spoiler|Riobaldo}} was not so different.
* [[Once More
* [[Only Known
* [[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, {{spoiler|since he belives he has sold his soul to the devil}}.
* [[Pet the Dog]]: When the jagunços aren't [[Kick the Dog|kicking it]].
* [[Real Name
* [[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, {{spoiler|even if he doesn't exist}}.
* [[Secret Identity]]: Reinaldo is Diadorim {{spoiler|who is Maria ''Diadorin''a da Fé Bettancourt Marins}}.
* [[Shoot the Dog]]: Riobaldo almost does it literally once. In the normal meaning, many times.
* [[
* {{spoiler|[[Sweet
* [[Talking to
* [[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?|Will They Or Won't They]]: {{spoiler|They won't.}}
* [[You Killed My Father]]: Joca Ramiro was Diadorim's father.
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