Whatever Happened to Dulce Veiga?: A B-Novel     by Caio Fernando Abreu, Translated by Adria Frizzi Original title: Onde andará Dulce Veiga? Original language: Portuguese Country: Brazil   Published by Univ of Texas Pr Pub. Date: January 2001 Format: Paperback, 192 pages Dimensions: 0.57 x 8.96 x 5.50 in. ISBN: 0292705018 List Price: $15.95, £10.14 Buy online from Amazon.co.uk for £10.14 Buy online from Amazon.com for $11.17 Published by Universiy of Texas Pub. Date: 2001 Pub. Place: usa Format: 192 pages Not available for ordering

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Caio Fernando Abreu’s ‘B-novel’ takes you on a roller coaster ride around the underground literary and pop world of nocturnal São Paulo. The novel’s nameless protagonist, a disillusioned forty year-old journalist, is on the trail of the ever elusive Dulce Veiga, a famous singer who mysteriously disappeared twenty years earlier. On his search for Dulce our down-trodden hero comes across a medley of fortune-tellers, gay Pietàs, junkies, transvestites, revolutionaries, Afro-Brazilian gods and rock stars, all set against the background of a decrepit metropolis full of dilapidated buildings and overflowing rubbish bins.

Whatever happened to Dulce Veiga? has all the hallmarks of a hard-boiled detective novel: a cynical hero, a mystery, a glamorous, missing singer, various characters who all seem to know more than the protagonist does, and a slowly unravelling plot. Yet it is also a novel about the protagonist’s journey of self-discovery. His quest for Dulce, who appears to him in a variety of situations, each of them like a revelation, triggers off suppressed memories not only of a first meeting with Dulce but also the protagonist’s first gay lover, Pedro. The latter mirrors Dulce in disappearing suddenly from his life. They are the polar opposites that shape the tensions in the protagonist’s sexual life — femme fatale versus gay god.

The novel is multi-layered, combining three storylines: the narrator’s present search for Dulce, his memories of a first meeting with Dulce and his memories of his lost lover. All these different strands finally merge on a metaphysical level with the protagonist finding his identity and peace, aptly being called by his name for the first time. The physical setting for the narrator’s spiritual rebirth is Estrela do Norte, a magical town that would be familiar to viewers of Walter Salles’ hugely successful film Central Station, where the two main characters similarly reach the end of their quest.

Caio Fernando Abreu’s ‘B-Novel’ is post-modern in its cultural references to film, art, TV and music; in fact most of the rather loud characters could feature in an over-the-top soap opera set amongst São Paulo’s bohemia. Above all, Whatever happened to Dulce Veiga? is also an intensely funny novel that will provoke regular fits of chuckling.

On the overpass, the beggar put down the bag of paper. Then, with both hands free, and a gesture that was too elegant for her, she took off her hood. She had blond, straight hair parted in the middle and cut at chin level. She held her arm up, her forefinger pointing to the sky, and turned her face toward me. Even filthy and with a scabby nose, her face still showed traces of its past beauty.

I cried:

‘Dulce, wait for me, Dulce Veiga!’

I started running with the bottle in my hand. The Portuguese guy shouted something I didn’t catch. I lost sight of her for a moment, until I managed to cross the street, go around the concrete island under the overpass, and run up toward her. Ah, I’d take her home, give her a bath, get her to tell me all the obscure details of that crazy story, then we’d go to the opening of Márcia’s show together. Happy ending: in the back, Dulce would sing ‘Nothing More’ beneath a deluge of roses and applause. In the forefront, Márcia and I holding hands, gazing into each other’s eyes. Credits rolling over the freeze-frame.

But we weren’t there yet, it wasn’t like that yet. 116