Oportuno acaso

Abstract

Oportuno Acaso is a mixed narrative made in prose and verse. There are ten chapters that tell the saga of João, a young man from the interior who loses everything and starts all over again with the help of the local priest, going to participate in a base Christian community, in the late sixties of the 20th century, in Vale do Ribeira. Circumstances involve him in the armed struggle to resist the regime of the time, where he discovers adventure, misfortune and love. History contemplates more than thirty years of a life similar to that of so many young people and adults, victims of unfair and unhappy conditions. Will John survive? Will he find new motivations? Will he regain control of his life? The mixed reporting experiment splits the narrative situations very clearly. When John speaks, the prose occurs; when the narrator takes the floor, he dominates the verse. There are chapters with only one of the genres, there are others mixed. This is not a linguistic innovation in language, just two techniques of counting, recovering the narrative poems so in vogue in heroic accounts. John thus becomes the hero of a time without Mary, even though finding her is her deepest desire. I invite you to read a bit to recover scenes from the historical background that frames the narrative, but I especially invite you to read, as the book contemplates a common life with its mishaps and achievements, with the proper and inappropriate anxieties of simple people but also the fleeting joys that permeate all experiences.