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City of God
The searing novel on which the internationally acclaimed hit film was based, City of God is a gritty, gorgeous tour de force from the Brazilian street. Cicade de Deus, the City of God, is one of Rio's most notorious slums. Yet it is also a place where samba rocks till dawn, where the women are the most beautiful on earth, and where one young man wants to escape his backg
...morePaperback, 448 pages
Published
September 14th 2006
by Grove Press, Black Cat
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An endless cycle of violence, some of which is quite disturbing. No plot at all.
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I watched the film version of City of God, directed by Fernando Meirelles. The film follows kids in the City of God, a slum of Rio de Janeiro. It is an unforgiving world, where people are raped and murdered on a whim. For example, Little Z, a leading gang lord, got his start after his older brother robs a brothel. As they leave, he walks in and murders everyone, laughing all the way. He is 9 years old at the time. The violence is relentless and even more jarring when juxtaposed with the scenes i...more
After reading "City of God" my perception has definitely changed in the way that MEN, no, BOYS...are so easily swayed by evil and the evils of the world. The young men in the book succumbed to be products of their harsh environment because their mentality was "kill or be killed" or "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em."
The novel was written in a way where there was not a particular "linear" story line. It was scattered and jumpy which added to Bra...more
The novel was written in a way where there was not a particular "linear" story line. It was scattered and jumpy which added to Bra...more
This has been one of my favorite movies for a while. If you have not seen it, it makes Scarface look like a PG movie. The book goes deeper into the protags and the antags. If you think what you see in the movie is bad or graphic, times it by five when you read the novel. Right now Hollywood is glorifying some Clooney movie how his wife is cheating on him and his daughter confronts him about it. Then he goes on a venture to see if its true and probably becomes friends with the guy or some bullshi...more
This book is marred by the fact that I saw the film adaptation which benefits from having a narrator/character (The novel was translated to English after the film became popular.)
Both the novel is better identified as a true crime story with an omniscient narrator who jumps around revealing the most brutal and intimate details of the lives of gangster's and regular people alike. It's a "thick" book which has moments of beautiful prose and moments where the violence is almos...more
Both the novel is better identified as a true crime story with an omniscient narrator who jumps around revealing the most brutal and intimate details of the lives of gangster's and regular people alike. It's a "thick" book which has moments of beautiful prose and moments where the violence is almos...more
Certainly a fascinating topic and setting, and well worth reading. However, as a novel, I found City of God a bit confusing at times, and lacking in descriptiveness as well as in depth. Few of the characters really grab the reader by the heart -- though the fact that they actually existed and lived the lives portrayed is at least intellectually fascinating. In general, I feel like the novel needed some grounding in a character with whom international readers could identify to help them better pe...more
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Pas encore fini mais vraiment pas emballant, y' a rien dans ce bouquin ! Des histoires sans queues ni têtes, certes qui racontent ce qui se passe dans ces favelas du Brésil, mais quel est le but ici ? Montrer que tout le monde s'en sort comme il peut ? Non ce n'est pas vrai, la seule chose qui intéresse ces gens c'est de faire la loi. Mais ça, c'est pas nouveau et dans une autre mesure ça ne se passe pas qu'au Brésil. Vraiment déçue.
J'attends de voir le film quand même pour parfaire mon o...more
J'attends de voir le film quand même pour parfaire mon o...more
An utterly different creature than the film, which merely mined it for a handful of snippets. By the first 50 pages we are already way beyond the thematic scope of the film which only sought to offend middle-class western standards of what is acceptable violence. The book goes far beyond this to paint a vast and intricate image of how poverty, drugs and gun violence, sustained over decades, creates a lethal -- yet mundane -- new grammar of interpersonal relations, where depth is replaced by d......more
Este é um dos poucos casos em que o filme realmente é melhor que o livro.
Como o autor faz questão de indicar no inicio e no fim do livro, a história é ficção, mas é inspirada em factos reais, inspirado pelas enrevistas feitas para um documentário.
Apesar de começar por ser um romance, a medida que se aproxima do fim o livro começa a parecer-se mais com um documentário e a história começa a perder consistencia, passa a ser só um conjunto de episódios.
Apesar de e...more
Como o autor faz questão de indicar no inicio e no fim do livro, a história é ficção, mas é inspirada em factos reais, inspirado pelas enrevistas feitas para um documentário.
Apesar de começar por ser um romance, a medida que se aproxima do fim o livro começa a parecer-se mais com um documentário e a história começa a perder consistencia, passa a ser só um conjunto de episódios.
Apesar de e...more
This book is verry good. It is well formated an has no chapters. The book is about life in the favelas of brazil. Favelas are basically the slums of brazil. The book is broken into 3 different stories. It shows the life of gangsters and is very descriptive. There are little boys at the age of 6-8 that think they are men just because they have already gotten drunk, smoked weed, snorted coke, and have raped women.
This book doesn't exactly tell a story. Lins paints a long, cyclical picture of [the evolution of?:] gang violence in Rio. Nothing ever really happens, and no characters grow to affect you because everyone dies after 25 pages. In the end I only finished it to finish something. Very tedious read. Hard to believe my favorite movie was based on this.
Apesar de não ter visto o filme antes de ter lido o livro, tinha uma ideia daquilo que ele tratava. Ainda assim, o livro impressionou-me pela qualidade, pela violência - houve partes muito difíceis de ler, outras comovedoras. Que infelicidade tanta gente a viver assim. Sem falsos paternalismos, o autor mostra como ser bandido ou não ser é, por vezes, uma questão de sorte na vida e que os bons nem sempre estão do lado "certo".
Beautiful book. I especially loved the way that it was written: So many characters die throughout and you keep forgetting their ages because of the mature situations they find themselves in....when you're reminded, it's almost a shock.
A raw look at growing up in the favelas of Rio. Uniquely written from different perspectives and converging story lines. The translator took liberties with translating slang and it oft times uses cruder language than necessary.
I really liked this book, but man was it violent. Seriously, no stop murder, robbery, and rape...
A great look at life inside the bourroughs of Rio de jenaro, and from what I've read in the New Yorker, it hasn't changed much.
The author slips seemlessly between descriptions of horror to poetic proses about love and samba dances.
A great look at life inside the bourroughs of Rio de jenaro, and from what I've read in the New Yorker, it hasn't changed much.
The author slips seemlessly between descriptions of horror to poetic proses about love and samba dances.
This is a VERY good book. I really enjoyed reading this. the book never gets boring, it is not stop action and with all of the characters the story never dies. I recommend this book to be given to the next year class.
Not comparable to the film, by any means. In this ONE case, the film is probably better than the book. With that said, the film wouldn't be so great if the book wasn't written first, to provide a story for the film to be based off of. And yes, I just ended that sentence with a preposition. :)
At any rate, the book has soooo many characters (almost like a Tolstoy novel!) and people are dying at an unhealthy rate, it's a little difficult to keep track of who wronged who and who's servin...more
At any rate, the book has soooo many characters (almost like a Tolstoy novel!) and people are dying at an unhealthy rate, it's a little difficult to keep track of who wronged who and who's servin...more
Dawn
added it
This book was disgusting and was actually worse then the girl with the dragon tattoo. It's really sad when writers give up actual talent and story telling for filth and titalation.
Bheshangothacked
added it
I really liked this book because it showed life in the slums instead of showing you the good life, it gives you another perspective on things.
It's too naturalistis but it's interesting how it takes you to such a different reality. Unfortunaly it was a bit too much for me.
I loved the movie and followed the logic that the book would be better. It's not better, it's very different. The main character of the movie has no more than a few pages in the book, as far as I can tell. I'm not sure which one of the 50 or 60 characters he's supposed to be.
The book takes you on a multi-generational tour of the favelas surrounding the City of God. Unfortunately, the tour rides the circular tracks of sex, violence, and drugs that keep the favelas citizens trapped in d...more
The book takes you on a multi-generational tour of the favelas surrounding the City of God. Unfortunately, the tour rides the circular tracks of sex, violence, and drugs that keep the favelas citizens trapped in d...more
Utik
rated it
·
review of another edition
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
everyone (especially people who love Brazil!)
Well... actually it's the same book with "The City of God" (It's just that, I think, the original title is more cool than the English title). It's also the book I haven't finished reading,so I actually cant give any review or comment upon this book. HOWEVER,I've seen the film! It was one of the marvelous films I've ever seen! It's so original; the story, the setting, everything, and so true as well.A friend told me that the book is even better!
Jen
marked it as to-read
Loved the movie, so I assume the book will be good.
Grade level: High school
Format: Film adapatation
Format: Film adapatation
SunnyD
marked it as to-read
loooooooooooooooooooooved the film.
Salvaje como pocos...
largo, descriptivo en exceso..de esos raros casos en que es mucho mejor la peli que el libro.
I saw the movie before I read the book and amazingly I liked the movie better. I got very tired of the same thing over and over. The whole book was about drugs and people dying. Over and over and over. It bored me. However, reading about Brazil's ghettos opened my eyes to a different world than my sheltered and comfortable life.
One of the more gruesome and violent books I have read. However, an excellent story and one which I would recommend to anyone who doesn't mind having their thoughts haunted by their reading materials.
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