Act of the Damned

Portugal, 1975. In a village near the Spanish border, a family gather in the crumbling home of the dying family patriarch, hovering like vultures over the imagined wealth of his estate. As each narrator tells their story, the sordid past of the family is revealed, along with its alliances and hostilities. Meanwhile, with the end of the country’s dictatorship, fear of social upheaval is rife, and several make plans to flee to neighbouring Spain with their share of the family fortune. But is there anything left in the coffers?There is probably stuff here that went by me, but I am guessing that the depraved family at the centre of the novel is meant to stand as a metaphor for a section of Portuguese society – aristocratic, landed, politically conservative – at the time of the Carnation Revolution that followed the end of the Estado Novo in 1974. Stylistically, in a number of respects the book put me in mind of Faulkner’s “The Sound and the Fury”. To make sense of things, the reader must be attentive to the (sometimes ambiguous) use of pronouns, and I found it became easier to follow once I started to draw up a family tree of the characters. There’s no denying it: “Act of the Damned” is a demanding read, but if you like literary modernism and are prepared to make the effort required, the rewards here are real.

Just as described.

I grabbed this book as soon as I read the blurb: "As the socialist revolution closes in, a once-wealthy Portuguese family is accused of "economic sabotage" and must escape across the border" as it reminded me of an interview I once made when I was a journalist with a member of such a family which had done exactly the same.I thought it might be a veiled account of this family and the situation in Portugal in the aftermath of the 1974 revolution that ended the dictatorship.The portenuous title should have put me on alert and it is nothing of the kind.Its portrayal of Portugal, like its portrayal of the family, is as straightforward as a Jackson Pollock painting.The book is basically a series of monologues and portraits of various members of a group that makes the Addams family appear normal.As the narrative thunders on to its ending, it takes detours through rape, incest, theft, mongolism, greed, senility, drugs, alcoholism etc.If you want a story with rounded characters, a beginning, middle and an end then don't read this. If you like a bumpy ride, you might like it.Some parts are bleakly amusing but I imagine most readers will find the overall tone too high pitched for comfort.