Kazuo Ishiguro called it “cute.” Andrew Solomon said that “raises the level of discourse across the country”. Salman Rushdie called him “a warm and deeply emotional human being” whose “cultural span is wide and deep.” She added, “I love him very much.”
The man in question, Luiz Schwarcz, founded Companhia das Letras, the largest publishing house in Brazil. He is known in the literary world as a trendsetter with the power to make an author successful.
With his wife, the anthropologist Lilia Moritz Schwarcz, Schwarcz is a central figure of the Brazilian intelligentsia. He brokers deals on a global scale: “a creature from Frankfurtsaid his longtime friend Jonathan Galassi, executive editor at Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
However, you will not find any of that in “El Aire que me Falta”, Schwarcz’s memoir published in Brazil as “O Ar Que Me Falta” in 2021 and recently released in the United States. Instead, what you will find is a man dealing with bipolar disorder.
“I have many friends, writers; They know I’m quiet, but they never knew what I had, what I have”Schwarcz said in New York recently. For those who have only met the courteous and controlled man of letters with an encyclopedic knowledge of classical music, the tale can be shocking.
Schwarcz candidly acknowledges the violence and outbursts occasioned by his bipolar disorder, the suicidal depths of his depressionthe lifelong battle to find the right medication and navigate its side effects and the devastating effect of it all on your loved ones.
Her memoirs have been a bestseller in Brazil, where there is a reluctance to speak publicly about mental health. Part of the book’s power comes from the fact that Schwarcz is, by any metric, a success.
Schwarcz’s father, a Hungarian Jew, was 19 years old in 1944 when his own father pushed him from a cattle car bound for the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany with one word — “Run!” Schwarcz’s father survived; his grandfather didn’t.
The survivor’s guilt that his father took with him to Brazil—combined with underlying mental health issues—and his unhappy and abusive marriage deeply affected his son.
“My main inheritance has always been guilt”Schwarcz writes.
A lonely child, he began experiencing anxiety and depression at a young age; He was even more distressed by the appointments with prostitutes that his father organized for him since he was 13 years old.
Then came the hospitalization, the self-harm, the periods of mania and desolation. Still, he maintained a reputation as dignified and introspective, received the London Book Fair Lifetime Achievement Awardattended the Nobel ceremony with Ishiguro, represented Brazilian letters on the world stage and translated great literature.
Schwarcz didn’t need to share this personal side of his story; he could have remained behind deeply closed doors and allowed his public image to go unchallenged.
When he described the project to his mother, she demanded an explanation: “Because? What are you thinking? Why do you want to do this?”. He answered: “i think i will help others”.
SADIE STEIN
THE NEW YORK TIMES
BBC-NEWS-SRC: http://www.nytsyn.com/subscribed/stories/6623103, IMPORTING DATE: 2023-03-22 00:30:09
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