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Maiquel is a young used car salesman from the mean streets of Sao Paulo with a bad toothache and a bleak outlook: "The essence of man, the material he's made of, is something black and stinking." When a petty barroom tiff turns sour, Maiquel gets his first taste of the kill. The whole town knows who did it, and Maiquel fears the worst. But instead of being arrested, he is lauded as a hero. Yet something in the undertow continues to trouble him. Deeply.
Maiquel swings from sweetness to madness and ennui. He visits a dentist with gleaming canines and a peculiar interest in violence. The man offers him a deal: free dental work in exchange for the death of the man who raped his daughter. Soon the dentist's wealthy friends are making deals with Maiquel, too. Maiquel has become The Killer.
But Maiquel longs for a normal life with a wife, a house, a nice pair of shoes. He marries a salesgirl he's deflowered and impregnated, and interviews for a job at a pet store. There, his future boss lectures him on the joys of the finer sex: "[Women] don't get pleasure out of any goddamn thing.... My work, they say, modern life, they say, the mother's role, they say, lovers, frozen food, personal satisfaction, it's difficult to reconcile, they say. Basically, women need to destroy the life of a least one man. The job's yours, married man."
Thus bombarded from without and within, Maiquel's life in crime escalates to stunning heights. Brutal infidelities are committed, Mafia-style dealings are conducted, and civic honors are bestowed. From there, the fall is devastating.
