First World Third Class And Other Tales Of The Global Mix

by RHEDA, REGINA; Perrone, Charles A.; Frizzi, Adria; Dunn, Christopher

• ISBN13: 9780292706484
• ISBN10: 0292706480
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-06-13
• Publisher: Univ of Texas Pr

Summary

Regina Rheda is a contemporary award-winning Brazilian writer whose original voice and style have won her many admirers. First World Third Class and Other Tales of the Global Mix presents some of her finest and most representative work to an English-speaking readership. Stories from the Copan Building consists of eight tales set in a famous residential building in São Paulo. The stories, like the apartment complex, are a microcosm of modern-day urban Brazil. They are witty, consistently caustic, and never predictable.Also in this volume is the poignant and often hilarious novella First World Third Class. It depicts young middle-class professionals and artists who, as opportunities in Brazil diminished, opted to leave their country, even if it meant taking menial jobs abroad. At the center of the narrative is Rita, a thirty-year-old aspiring filmmaker who migrates to England, and then Italy. She looks for work and love in all the wrong places, moving from city to city and from bed to bed.The last three stories in this collection also happen to be among the author's most recent. "The Enchanted Princess" is an ironic title for a postfeminist tale of a South American woman being wooed to marry an old-world gentleman who promises to take care of her every need. "The Sanctuary" concerns the living conditions of immigrant workers and farm animals. Equally piquant in nature, "The Front" deals with ecology, labor environments, and gender politics.

Table of Contents

Preface A Regina Rheda Reader
Titles, Subtitles, Versions, Reversions	vii
Acknowledgments	xi
Introduction On the Ground in the Global Mix
Christopher Dunn	xiii
PART 1 Stories from the Copan Building (1994)	1	(86)
The Neighbor from Hell	3	(13)
The Cat Girl	16	(16)
Dry Spell	32	(3)
The Ghost	35	(10)
The Woman in White	45	(16)
Girlfriends	61	(9)
The Voyeuse	70	(11)
The Prostitute	81	(6)
PART 2 First World Third Class (1996)	87	(150)
I. Brazil	89	(9)
II. England	98	(99)
III. Italy	197	(40)
PART 3 A Trio of Tales	237
The Enchanted Princess (1997)	239	(4)
The Sanctuary (2002)	243	(6)
The Front (2003)	249