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I'm Going to Have a Little House: The Second Diary of Carolina Maria de Jesus
Contributor(s): Jesus, Carolina Maria de (Author), Arrington, Melvin S. (Translator), Levine, Robert M. (Translator)

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ISBN: 0803275994     ISBN-13: 9780803275997
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
OUR PRICE: $19.00  

Binding Type: Paperback - See All Available Formats & Editions
Published: July 1997
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Annotation: In August 1960 the publication of "Quarto de Despejo" ("Child of the Dark") created a sensation in Brazil--and in the rest of the world--as it appeared in translations in fourteen languages. That diary of a poor black woman from a favela on the outskirts of Sao Paulo became the best-selling book in Brazilian history. In it, Carolina Maria de Jesus chronicled her life as an unemployed, single parent of three children, eking out a precarious existence selling scrap paper and other detritus found in the city streets. She described how she wrote at night on the scavenged scraps. Her remarkable diary--angry, proud, wretched, and hopeful--was found and published by an enterprising journalist. The book's success permitted Carolina to leave her flimsy shack in triumph and move into the cinder-block house of her fantasy. "I'm Going to Have a Little House" is de Jesus's second diary. It covers the first year following her rise to fame. In it she recounts her struggles with celebrity, middle-class expectations, and the racial and social tensions her success had exacerbated. This work, never previously translated into English, tells the rest of the story--the grim truth that favela life doesn't prepare one for middle-class "respectability" and that the fall back into poverty is as easy as the struggle to escape it is difficult. Carolina Maria de Jesus died in 1977, forgotten and in poverty.

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Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- Biography & Autobiography | Women
Dewey: B
LCCN: 96053134
Series: Engendering Latin America
Physical Information: 0.63" H x 5.33" W x 8.02" L (0.56 lbs) 189 pages
Themes:
- Sex & Gender - Feminine
Features: Price on Product
Review Citations: Publishers Weekly 08/18/1997 pg. 81
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:

In August 1960 the publication of Quarto de Despejo (Child of the Dark) created a sensation in Brazil--and in the rest of the world--as it appeared in translations in fourteen languages. That diary of a poor black woman from a favela on the outskirts of São Paulo became the best-selling book in Brazilian history. In it, Carolina Maria de Jesus chronicled her life as an unemployed, single parent of three children, eking out a precarious existence selling scrap paper and other detritus found in the city streets. She described how she wrote at night on the scavenged scraps. Her remarkable diary--angry, proud, wretched, and hopeful--was found and published by an enterprising journalist. The book's success permitted Carolina to leave her flimsy shack in triumph and move into the cinder-block house of her fantasy.

I'm Going to Have a Little House is de Jesus's second diary. It covers the first year following her rise to fame. In it she recounts her struggles with celebrity, middle-class expectations, and the racial and social tensions her success had exacerbated. This work, never previously translated into English, tells the rest of the story--the grim truth that favela life doesn't prepare one for middle-class "respectability" and that the fall back into poverty is as easy as the struggle to escape it is difficult. Carolina Maria de Jesus died in 1977, forgotten and in poverty.

Robert M Levine is a professor of history and Director of Latin American Studies at the University of Miami. He is the author of The Life and Death of Carolina Maria de Jesus.

Melvin S. Arrington, Jr. is a professor of modern languages at the University of Mississippi.

 
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