Anonymous Celebrity

Read an excerpt of Anonymous Celebrity by Ignácio de Loyola Brandão translated by Nelson Vieira. And listen to John Powers' review of this book.


"It's delicious not to be ordinary. Not to be a common man.
Not to have good sense.
Not to be levelheaded, decent,restrained. And, therefore, stupid. Ignorant.
Not to be sensible (what a horrible word), and therefore foolish. Silly.
Not to be the same as everyone else. To separate oneself from the masses (it rhymes with asses) who live a humdrum, morbid, sickening daily life. You've all probably read how the extraordinary, the famous, the celebrated, the legendary all suffer. They're anxious. The price of fame is too high! It's not worth it! But that all just comes from jealousy. Resentment.
Makes you want to laugh. Burst out laughing.

Sure, we suffer. But we suffer differently. We suffer with pleasure. People follow all our problems in the newsour depressions, headaches, our cheating and being cheated on, our sadness, unhappiness, sickness, pain. People read the papers and are on our side. It's lovely."
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