Age of the Baroque in Portugal

The Age of the Baroque in Portugal, edited by Jay A Levenson, 295 pages

If the seventeenth century witnessed the Spanish Golden Age, it is reasonable to treat the eighteenth - and particularly the reign of John V - as having hosted an analogous, albeit somewhat more modest, Portuguese flourishing.  Certainly, it saw the height of Portugal's colonial empire, and a corresponding attempt to transmute the riches of the world into glory for God, country, and king.  This catalogue of the 1993 exhibition at the National Gallery of Art (fittingly, staged a year after the Columbian quincentennial) presents a wide array of beautiful and intriguing objects from the period, from furniture to jewelry to azulejos to a complete custom coach commissioned by the Portuguese ambassador to the Holy See.

Portugal

Portugal by Cyril Pedrosa. 261 pages.

Comics creator Simon Muchat is uninspired. He's not excited by his job. He's not really invested in his relationship. Life is feeling pretty drab for Simon until he travels Portugal for a book signing--his family emigrated from Portugal during Salazar's authoritarian regime, and Simon hasn't been to visit since he was a young boy. From this initial visit and a subsequent wedding invitation from a long-lost cousin, Simon begins to feel a spark in his soul has he reconnects with his past and his family's history, exploring the language, terrain, and culture of an estranged country. Based on author/artist Cyril Pedrosa's own experiences rediscovering his past, Portugal is a quiet, slice-of-life graphic novel rich in atmosphere. It was originally published in 2011 to great acclaim in Europe; the English version was released last year with a starred review from Publisher's Weekly.

I am on the fence about Portugal. I loved the feel of it--Simon's ennui amid French and Portuguese settings, the incorporation of everyday chitchat among locals and at family gatherings, the warm colors  and fine, almost spidery detail of the artwork (you can get a sense of this from the cover)--the strength of the book can be found in these details. However, I didn't find Simon to be an altogether sympathetic character, so I didn't feel as invested in his efforts to research his nebulous family history as perhaps was intended. It was a little hard to follow who was who throughout his travels and genealogy, and I would have liked a little more depth in the backstory of his family's emigration. All in all, though, it has made me interested in Pedrosa's other work, which I wouldn't mind seeking out on down the line.