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Although I have done it all these thirty years or more, although I live my life surrounded by other people who are always doing it, still I think that there are few activities so worthy of inspection as the reading of novels.

Juan Gabriel Várgas


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🦋 Why Ereira?

The Mondego crossing at Ereira, 1952
The location of Joana Carda's line in the sand (and I'm assuming her home town*) is revealed on p. 124 of The Stone Raft as being Ereira, a village southwest of Coimbra on the banks of the Mondego. (See my map of the journey so far.) Why there, and why the mystique about it? -- where all the other characters' locations and origins are discussed at length, Joana
Church at Ereira
has been tight-lipped -- "I've nothing to tell you about myself, if I've revealed nothing so far to these men with whom I'm traveling, there's no reason why I should confide in strangers."

I had the thought maybe Ereira was Saramago's birthplace, and went to check -- but it is not. He was born in Azinhaga, near where José Anaiço lives. (And I think it makes sense to identify José Anaiço with the author of this story.)

(With regards to Joana's feminine mystique: as they are walking to see the line, she says she will tell them the rest of her story. "You could have told us sooner, either in Lisbon or during the journey, José Anaiço remarked, I don't see why, ...As a reward for having believed in you, It's for me to decide your reward and when it should be given, José Anaiço refrained from answering,... but she heard Joachim Sassa murmur, What a girl, Joana Carda smiled, I'm no girl, and I'm not the bitch you think I am, I don't think you're a bitch, Domineering, stubborn, conceited, affected, Good heavens, what a list, why not say mysterious and leave it at that,...")

*Not quite -- her home is in Coimbra, but she's been living with relatives in Ereira for about a month, since separating from her husband.

posted morning of Sunday, December 14th, 2008
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