MAX AND THE CATS

Originally published in Brazil in 1981, Scliar's novella tells, with a sharp eye but a glancing touch, the story of a boy at the mercy of terrible forces, who grows into a man similarly powerless, until he commits an act of violent defiance. German Max Schmidt, son of a brutish furrier and a gentle mother, is 'morbidly sensitive,' imagining escape to exotic climes. At university, Max befriends a troubled socialist and rekindles his affair with libidinous Frida, the fur store clerk who had deflowered him. But Frida is now married to a Nazi, who learns of the relationship, and Max must flee on a ship bound for Brazil. When the ship sinks-sabotaged by its evil captain and the owner of the menagerie of animals in the hull-Max barely survives, only to find himself in a tiny dinghy in the company of a jaguar, whom he imagines has been sent to torment him.