Os Teclados/ The Keyboards
For little Júlia, whose dream is to be a pianist, the keyboard is a revelation that nature, the universe and the cosmos are connected to each person’s inner experience, and that everything that exists makes sense. For a middle-aged writer, whose interview Júlia happens to read by chance, the world is chaotic and absurd, and her hands on the (computer) keyboard stubbornly try (perhaps in vain) to find harmony and meaning in it.
This sombre vision unsettles Júlia, who wonders, through what happens to her, whether life and the world have any meaning at all, and whether art can offer a way out.
-
OS TECLADOS (The Keyboards)
A “Bildungsroman”,in which the author surpasses herself. A philosophical reflection on the relationship between art and life,the ironies of one and the tricks played by the other. Read it slowly because it ends quickly.
HELENA BARBAS,EXPRESSO
In a brief narrative,the author manages to give her protagonist immense psychological depth. The metaphor of the trapeze (“it was not the public eye that held the acrobat,everything took place between her and the swing on which she balanced”) does not appear by chance in this sublimely musical book. It reads as a fable, in which creation is meant for its own sake and the only legitimate struggle of the creator is with himself.
RODRIGUES DA SILVA, JORNAL DE LETRAS
Using music as a measure of all things, Os Teclados by Teolinda Gersão explores destinies through metaphors of musical harmony. Rarely in the history of fiction have the two kinds of artistic expression words and music been so united.
FÁBIO LUCAS, JORNAL DA TARDE, SÃO PAULO
-
Prémio da Crítica (Centro Português da Association Internationale des Critiques Littéraires), 1999
-
Os Teclados Para a pequena Júlia, cujo sonho é se pianista, o teclado é a revelação de que a natureza, o universo e o cosmos se ligam à experiência interior de cada um, e tudo o que existe faz sentido. Para uma escritora de meia idade, de quem Júlia lê por acaso uma entrevista, o mundo é caótico e absurdo, e as suas mãos no teclado (do computador) tentam obstinadamente (talvez em vão) encontrar-lhe harmonia e sentido. Esta visão sombria perturba Júlia, que se interroga, através do que lhe vai acontecendo, se a vida e o mundo têm ou não sentido, e se a arte pode oferecer uma saída.