Pereira Maintains by Antonio Tabucchi

Author:Antonio Tabucchi [Unknown]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, azw3
Tags: Death, Portugal, Married People, Bereavement, Newspaper Editors, Fiction, Grief, Family & Relationships, Suspense Fiction, Translators, Suspense, General
ISBN: 9781847679642
Publisher: Canongate Books
Published: 1994-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

SIXTEEN

By eight o’clock on the dot Dr Cardoso was seated at table in the restaurant. Pereira also arrived on time, he maintains, and before making his way to their table, wearing his grey suit and black tie, he stood for a moment taking in the scene. There were about fifty people in the room, all of them older than him, he was pretty certain of that, mostly elderly couples dining at tables for two. The thought that he was one of the youngest there made him feel a bit better, he maintains, it bucked him up to think he wasn’t that old after all. Dr Cardoso gave him a smile and began to get to his feet, but Pereira held up a restraining hand. Well Dr Cardoso, said Pereira, I am in your hands as regards this meal as well. In that case a glass of mineral water on an empty stomach is always a good rule of health, said Dr Cardoso. Fizzy, pleaded Pereira. Fizzy let it be then, conceded Dr Cardoso, and he filled his glass for him. Pereira drank it down, felt slightly sick, and longed for a lemonade. Dr Pereira, said Dr Cardoso, I’d be interested to know your future plans for the culture page of the Lisboa, I really enjoyed the anniversary article on Pessoa, and also the Maupassant story (extremely well translated, incidentally). I translated it myself, admitted Pereira, but I don’t care to sign my work. You’re wrong there, said Dr Cardoso, you ought to sign it, especially the best pieces, but what does your paper have up its sleeve for us now? As things stand, Dr Cardoso, said Pereira, for the next three or four issues there’s a story by Balzac, it’s called Honorine, I wonder if you know it. Dr Cardoso shook his head. It’s a story about repentance, said Pereira, a beautiful story that has to do with repentance, so much so that I read it as autobiography. What! our great Balzac repented!, exclaimed Dr Cardoso. Pereira was silent for a moment, wrapped in thought, then: Forgive me for asking, Dr Cardoso, he said, but you told me earlier this evening that you got your degree in France, what exactly did you get it in, if I may ask? I qualified in medi-cine and then specialized in two fields, dietology and psychology, replied Dr Cardoso. I don’t see the connection between the two, said Pereira, please forgive me but I simply don’t see it. There may be more connection than most people think, said Dr Cardoso, I don’t know if you can begin to conceive the interplay between our bodies and our psyches, there’s a lot more of it than I think you realize, but you were telling me that this story of Balzac’s is an autobiographical story. Oh that’s not what I meant at all, replied Pereira, I meant that I read it as having a bearing on myself, that I recognized myself in it. In the repentance?, asked Dr Cardoso.

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