Os personagens de Saul Bellow

Sempre gostei de histórias e contos. Dos que mais gosto são, normalmente, os que têm personagens densos. Daqueles que dizemos que têm carácter. Hoje volto a Saul Bellow e ao seu livro de histórias que aqui referi. A maioria das mesmas começam logo com a apresentação do personagem e da sua caracterização física e psicológica. Dois exemplos :

" Clara Velde, to begin with what was conspicuous about her, had short blond hair, fashionably cut, growing upon a head unusually big. In a person of an inert character a head of such size might have seemed a deformity; in Clara, because she had so much personal force, it came across as ruggedly handsome. She needed that head; a mind like hers demanded space. She was big-boned; her shoulders were not broad but high. Her blue eyes, exceptionally large, grew prominent when she brooded. The nose was small - ancestrally a North Sea nose. The mouth was very good but stretched extremely wide when she grinned, when she wept. Her forehead was powerful. When she came to the threshold of middle age, the lines of her naïve charm deepned; they would be permanent now. Really, eveything about her was conspicuous, not only the size and shape of her head. She must have decided long ago that for the likes of her there could be no cover-up; she couldn't divert energy into desguises. So there she was, a rawboned American woman. She had very good legs - who knows what you would have seen if pioneer women had worn short skirts. She bought her clothes in the best shops and was knowledgeable about cosmetics. Nevertheless the backcountry look never left her. She came from the sticks; there could be no mistake about that. Her people ? Indiana and Illinois farmers and small-town businessmen who were very religious. Clara was brought up on the Bible : prayers at breakfast, grace at every meal, psalms learned by heart, the Gospels, chapter and verse - old-time religion. "

( em "A Theft", pág. 117 do referido livro )

"DIZZY WITH PERPLEXITIES, seduced by restless spirit, Katrina Goliger took a trip she shouldn't have taken. What was the matter with her, why was she jumping around like this? A divorced suburban matron with two young kids, was she loosing ground, were her looks going or her options shrinking so fast that it made her reckless? Looks were not her problem; she was pretty enough, dark hair, nice eyes. She had a full figure, a little on the plump side, but she handled it with some skill. Victor Wulpy, the man in her life, liked her just as she was. The worst you could say of her was that she was clumsy. Clumsiness, however, might come out as girlshness if it was well managed. But there were few things which Trina managed well. The truth, to make a summary of it, was that she was passably pretty, she was awkward, and she was wildly restless." ( em "What Kind of Day Did you Have?", pág. 282 do referido livro )

Impossivel não "ver" logo Clara e Katrina e começar a gostar delas.