no shopping (2000)
the joke in no shopping begins by its title: it actually means “in the mall” in brazilian portuguese, but can also have its literal meaning in english. this book was the first novel by brazilian writer simone campos, penned when she was only seventeen years old. like s.e. hinton in the outsiders, she took advantage of her young age to write about some of the fears and dreams of her own generation. and unlike s.e. hinton, she failed miserably in the process.
the story (god forgive us for using the word) centers on an upper-class girl from brazil who works on her father’s bookstore inside a mall. when she is not wandering around shoplifting to fight boredom, she organizes big parties and grabs the attention of every cute boy in the city. she is also the best student in her class and the most popular, because she is so cool.
no shopping is a fine example of the worst in contemporary brazilian literature: it has no plot, no character development and no classic structure. instead, in its feeble 72 pages, it brings forth “revolutionary” and “radical” use of spelling and punctuation (i.e. commas no more!), software-inspired chapter numbers — how about chapter 3.11 for workgroups? — and an incredibly idiotic choose-your-own-adventure finale. these were 60 minutes of reading i’m not getting back.
