In these crisp, shrewd essays, a scholar of European modernism trains his insights and considerable critical acumen on contemporary Brazil, subjecting to scrutiny those spheres dearest to "Brazilian culture": the Sao Paulo Biennial; tropicalia; City of God (both novel and film). Dialectical readings in the best sense, these brilliant, penetrating essays offer not pat resolutions but all the productive, joyous energy of tensions that pull at one another and spark new meanings and musings. Durao and friends eschew moralism to dwell, for instance, with the paradoxical promises of the pop song,...