After another philosophical reflection on the complexity of words (and facts and deeds and reality), he reveals that 'this lengthy preamble is intended to conceal the poverty of story …' (1.22).

But it's also 'opaque,' 'despised,' and 'discordant' (1.20), so we're thinking maybe get the tissues handy.

Don't expect too much, he warns us, because this story is pretty plain. Now he's back to talking about the story.We get the sense that this guy isn't much fun at parties.If she were 'foolish enough to ask herself 'Who am I?,'' the narrator says, 'she would fall flat on her face' (1.18). Evidently, he's sure because she's still walking around.Then he informs us that the girl, too, 'does not know herself.'.He's evidently got some self-esteem issues, because he wonders, 'Who has not asked himself at some time or other: am I a monster or is this what it means to be a person?' (1.17).Guess that's enough information, because now the narrator starts reflecting on his own identity.She's from the ' backwoods of Alagoas' (1.16), and she's a typist, though not a very good one. Here's some more deets on the girl: she's nineteen.Despite the fact that Rodrigo clearly has a vocabulary full of fancy words and some really not simple ideas, he emphasizes that he wants to keep his words simple.Prayer empties the soul words have a power that exceeds even the words themselves.

So, Rodrigo is going to make us notice one. There are thousands of girls like this in Rio, and no one notices or cares about them.

Now we find out that the narrator feel like it's his duty to tell this girl's story and make her see how miserable she is.

Pay attention, 'cause this is the first and last time we see his name in the book.

After saying that he wants to write a simple story with, oh, seven characters or so, the narrator introduces himself as Rodrigo S.M.

We're talking eating-rats-and-lizards poor. Quick brain snack: The northeast of Brazil is (or at least was) the poorest region in the country.We finally get moving when the narrator tells us how he was inspired to write the story: 'In a street in Rio de Janeiro I caught a glimpse of perdition on the face of a girl from the North-east' (1.6).See, the thing is that he's pretty desperate to arrive at the truth, and he figures that writing is the best way to do that.Okay then! Guess that's answered, at least. We learn that our narrator is a writer, and we learn why he writes: 'So long as there are no answers, I shall go on writing' (1.3).It's like walking straight into the writer's brain. We don't know yet where we're at, who's doing the talking, or what the story might be about, but we are getting a nice taste of big philosophical ideas like existence and time. We open with a narrator explaining how everything in the world began and how time has always existed: 'before prehistory there was the prehistory of prehistory and there was the never and there was the yes' (1.1).

The hour of the star