As the socialist revolution closes in, a once-wealthy Portuguese family is accused of "economic sabotage." They must escape across the border to Spain, then on to Brazil -- but the family is bankrupt, financially and spiritually. The patriarch, Diogo, lies dying, while his rapacious offspring rifle through his belongings, searching for his will. He remembers with bitterness and resignation his foolish marriage to his brother's beautiful mistress, who left him with a mongoloid daughter and a simpleminded son, who at sixty is running toy trains past his father's deathbed with the solemn self-importance of a five-year-old. Told through a rippling overlay of voices, Act of the Damned circles closer and closer to the revelation of the diabolical immorality of Diogo's greedy son-in-law Rodrigo . . . who has fathered a child of his own bastard daughter and who is closing in on Diogo's crumbling estate. In the oppressive autumn heat, the characters' schemes ebb and flow in an atmosphere of decrepit elegance, tarnished silver, and rotting brocade. When the moment of departure finally arrives, the scene shifts from chaos to vacuum and Rodrigo finds himself no longer at the center of the group but firmly, terrifyingly, outside and alone. In its portrayal of a degenerating Portuguese family, Act of the Damned introduces us to an extraordinary set of characters: Diogo, the sadistic patriarch whose chief pleasures come from hunting partridges and beating his wife; Nuno, the dentist who imagines himself as a murderous Edward G. Robinson; Rodrigo, the paranoid who has sex with his mongoloid sister-in-law; and Francisco, the autistic, acutely sensitive man-child. Each contributes his stream-of-consciousness narration to the novel, giving us a varied, surreal portrait of familial dysfunction and possible redemption, while Lobo Antunes keeps the story tightly structured and moving swiftly. Ultimately, though, Lobo Antunes seems confined by the postmodern tradition he's working with. Both the form of the novel and the family at the center of it are too reminiscent of Garcia Marquez, Rushdie, and even Faulkner to make Act of the Damned truly remarkable. Copyright © 1996, Boston Review. All rights reserved. -- From The Boston Review As the socialist revolution closes in, a once-wealthy Portuguese family is accused of "economic sabotage". They must escape across the border to Spain, then on to Brazil - but the family is bankrupt, financially and spiritually. The patriarch, Diogo, lies dying, while his rapacious offspring rifle through his belongings, searching for his will. Told through a rippling overlay of voices, Act of the Damned circles closer and closer to the revelation of the diabolical immorality of Diogo's greedy son-in-law Rodrigo ... who has fathered a child on his own bastard daughter and who is closing in on Diogo's crumbling estate. In the oppressive autumn heat, the characters' schemes ebb and flow in an atmosphere of decrepit elegance, tarnished silver, and rotting brocade. When the moment of departure finally arrives, the scene shifts from chaos to vacuum and Rodrigo finds himself no longer at the center of the group but firmly, terrifyingly, outside and alone. Used Book in Good Condition