PEARL
K.
BELL
- I
am
going to do it just as
fast
as I can, without letting myself
brood about it too much, and my only goal will be to make it a
little livelier and less cliche-ridden than the [other volumes in the
series] .... I certainly have enough material, and Lota and I should
get some fun out of putting in our favorite jokes and people....
49
Almost from the start, however, Elizabeth found herself seriously at
odds with the editors. A Time Inc. bigwig, who knew almost nothing
about Brazil, made his way up the mountain to Petropolis to "instruct"
Elizabeth about the way she ought to write the book and the attitudes
she should express. Furious, she shot off a letter to me decrying:
this awful optimism - this "up-beat," as he called it.... No one
seems to see how damned condescending it is to think that Brazilians
like
'crazy' people like Kubitschek - or that a little corruption - or a
lot
-
is good for South American countries.... The real trouble is
going to be in New York - when they present me with their 'up-beat'
statistics to show that everything is wonderful and getting better and
better, etc.... Maybe I can at least be
objective,
it will be no place to
be critical, I know, but surely I don't have to say that Brasilia, for one
example, is just absolutely perfect.... If only
I
don't end up writing
the way they talk....
No chance of that: even if she tried, and gritted her teeth in the
effort, Elizabeth was absolutely incapable of writing like anyone but
hersel£ It did seem to be the right time for her to be doing such a book
- writing she needn't fuss over, be perfectly business-like about, "just
write as fast as possible and try not to think about it. No use the
Aaubert-stuff (though I CAN'T seem to compose any other way)".
The time was right not only because Elizabeth badly needed the
money but because Lota's talents had at last been recognized and put to
serious use. Carlos Lacerda, an old and close friend of Lota's and the only
Brazilian politician Elizabeth had any use for, had just been elected
governor of Guanabara State, whose capital is Rio de Janeiro, and he
had persuaded Lota to take on the enormous job of planning and super–
vising a vast urban-renewal project along the waterfront. Despite her lack
of formal training, she had been reading and thinking for years about the
ideal cities conceived by such architects as Le Corbusier. Even more im–
portant, she had a formidable gift for organization. She would need ev–
ery bit of it, for the challenge was enormous: transforming a neglected
part of Rio into a huge park with cafes and gardens, museums and
promenades and playgrounds. Moreover, Lacerda's choice of a woman
