Role Play

Role Play is a searing satire narrated by a wealthy young woman in Rio on the verge of a class-consciousness awakening.

Vivian is a curator, not just at her gallery gig in Rio de Janeiro, but in every aspect of her life. Her apartment has designer armchairs. Her wallet is Comme des Garçons. Everything is selected and arranged, even her lovers and friends. In Vivian’s world, everything comes in excess, including her own caustic selfawareness. As she informs us, “I’m a misandrist and a misogynist,” but she is fond of gay men, “the one type of human you can properly get along with as equals.”

Role Play examines the superabundances of Brazilian elites— their art, ethics, and monied ambivalence in the face of social inequality, machismo, and violence. As sharp and sparkling as broken champagne flutes, Clara Drummond’s prose is seductively frank and unflinching in its depiction of wealth’s power to warp the self.