Counterpoint, 2010.
Overview: The More I Owe You is centered around American poet Elizabeth Bishop's tumultuous decades in Brazil. She falls in love with Lota de Macedo Soares, an influential Brazilian, and with the country itself, although she cannot bear the dysfunctional politics which completely consume her lover. The romance of turning what was supposed to be a two week holiday into a seventeen year long stay is not entirely lost despite the detailed account of how the fiercely the lovers clashed over Elizabeth's alcoholism and Lota's dangerous involvement with politics, because somehow all the anger in the world is not enough to completely extinguish their love.
My reaction: This was beautifully done. I kept wondering which parts had been drawn from Bishop's extensive correspondence and which were Sledge's imagination, but toward the end I just let myself appreciate the story. And cry. I definitely cried at the end of this one!
It definitely makes me want to go read all 70 of her published poems (I had no idea there were so few!)!
Sledge also brings Brazil's politics to life through Lota's involvement with Carlos Lacerda and her struggle to create Flamengo Park. I was pretty uninformed about Brazilian politics, and so getting some of that background was an added bonus. It was so interesting to see how the evolution of the political situation affected the life of one American expat and the people she lived with: it started as political debate at dinner parties and progressed until Lota was advising Carlos and he was in and out of hiding as a result of assassination attempts.
All told, this was a fascinating and moving portrait of Elizabeth Bishop, and I highly recommend it!
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