The Wikipedia entry on Proofreading includes four works of fiction in which one of the characters is a proofreader. Of the four, this is the only novel in which the main character is a proofreader.
If proofreaders were given their freedom and did not have their hands and feet tied by a mass of prohibitions more binding than the penal code, they would soon transform the face of the world, establish the kingdom of universal happiness, giving drink to the thirsty, food to the famished, peace to those who live in turmoil, joy to the sorrowful … for they would be able to do all these things simply by changing the words...
I'm thrilled that the author loves us so much. The protagonist is a proofreader who adds a key word to a history of Portugal. I would never do this. I never change your meaning, and will question you as needed to ensure that I don't change your meaning. The proofreader in this novel, however, rewrites the past and changes his own life. I've never done that.
Let me end this with a piece of the review that appeared in Library Journal:
When proofreader Raimundo Silva dares to falsify a statement in a history text – namely, that Galician warriors conquered Lisbon from the Moors in 1147 without the help of returning Crusaders – instead of losing his job, he gains the respect of his supervisor and begins an affair with her. She encourages him to recast the event as a novel. Soon he is rooting for a Moor over the Archbishop of Braga and suspecting that there is more Moorish than Aryan Christian blood in the modern Portuguese nation. With its paragraph-long sentences and page-long paragraphs, this panoramic tale of daring and timidity challenges readers to...
That's enough. The paragraph-long sentences and page-long paragraphs challenged this reader right out of reading it. I strive to make my writing and yours clear, simple, easy to understand, and impossible to misunderstand.
While I've got no problem reading the other kind of writing, given that the topic is a Portuguese history lesson, and an alternate history at that, if this critically acclaimed author asked me to proofread his manuscript, I'd thank him kindly and refer him to a colleague who would be better suited to the job.
Professional Proofreading Service
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