Chapter 45THE FEW EARLY MORNING beachgoers could easily have merged into Seurat’s “L’île de la Grande Jatte,” with one distinct difference: Seurat’s painting depicted the upper crust of society, the French gentry of the 1880s, in which women carried frilly parasols to shield their pale skin, and the men wore tall black hats. At Barra da Tijuca beach, the scene differed dramatically: masses of Brazilians embraced the sun. The frocks from the famous painting gave way to mere threads, and the protected white skin turned to fully exposed shades of bronze. As the morning wore on, the crowds thickened. The ambiance was one of revelry, not of social restraint.
The searchers were dispersed along the street and the beach, scanning for Luiz. Parasails were unfolded on the beach, and the sky became
