This paper examines the theme of wandering through the city of Porto Alegre in Solidão continental (2012), the latest novel published by João Gilberto Noll. This book stands out from his other works because the narrator-character seeks to forget rather than to remember, and is unable to recognize himself in the city itself. When participating in a public protest, for example, he cannot feel like a part of it. Even when he discovers where he is, he ends up losing that information within minutes, through a repressive psychological mechanism aimed at mitigating the issue. Drawing on the theory of the flaneur and urban walking, this study investigates the concept of flanerie from the perspective of the tension between two stances: being in the city, walking through it, and, on the other hand, feeling—or not feeling—like a participant. In this way, we observe an elderly flaneur who uses public transportation but feels invisible where he lives, and the importance of this issue for future studies is highlighted, given the rapid aging of the Brazilian population.
