Jorge Amado's Brazilian Brillance

There's a good reason why Brazilian author Jorge Amado's books have been adapted into countless TV shows, plays and films. All of his books pop with vivid imagery, excitement and humor. And of course, because we're dealing with Brazilian culture here, heaping doses of sensuality seep through the pages. As I explained in an earlier post about Amado, he was the author most recommended to me when I was in Brazil. I devoured his most famous novel, Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon but I couldn't stop there. Once you visit Bahia, you never want to leave so I read Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands next.

The title and the cover give helpful hints about the book's tone. Yes, we're exploring a woman's relationship with her two husbands and yes it's a little kinky. Dona Flor is a classic, voluptuous beauty who turns down her shrewish mother's attempts to set her up in a profitable marriage and marries the man she loves. That would be Vadinho, a smooth, gambling, whorish, rogue who knows how to melt her reserve. Fittingly, Vadinho perishes in the middle of a carnaval procession, gussied up in the costume of a Bahian market woman. Dona flor mourns for years, until a respectful and gallant pharmacist, Dr. Teodoro Madueria, marries her and sweeps her into the rarefied life of a a society matron. Flor is content except for one thing. Teodoro is rather clinical in bed. It never occurs to her that she might find alternatives until Vadinho's ghost appears, bold and half-clothed, he's ready to alleviate her frustrations.

This 622-page novel not only paints the colorful details of 1940s Brazilian life but it unveils such witty and lively characters that you always want to be in their company. Vadinho embodies the Latin lover archetype, sexy and self-centered, with a gift for charming everybody except Flor's mother. There's Pelancchi, the gambling house don and "child of Calabria" who can't understand how Vadinho's friends suddenly rack up unheard of amounts. He worries that he has been cursed and he has, by Vadhino's antics. Dionisia is a lovely candomble priestess whom Flor falsely suspects of bearing Vadhino's child after his death. The specifics of Bahian life also leap off the page, from the spicy cuisine, to capoeira matches, to the intricate candomble(African-based religion incorporated into Brazilian culture) rituals, you get a rich sense of the culture.

Filled with magic realism and humor, Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands is a Brazilian classic that easily overcomes cultural barriers. The 1978 film starring Sonia Braga in in my Netflix queque so I will be extending my Bahia stay.