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Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon by Jorge Amado
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Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon

by Jorge Amado

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398511,450 (3.92)9
Recently added byFrostblade, rackle, private library, Hilu, soffitta1, gamoia, Ardashir, madA63
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Showing 5 of 5
Amado is an excellent story-teller. "Gabriela" has enough drama and pace to be readable amidst noisy distractions and does not waste time with throw-away characters or descriptive flourish. The turn of the century, back country Brazil is ribald, gossipy, comical, obsessed with political intrigue and prepared for great violence. The book is on a mission to praise open-handed, casual and lusty sex—not just because of its frequent reference to brothel/cabarets but at its structural core and in its own method of bringing resolution (very much in opposition to the standard marriage-brings-closure model). Jealousy, pride and possession get blasted throughout.

Amado’s case was perfectly convincing for me; though Gabriela’s simple childishness is a little bit overdone. Some readers will get irritated when Amado drops his normal prose style in an attempt to convey the “I don’t get it” inner monologue of an otherwise magnetic and seductive character. For instance, “Why did he have to marry her? It was awful being married, she didn’t like it at all . . . she couldn’t do any of the things she liked. She couldn’t play merry-go-round in the square . . . she couldn’t walk barefoot on the sidewalk in front of the house. She couldn’t run on the beach . . . she mustn’t do such things. It was bad to be married.” Giving Gabriela idiot diction and seven word sentences, deploying obvious bird in cage, tight shoe, flower in a vase metaphors to suggest her free-spiritedness and referring to her as a child was simply not convincing.

But, I still enjoyed every minute of reading this book. The attention to generations and whole-town atmosphere is not unlike Garcia Marquez; but this book is lighter, less deliberate and totally rooted in reality. ( )
fieldnotes | Nov 11, 2008 |  
Sadly I lost my review of this book in the Great Deleting Every File in My Documents Error of 2003. I remember liking this book, although the characterization of Gabriela verged on the borderline between empowered woman testing the social norms and sexist pornographic fantasy. I decided that Gabriel personified the quote from many a bumper sticker "Well behaved women rarely make history." This was a good book about changes coming to a traditional Brazilian community. ( )
Othemts | Jun 24, 2008 |  
Beautiful. My favorite read of the past several years. ( )
tcw | Apr 1, 2008 |  
A life-changer. I read this book for the first time in 1976, in Brazil, on a two-month vacation with a former flame. We spent a week in Ilheus. He's gone now, but the magic of this story has never paled. I re-read it often. Still my favorite of all Amado's astonishing novels. ( )
Bestine | Apr 3, 2006 |  
Amado's wonderful novels should be more popular than they are.
languagehat | Sep 17, 2005 |  
Showing 5 of 5
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Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0307276651, Paperback)

Ilhéus in 1925 is a booming town with a record cacao crop and aspirations for progress, but the traditional ways prevail. When Colonel Mendonça discovers his wife in bed with a lover, he shoots and kills them both. Political contests, too, can be settled by gunshot...

No one imagines that a bedraggled migrant worker who turns up in town–least of all Gabriela herself–will be the agent of change. Nacib Saad has just lost the cook at his popular café and in desperation hires Gabriela. To his surprise she turns out to be a great beauty as well as a wonderful cook and an enchanting boon to his business. But what would people say if Nacib were to marry her?

Lusty, satirical and full of intrigue, Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon is a vastly entertaining panorama of small town Brazilian life.

(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:24 -0400)

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