Amado, Jorge

Madison. 2003. University Of Wisconsin Press. 1st University of Wisconsin Paperback Edition. Very Good in Wrappers. 029918644x. Translated from the Portuguese by Barbara Shelby Merello. Introduction by Ilan Stavans. 380 pages. paperback. Cover illustration by PhotoDisc. keywords: Literature Latin America Brazil South America Translated. FROM THE PUBLISHER - Bahia - home of Dona Flor and Gabriela, land of heroic talkers, daring doers, Lucullan cooks, inexhaustible lovers, beautiful black women, beautiful white women, and mulatas exquisite beyond the praise of poets-is at its most gloriously Bahian, as Jorge Amado plies us with love, food, voodoo, wit and wonder, surrounds us with a cast of hundreds . . (INCLUDING: fiery Black DorotEia, who has the heart of a turtledove; indomitable Major Damião de Souza; Fausto Pena, unrequited lover and poetl; Ana Mercedes, undulating reportress in mini-skirt and mini-blouse; capoeira artists, policemen, professors, drunks, whores, directors of tourism, devotees of African gods, members of the Society of Medical Writers) . . and introduces us to his richest creation. Behold him! The late, lovable-roguish Pedro Archanjo, street-corner Socrates, passionate anthropologist, candomblE practitioner, acknowledged dean of the living university of Bahia's demimonde and author of the momentous works in defense of miscegenation whose ‘discovery' by James D. Levenson (great gringo scholar, lover, and Nobel Prize winner) has plunged Bahia into the fantastic intrigue and carnival of the Archanjo Centennial Celebration. As the celebrants pour forth from every street and house, as all doors fly open unlocking the secret life of Bahia, the novel moves back into the misty past (especially into the Tent of Miracles, once the living heart of Salvador, presided over by Lidio Corro, miracle painter, vendor of voodoo and vaudeville, tooth-yanker, impresario of the magic lantern) and forward into the intoxicating present, in search of the true Pedro Archanjo. Savant? Seducer? Riffraff? Redeemer? inventory #3840 ISBN: 029918644x.