Doña Flor y sus dos maridos. (Doña Flor and her Two Husbands)
Reviewed by Mark L. Grover, Brigham Young Univ., Provo, Utah -- Críticas, 8/15/2008
Amado, Jorge.
tr. by Amalia Sato. U.S.: Vintage Español: Random House. 2008. 474p. ISBN .978-0-307-27955-2. pap. $14.95. FICTION
CLASSIC RETURNS
Amado (b. Bahía, 1912–2001), the most popular and internationally well-known Brazilian novelist, was part of Brazil’s Modernist school of literature and a renowned advocate of Brazil and its culture, particularly from the northeast. His first novel was published in 1931 when he was 18 years old, and until his death he published a regular stream of novels, which have been translated into 49 languages. His first writing period, when he was exiled from Brazil and spent time in Russia, was strongly influenced by political leanings toward communism. His best novel of the second period, Gabriela, clavo y canela (Gabriella: Clove and Cinnamon), was published in 1955 and was the first of several novels that examined the culture and society of his native Bahia through the eyes of women. However, this novel, published in 1966 in the midst of Amado’s second creative period, is probably his best-known work internationally because of its adaptation into a popular film by the same name in 1976. It explores the social and sexual norms and conflicts of the culture of Salvador, the state capital, through the eyes of Flor, the owner of a cooking school. Amado’s use of food, recipes, and descriptions of cooking are creatively intermixed with descriptions of conflicts and interactions with family and husbands. This Spanish translation was published in Argentina in 2006; Sato is a language professor at the University of Buenos Aires and an award-winning scholar of language and literature. This novel is so important that it should be part of any collection of Latin American literature; highly recommended.
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