An Invincible Memory

This epic historical novel is an anti-history of the author's homeland, Brazil. The narrative follows two families - one of aristocrats, the other slaves - through many generations and vicissitudes.

A family saga spanning nearly 400 years, this absorbing epic novel lays bare the soul of the Brazilian nation. Whaling, war, macumba, slavery, murder, cannibalism and Brazil's struggle for independence add momentum to Ribeiro's lyrical, effusive, sonorous, serpentine prose laced with a touch of magic realismsomething of a cross between Melville and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. (The author himself has rendered the fluent translation.) At the center is Amleto Ferreira, a 19th century paterfamilias and conniving bookkeeper who defrauds a baron of his wealth; Amleto's ladylike, long-suffering wife Teolina; and their children, among them a priest, a romantic poet and a soldier. A bestseller in Brazil, the novel graphically portrays the terrible cruelty inflicted by whites on blacks, mulattos and Indians; the lives of these native peoples unfold in dozens of intertwined stories. The relationship between Merinha, patient, Penelope-like servant girl, and runaway slave Budiao is moving. Also memorable are 100-year-old Great Mother Dadinha and Maria da Fe, a bandit warrior who converses with birds and seeks special power from a sorcerer's charms. Catapulting his tale into the 1970s, journalist Ribeiro ( Sergeant Getulio ) creates a stunning portrait of a people who, though outwardly mirthful, are still not free.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

An impressive fictional re-creation of Brazilian history, this work moves from the colonial to the modern era in an attempt to decipher the psyche of contemporary Brazilians. The result is an exhaustive work that leads the reader through time in this fascinating Latin American country. The swarm of characters function to uncover the development of a Creole society based on the mixing of ethnic groups--Indian, European, and black--whose clash at different times produced a national awareness of belonging to native clans. In criollismo literary style, the novel offers varied aspects of native color, such as the Indian ceremony of making mate and the black macumba and spiritualist practices. Essential for the reader interested in a yet unexplored world.
- Rafael Ocasio, Univ. of South Alabama, Mobile
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.