The War of the Saints

A statue of Saint Barbara comes to life in order to help Manela, a beautiful girl involved in a forbidden love with a taxi driver. By the author of Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands. 25,000 first printing. $25,000 ad/promo.

Amado dips back into his encyclopedic knowledge of the local politics, religions, and sexual joie de vivre of his beloved Bahia in this tale of Catholicism subverted by spiritualism, of puritanism undone by joyous sap, of right-wing control undone by happy anarchy. Here, a holy statue of Saint Barbara of the Thunder is to arrive in the port city of Bahia--to be displayed in the local Museum of Sacred Art--but it never quite makes it: Before it can show up at the museum, Saint Barbara has turned herself into a live force. The main object of her ministrations is a young woman, Manela, cruelly shut up in a convent by her strict mother for the sin of having fallen in love with a dark-skinned young taxi-driver. Saint Barbara--as the voodoo goddess Yansan in this case--will have none of it, springing Manela so that she can naturally celebrate her love, while at the same time vexing the local corrupt bureaucrats and proving once again that Brazilian religion is a far more fluid state of affairs than any organized church chooses to see it as. A lot is scattershot, unsubtle, and creaky here--but Amado (The Golden Harvest, 1992, etc.) remains the preeminent chronicler of at least the idea of a joyful life--and as such never neglects the infectious freedom of spirit that gives all his work a happy valence. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

An exploration of attraction, love, marriage, and relationships, this skillful blend of the concrete and the mystical results in an unexpected novel. Manela lives with her Aunt Adalgisa and her Uncle Danilo. Adalgisa, a beautiful but repressed middle-aged woman, keeps her niece on a short tether. She is a stern taskmaster who believes in employing the rod. As Manela becomes an attractive young woman, Adalgisa uses cruel tactics to keep her under wraps and sheltered from the opposite sex. She locks her in her room, berates her loudly and endlessly, and beats her mercilessly. Finally, Adalgisa imprisons Manela in a convent, where she stays until she is rescued by St. Barbara of the Thunder. Though a glossary of Portuguese terms is (thankfully) included, the work is rife with grammatical and spelling errors that interfere with the enjoyment of reading. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 8/93.
- Peggy Partello, Keene State Coll., N.H.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.