Book's Reception (Portugal & Brazil)

Amado’s novels are rich in social questions and, especially in his first novels, Marxist ideologies are very present. In Gabriela Cravo e Canela, vestiges of these ideologies remain and peek through the narrative.

This novel intends to represent real Brazilian situations at the time such as women’s oppression and “coronelismo” (an oligarchy ruled by agrarian landowners called “coronel” ). It also reveals the way of living in Bahia at the time, with the racial hybridism of its own people and culture. It shifts the attention to outcasts and groups that were less socially favoured over their oppressors and it highlights social injustices and the beauty of being human. Most importantly, it evidences the multiple characters of the people from Bahia and the diversity of colours in its formation.

At the time it was published (1958), Brazil was at a period where the country was between two dictatorships, thus the novel Gabriela, Cravo e Canela was treated differently than previous publications of Amado. It surprisingly sold 20 thousand copies in the first 2 weeks and in December of the same year 50 thousand more had been sold.

Meanwhile in Portugal books written by Amado were forbidden for his narratives integrated themes that were opposed to the regime – Marxist ideas, female freedom and sensuality, colonialism, exposure of a society where African and Indigenous people were treated equally,...The book was authorized at the end of the regime but with many cuts and censoring. Amado, who was forbidden from visiting Portugal, had his entrance finally allowed in 1966 after leaving the Communist Party of Brazil.

Still one year before, in 1965, at a Lello’s bookstore in Angola, several copies of Gabriela were seized. Gabriela remained very polemic until the end of the regime.

Sources

Book's Reception