"Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands" by Jorge Amado *****

• Summer Sub Club Read with Beth
• Brazilian author
• Originally published 1967
• Setting: Bahia, the northern coastal region of Brazil
• Characters:
• Flor, good girl, owner of cooking school
• Vadinho: #1, gambler, lover
• Teodoro: #2, pharmacist, steady and loyal
• Vocabulary:
• lagniappe:a small gift given with a purchase to a customer, by way of compliment or for good measure; bonus.
• encomia:  a formal expression of high praise; eulogy
• kermess:  a local, annual outdoor fair or festival
• callipygous:  having well-shaped buttocks
• latifundium:  a great estate
• Epigraphs:
• Quotes:
• p.4..."A wake without rum shows a lack of respect for the dead, implies indifference and disrespect
• p.32..."A moment of silence at all the roulette wheels, flags at half mast in the whorehouses, asses in despair, sobbing", "...With him dawn departed mounted on the moon."...at Vadinho's death
• p.209..."But if your guest wants even finer and more unusual game, if he is looking for the ne plus rien, the last word, the pleasure of the gods, then why not serve him up a young and pretty widow, cooked in her tears of suffering and loneliness, in the sauce of her modesty and mourning, in the moans of her deprivation, in the fire of her forbidden desire, which gives her the flavor of guilt and sin?  Ah, I know of such a widow, of chile and honey, cooking over a slow fire every night, just ready to be served."
• p.273...."I am launching this appeal to the four winds, to the mercy of undersea currents, to the phases of the moon and the tide, in the wake of any ship or coastwise vessel, for I am a port whose harbor is hidden, a secluded gulf, a refuge for the shipwrecked.  If you hear of any unmarried man whose object is matrimony and who is looking for a widow, tell him that he will find Dona Flor here beside the stove, standing over a vatapa of fish, consumed by fire and accursed."
• p.335..."On Wednesdays and Saturdays, at ten o'clock, give or take a minute, Dr. Teodoro took his wife in upright ardor, and unfailing pleasure, always with an encore on Saturday, optional on Wednesday."....LOL
• p.337..."He who is born to three pennies, never gets a dime."
• p.373..."...a Bahian who was proud of the progress of her country, took offense at this disdain, with her city relegated to the condition of a village where there was nobody with whom to be unfaithful to one's husband, nor any place to do so in safety."
• p.394..."Happiness leaves no history."
• p.477..."Why is everyone two people?"
• p.503..."Only the Master of the Absurd can save you"...the Prince of Baghdad
• p.510..."Thus the three acts ran parallel and arrived at the same destiny:  the interplanetary agreement between the Captain of the Cosmos and the martians, the game of asking and giving,, an innocent amusement with which the mystic and the Amazon amused themselves to while away the time, and the ennui of Vadinho's friends."
• Notes:
• Comical when Vadinho and Lev crash the big political event and fool all
• Duality:
• Flor
• Celia:  handicapped teacher, pitied..then turned Vadinho in
• Frequent mention of stereotyping by skin color
• Gender issues such as Flor giving up decision making over her own money
• Loved the woman who named her lovers after products purchased by her husband for business...The Dead-Shot, The Wonder-Working Cure
• Common theme of linkage between food and sensuality, pleasure, passions
• "Accelerated rhythm" of action, events, building to climax
• Mr. Cadoso and the Martian theory
• Gambling v. winning....the joy  and thrill of the risk was gone when always winning
• Review:  Undoubtedly one of the best novels I have ever read about the duality of the human spirit. This novel reached into my heart and mind and drew me into its mystical, magical, superstitious Brazilian tale.  Jorge Amado starts by tickling the reader's fancy with a romance between a good girl, Flor, and a lovable, sensual gambler, Vadinho.  He is the classic villain we hate to love.  That is the skeleton of the story.  Amado proceeds to people the Bahian city with fantastic and fantastical characters.  The reader meets the literati, the illiterate, the pagan and the prudish, the rich and the poor,the gossips, the whores, the matriarchs and more.  Eventually, the reader finds it harder and harder to surface for air.  All the while, Amado, while weaving a marvelous, prototypical Brazilian melodrama, is laying the complex groundwork for what I consider to be the primary theme of the novel.  Just when I thought I was in the groove of the story of duality within our protagonist, Flor, Amado's tale erupts in primordial chaos of mind, body, and spirit.  Mystical upheaval ensues as the gods become transparent in their own duplicity.  Social class inequity, personal destiny, loyalty and love.....no topic remains off limits in this sweeping psychological story.  Amado is an absolute master in his ability to create a culture and to reel in the reader using hooks baited with marvelous plot, engaging prose, absolutely wonderful character development and more. In the end, what can one believe in?  Peace comes with acceptance of duality? Or, as the final sentences purports, "And with this we come to the end of the tale of Dona Flor and her two husbands, set forth in all its details ad mysteries, as clear and dark as life itself.  All this took place in Bahia, where these and other acts of magic occur without startling anybody.  If anyone has his doubts, let him ask Cardoso e Sa., and he will tell him whether or no it is the truth.  He can be found on the planet Mars or on any poor corner of the city.

"Leaving Time" by Jodi Picoult ***

• Stewart Place Book Club 
• Audiobook 
•  US author 
•  Originally published in 2014
• Review:  I am fascinated by descriptions of elephant social behavior, and thoroughly enjoyed that aspect of this Jodi Picoult novel.  I do not want to spoil the ending, so I will just say that it felt gimmicky.  The basic theme of the incredible strength of the mother-child bond is well represented in the story.  I found the plot to get a bit choppy at times, but otherwise was enjoyable.

"The Nature of the Beast" by Louise Penny ****

• Audiobook
• #11 in the Inspector Gamache, Three Pines series
• Canadian author
• Mystery/Suspense
• Review: First of all,  kudos to the new narrator!  As always,  Ms. Penny wound the tension as tight as possible , bringing the reader to the edge of her seat.  What will happen if the world descends on Three Pines?  What will happen if John Fleming, the essence of evil, is freed from prison? No spoilers here! The best part is that there is a cliffhanger of an ending, so now I  just have to wait for the next book!  

"The Quiche of Death" by M.C. Beaton. ***

●  Audiobook
●  Scottish author
●  #1 in Agatha Raisin series
●  Originally published in 1992
●  Review:  This was a very enjoyable Agatha Christie style mystery, with a Miss Marpleish protagonist.  Fun!

"Breakfast of Champions" by Kurt Vonnegut *****

Audiobook
Originally published in 1979
US author
Review : 
What if you were the only sentient being and everyone else was a robot, all of you part of an elaborate cosmic experiment?  I listened to the audio version narrated by the wonderful John Malkovich, and he and the book were both brilliant!  I do not have anything to say that hasn't already been said about this novel.  It is a brilliant, multi-layered, hysterically funny, darkly foreboding novel.  Only a brilliant mind could produce this.

"Neverhome" by Laird Hunt. ***

● Stewart Place Book Club selection
●  Audiobook
●  Originally published in 2014
●  Review:  The subject matter of this novel, women who posed as men in order to fight in the Civil War, was very intriguing.  I also was impressed by the noted difference between historical accounts of war and the nitty gritty, smelly, awful, bloody side of a soldier's life.  It was a good story, except much seemed unexplained to me.  The end was quite gripping and creative.  Nonetheless,  the overall feeling I was left with was that the writing was run-of-the-mill.

"Under The Wide and Starry Sky" by Nancy Horan. ****

• Stewart Place Book Club
• US author
• Originally published in 2013
• Review: Much like Horan's debut novel, "Loving Frank", this novel is about a strong woman behind a famous man, in this case, Robert Louis Stevenson.  Given that, and the fact that this is a fictional biography, somewhat questionable in and if itself, I learned a lot about both husband and wife and enjoyed the book very much.  They lived in a different era, that in which a son of a gentleman could wander the planet throughout his adulthood.  Nonetheless,  marriage is marriage, and theirs was quite fascinating.
  

"Parrot and Olivier in America" by Peter Carey *****

• Audiobook 
• Originally published in 2009
• Australian author
• Review:  This novel has it all!  Travel from post French Revolution France to England to post Revolutionary War America to Australia and back again, with Parrot, an indentured servant, and Olivier, a French "child of the Guillotine" and the French Revolution.  Root for their loves to flourish, for their fortunes to grow, for their art to be appreciated, and for their minds and hearts to be opened.  I did! If you enjoy a multi-themed plot with engaging characters, then this is for you.  I found the observations of the characters of various political systems and class systems to be really interesting!