Gabriela, Cravo e Canela

It is one of the milestones of Brazilian literature. Everybody in Brazil knows this girl Gabriela, even the illiterate. The book was adapted for television as a soap opera, Hollywood adapted it as movie. Interestingly, the book is much less about the innocent-wild Gabriela. It is more about how the Brazilian society transformed in the Twenties of the last century. It is the fight between the old “cowboy” generation, which conquered the land with guns and brutality, and the new generation, which conquers with new manners making politics with progress, technology and land development. In contrast to just owning the land. The old generation “owns” also the women. It is still the written law that the betrayed husband has to kill the wife and the lover to keep his honor. By the way, sometimes I think this archaic law is still in place in the North-East of Brazil where I lived for more than two years. In this point you have also the connection with Gabriela’s story, she is from the North-East and she just loves men as men. She likes them all – at least the handsome between them. Amado portrays her as very innocent – when she speaks one could almost claim that she is retarded: still a child. But she can cook as no one other. Reading the novel you can see the colors and smell the odors. The rich language with the greatness of the tropical nature, and the brutality of man with the tenderness of love makes it a good and entertaining read.

This novel taught me again that each one needs to meet the right circumstances in your life. I tried to read it in German when I was really young. After 50 pages I abandoned it. I almost never stop reading a book even those, which do not catch my attention right away. I say this to illustrate how boring Amado’s book was for me at that time. Now I know the Brazilian people a bit, the colors, the passion, and the landscape. That changed my perception of the novel. This time it sucked me up me in from the first page. And it did not stop after the last page.