Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon.

I was looking for something similar to Marquez’s works when I came across Jorge Amado’s ‘Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon.’

The story is set in 1920’s Iléheus, a town on the coast of Brazil, in a region know as Bahia (how sensual is that name?).   

It explores a time, when Bahia is undergoing much change. Among others, there is political, commercial and social change.  The cacao trade is gaining momentum and some members of the town hope it will be host to the many trading ships that will be involved in the growing industry. The port is yet to be built and a great debate about whether or not it should be, forms the backdrop  of the focal story line, separating those inhabitants that favour the ways of old from those hoping for change.    

The main focus is on the owner of a popular bar, a Syrian man known as Nacib, who suddenly finds himself without a cook just before a very important dinner party.  In desperation, he searches the slave market in hopes of finding someone to prepare the important feast. He finds more than he'd hoped for, he finds Gabriela,  a curious but seriously alluring mulatto woman, whose characteristic strange and free-spirited behaviour confuses poor old Nacib. Amidst the scents of Bahian cuisine and political and social activities, the two fall in love, and in an attempt to possess and tame her, Nacib marries Gabriela. But the marriage is like a cage to the free spirited bird and as you might  imagine the beautiful and sweet love soon turns sour. Does Nacib lose Gabriela forever or does she learn to tame the somewhat wild and unruly character? Read and find out.

There is so much to write about this story and I don’t want to go on and on as I easily could. The seemingly endless array of characters, the bitter stories of adultery and murder, the numerous colonels, the political and social clashes make this an exotic, exhilarating and sensual read. 

Amado’s writing, which is at once both comic and pragmatic, transported me straight to Bahia. I could smell the sweet and exotic fragrances of the beautiful town which seems to be filled with the aromas of Gabriella's cooking and the heady scent of cacao. And just like the description of the small town in Tieta (Agreste), Iléheus is made so vivid and so real with all it's characters giving the town life, I can just imagine living there amidst vibrant colours and even more vibrant characters. I now love Amado nearly as much as I love Marquez.  What an incredible and majestic writer! It's as if his novels aren't fiction at all, but more like flowery and descriptive observations of an anthropologist with a penchant for descriptions, color and humor.