Although Jorge Amado is undisputably Brazil's greatest living writer, his sixteen previous novels are of varying quality. Perhaps best remembered from Amado's earlier years are Jubiabá (1935), Mar Morto (1936) and Terras do Sem Fim (1942), while Gabriela, Cravo e Canela (1958) and Dona Flor e Seus Dois Maridos (1966) highlight his more recent successes. In Tieta do Agreste, as in all his post-1958 works, the author continues with his brand of humorous satire, lambasting bourgeois shortcomings in an atmosphere of picaresque adventures and contagious optimism.

Happily, his present narrative has none of the excesses common to his previous two novels; and the development of both plot an content seems to signal a reactivated desire to consolidate rather than experiment—a tendency also echoed in the work's theme. (p. 573)

Amado presents his tragicomic story through the eyes of an obtrusive narrator whose humorous interjections serve to enhance further the light-hearted tone evident throughout...