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Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands
by
It surprises no one that the charming but wayward Vadinho dos Guimaraes–a gambler notorious for never winning—dies during Carnival. His long suffering widow Dona Flor devotes herself to her cooking school and her friends, who urge her to remarry. She is soon drawn to a kind pharmacist who is everything Vadinho was not, and is altogether happy to marry him. But after her we
...more
Paperback, 576 pages
Published
September 12th 2006
by Vintage
(first published 1966)
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Start your review of Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands

The strange and moving account of the experiences of Dona Flor,
professor emeritus of the culinary art, and her two husbands,
the first known as Vadinho;
the second, Dr. Teodoro Madureira by name, pharmacist by profession
or
The Fearsome Battle between Spirit and Matter
Narrated by Jorge Amado,
public scrivener located in the Rio Vermelho quarter
of the city of Salvador da Bahia de Todos os Santos,
in the neighborhood of Largo de Sant' Ana,
where Yemanja, Our Lady of the Waters, dwells.
This will ...more

Nov 24, 2009
Sonia Gomes
rated it
really liked it
Recommends it for:
People who love humour, the ribald variety, and who do not judge others
Jorge Amado happens to be one of my favourite authors, but I do have a confession to make, I have such a deep affection for Latin American authors, Spanish as well as Portuguese. Amado is humorous in a ribald sort of way but what is most important about him, is that he is completely non judgemental.
I read “Dona Flor e seus dois Maridos" as an English translation and found it beautiful. The original Portuguese, however, is pretty much different, it deals with many more aspects of Brazilian Cultur ...more
I read “Dona Flor e seus dois Maridos" as an English translation and found it beautiful. The original Portuguese, however, is pretty much different, it deals with many more aspects of Brazilian Cultur ...more

Rating: five enchanted stars of five
So, as I've explained on my profile over at LibraryThing, I've been in a book circle in RL for 17 years, and I posted our group reading list with my one-line assessments of the books. Most of those books I read long long long before I knew about LT or GoodReads, and so I've either never reviewed them or reviewed them for the long-vanished book blog.
Whatthehell, I figured, I should go back and glance over the list, maybe write some reviews of those oldsters.
So ...more
So, as I've explained on my profile over at LibraryThing, I've been in a book circle in RL for 17 years, and I posted our group reading list with my one-line assessments of the books. Most of those books I read long long long before I knew about LT or GoodReads, and so I've either never reviewed them or reviewed them for the long-vanished book blog.
Whatthehell, I figured, I should go back and glance over the list, maybe write some reviews of those oldsters.
So ...more

One of the greatest Brazilian novels, read years ago.

How many stories can you tell in thirteen pages? Jorge Amado (can we be friends? May I call you Jorge?) put five stories in thirteen pages, four of them untold. But even it these four stories were untold, the reader would know what these stories were. It is a demonstration of how to tell a story by not telling it.
The main story is that about Maria Batista, or "Maria of the Veil," narrated by Porciuncula, a mulatto. And despite the limited space, with the words crowding each other in thirteen pag ...more
The main story is that about Maria Batista, or "Maria of the Veil," narrated by Porciuncula, a mulatto. And despite the limited space, with the words crowding each other in thirteen pag ...more

Jorge Amado has found with this novel a very fun dough to mix in his expert hands. With a comical, funny, witty writing, he exploits parallel universes and controversial subjects.
He tackles these subjects with mastery, playing with the history, the customs of an era and the beliefs of a society in full political and cultural effervescence.
Tolerance as an art of living, good humour as a solution to daily worries, nonchalance as an escape from more serious problems, it is the portrait of a people ...more
He tackles these subjects with mastery, playing with the history, the customs of an era and the beliefs of a society in full political and cultural effervescence.
Tolerance as an art of living, good humour as a solution to daily worries, nonchalance as an escape from more serious problems, it is the portrait of a people ...more

Nov 23, 2009
Harry Rutherford
rated it
it was ok
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
south-america,
around-the-world
Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands is a novel about a cooking teacher whose first husband is a charming lowlife, who is always disappearing in search of wine, women, song and roulette, and her second marriage to an upright, responsible, devoted pharmacist who, for all his good qualities, is duller and more reserved. Especially in bed.
Having read the long and mildly tedious Island Boy, I picked it up in the hope it would be a bit more fun. It’s fiction, it’s Brazilian, all the blurbs on the cover go ...more
Having read the long and mildly tedious Island Boy, I picked it up in the hope it would be a bit more fun. It’s fiction, it’s Brazilian, all the blurbs on the cover go ...more

This book. Wow where to begin. It took me a couple minutes to realize how amazing this was. At first when it ended I was a little unsure if I liked it but as it started sink in I realized it has to be one of the finest book I have ever read. This enlighten me in the interworking minds of many people I know I feel refreshed and enlighten and ready to continue in my life with a new improved perspective.

Apr 10, 2017
Anna
rated it
it was ok
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
2017-aty-in-52-books,
literary-fiction
I must admit that this is great literature, and would deserve 5 stars. But…it just wasn’t my cup of tea. Too slow, too much detail, too much rambling.

There is an old joke about a couple celebration their 50th anniversary.
After a wonderful party filled with close friends, family, fine wines and food, they see the last of their guests leave. Then she punches him in the arm.
Him: “What was that for?”
Her: “50 years of bad sex!”
He considers this for a moment and hits her in the arm.
Her: “What was that for?”
Him: “For knowing the difference!”
Any number of cases may be made that Jorge Amado’s Dona Flor and her Two Husbands is a much better book than a ...more
After a wonderful party filled with close friends, family, fine wines and food, they see the last of their guests leave. Then she punches him in the arm.
Him: “What was that for?”
Her: “50 years of bad sex!”
He considers this for a moment and hits her in the arm.
Her: “What was that for?”
Him: “For knowing the difference!”
Any number of cases may be made that Jorge Amado’s Dona Flor and her Two Husbands is a much better book than a ...more

This is Middlemarch, written in modern times, that happens to be gloriously in Brazil and in some ways is even better. Add to that his censorship issues and exile, and its a compelling work of art. To contrast this with Middlemarch, I got more out of this because the social conventions and issues are not as dated, the conclusions are still scandalous and it feels like this could still happen now, while Middlemarch is stuck in its age . One of my new, top favorites. It's the same level of quality
...more

Nov 08, 2015
Speranza
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
personal-library,
my-gems
Any book that has me constantly thinking of food, sex and magic is amazing in my book.

A book with everything; sly wit, erotic passion, voodoo, a ghost, rapturous meanderings over food, even a recipe or two. What do you serve at a funeral wake? Dona Flor can tell you. Dona Flor is in love with her husband but he is a womanizer, a gambler and a drunk and manages to die of a heart attack in the first chapter. Dona Flor is devastated but her friends thinks she should be lucky to be rid of such a loser. But he did have a certain something... Dona Flor finds a new husband and he is a f
...more

The truth about human nature and human happiness is the message of this story. The middle-class inhabitants of a small neighborhood of Salvador, Bahia, have their traditional ideas about everyday life, behavior distinct from the practices of disreputable, immoral lowlifes, artists, and street-corner musicians elsewhere in the town. Their insularity is occasionally challenged by more progressive types among themselves, namely Dona Flor or Dona Norma. Do the deities influence them as well?... does
...more

Feb 14, 2017
Yana Tretyakova
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
brasil-literature,
2017
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.

This book will not end. I have disliked it from the very beginning, and it keeps getting worse! Flor (the main character) is an idiot! I just want to shake her. And why does it take 40 pages to say what should take one paragraph?
The entire story is way too wordy - not poetic, just repetitive and slow. We get it. You don't have to go on about it. I don't like any of the characters - they are all either "good" or "bad" or somehow moralistic. The book seems to preach that poverty and disregard for ...more
The entire story is way too wordy - not poetic, just repetitive and slow. We get it. You don't have to go on about it. I don't like any of the characters - they are all either "good" or "bad" or somehow moralistic. The book seems to preach that poverty and disregard for ...more

This is a beautifully and imaginatively written story about an everyday woman who has to come to terms with different facets of her own personality and what that means about the men she falls in love with and how she loves them in return. She has trouble reconciling her emotions, which seem so contrary to her: her passionate, steamy, violent, up-and-down young romance with her first husband, who dies an untimely death, and her sedate, kind, gentle, secure, and structured but still caring and ten
...more

This is one of my all time favorite books. It is so "latin" in the sense that it supposes that passion and stability cannot co-exist except in an utterly unexpected way. I can't believe I am old enough to say I read it over twenty-something years ago. It was one my first forays into "latin american literature" and I must say it did not disappoint. A must read if you like passion and ghosts.
...more

Early on in the novel Amado throws out a phrase which might as well encapsulate the whole novel, "callipygian exuberance"-- this is a hilariously raunchy Brazilian novel largely featuring the lower classes who live with such ferocity that we are forced to ask if Carnival ever ends in Latin America.
...more

This review first appeared on the Magic Realism Blog http://magic-realism-books.blogspot.com
If I told you that Dona Flor's first husband Vadinho dies on page 3 and doesn't turn up as a ghost until 425, you wouldn't be surprised to hear that the description does not really cover what this book is about. It is a long book - my version amounted to 550 pages - and offers the reader a rich tapestry, filled with the colour, tastes (Dona Flor teaches Bahian cookery), smells and sounds of the Brazilian ...more
If I told you that Dona Flor's first husband Vadinho dies on page 3 and doesn't turn up as a ghost until 425, you wouldn't be surprised to hear that the description does not really cover what this book is about. It is a long book - my version amounted to 550 pages - and offers the reader a rich tapestry, filled with the colour, tastes (Dona Flor teaches Bahian cookery), smells and sounds of the Brazilian ...more

"Yo soy el Maestro del Absurdo" says one of the priests putting the spell on Vadinho, Dona Flor's first husband, to return him back to the land of the dead. The Master of the Absurd could be said about Jorge Amado as well. This book is very funny and even absurd at times but more importantly, well worth the read.
I vaguely remember liking the movie, made in 1976 with Sonia Braga (or maybe I just remember Sonia Braga?) but this book was a complete enjoyable read. From the start when her gambling, ...more
I vaguely remember liking the movie, made in 1976 with Sonia Braga (or maybe I just remember Sonia Braga?) but this book was a complete enjoyable read. From the start when her gambling, ...more

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. Th ...more
Amado proceeds to people the Bahian city with fantastic and fantastical characters. Th ...more

I read about half the book and although Donna Flor is a widow, she still hasn't set on her second husband. The book is too long with flat over blown single trait characters, meant to be colourful but are not. the meanie is all mean, the charmer is all charm and so on and so forth.
we are meant to fall in love with some and loathe others but sadly it left me flat and uninterested with the characters, not reading anymore. ...more
we are meant to fall in love with some and loathe others but sadly it left me flat and uninterested with the characters, not reading anymore. ...more

Wonderful story! The characters are so well developed, and there are stories within stories. I got so involved with the story - I talked about it to anyone who would listen! I recommended it to others and urged them to experience what I had!
I laughed out loud! I cheered and shouted!! I got cross! I disliked some of the characters!
Fabulous!!
I laughed out loud! I cheered and shouted!! I got cross! I disliked some of the characters!
Fabulous!!

Couldn't pass 200 pages. One of the most boring books ever :(
...more

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.

This is the story of Dona Flor. Her husband, Vadinho, has just died. According to everyone around him - he was a gambling, good for nothing, and no one was surprised to see him go. After his death, Dona throws herself into her work and her life around her. Soon - she is being encouraged to remarry. She meets a pharmacist who is everyting Vadinho wasn't and soon they are married. However - after their marrige, she finds herself dreaming of Vadinho. Her new husband doesn't have Vadinho's passions,
...more

Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands is the definition of a slow-burner. This ponderous novel takes its time, waits for its moments and pounces hard to deliver intentions - the moral, sexual and social enlightenment/liberation/definition of a young Brazilian woman from Salvador, Dona Flor. It is an expert character study, not just of the sympathetic Dona Flor, but also of her two differing husbands, Cassonova-type Vadinho and straight laced Teodoro. It is encased in a social and human portrait of urba
...more
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Jorge Amado de Faria was a Brazilian writer of the Modernist school. He was the best-known of modern Brazilian writers, his extensive work having been translated into some 30 languages and popularized in film, notably Dona Flor and her Two Husbands, (in Portuguese, Dona Flor e Seus Dois Maridos) in 1978. His work dealt largely with the poor urban black and mulatto communities of Bahia.
(Wikipedia)
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“Ai, nunca mais seus lábios, sua língua, nunca mais sua ardida boca de cebola crua!”
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“The whole street took part in the serenade to Flor, Flor leaning against her high window, all ruffles and lace, drenched in moonlight. Down below Vadinho, her gallant knight, with the red rose in his hand, so red it was almost black, the rose of her love.”
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