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Home is the Sailor
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Minha intenção, minha única intenção, acreditem!, é apenas restabelecer a verdade. A verdade completa, de tal maneira que nenhuma dúvida persista em torno do comandante Vasco Moscoso de Aragão e de suas extraordinárias aventuras.
A verdade está no fundo de um poço, li certa vez, não me lembro mais se num livro ou num artigo de jornal. Em todo caso, em letra de fôrma, e como ...more
A verdade está no fundo de um poço, li certa vez, não me lembro mais se num livro ou num artigo de jornal. Em todo caso, em letra de fôrma, e como ...more
Paperback, 256 pages
Published
September 28th 1988
by Avon Books
(first published 1961)
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Amado was a Grand Old Man of Brazilian literature (1912-2001) perhaps best known for Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands and Gabriela, Clove, and Cinnamon by Jorge Amado l Summary & Study Guide. Sailor is more like another work I’ve reviewed, Shepherds of the Night.
In Sailor, we are in a coastal retirement community in Brazil. Into the community comes a new resident, a retired sea Captain who has a thrilling story for every round of drinks. And the Captain is always the hero. Everyone in this town h ...more
In Sailor, we are in a coastal retirement community in Brazil. Into the community comes a new resident, a retired sea Captain who has a thrilling story for every round of drinks. And the Captain is always the hero. Everyone in this town h ...more

It was not only chance that caused the publication of two short novels in the same book, The Death and Death of Quincas Berro D'Agua and the story The Complete Truth on the Discussed Adventures of Commander Vasco Moscoso de Aragão Captain of Long Course. They are texts that maintain an individual connection between them because in both, the background is the sea and the characters of the two novels refuse to dull daily life, universal and ruled. Both reject boredom, work routine, family, etc. Th
...more

Where is the truth, please tell me -- in the tiny reality of each of us, or in the immense human dream?
Jorge Amado is a Brazilian Steinbeck, and Home is the Sailor is his Cannery Row.
Captain Vasco Moscoso de Aragao regales his suburbanite neighbors with tales of his adventures on the high seas and in exotic ports of call around the world. The white-haired captain is certainly a master mariner. Or, is he?
This novel is presented here as an amateur historian's narrative of events that occurred over ...more
Jorge Amado is a Brazilian Steinbeck, and Home is the Sailor is his Cannery Row.
Captain Vasco Moscoso de Aragao regales his suburbanite neighbors with tales of his adventures on the high seas and in exotic ports of call around the world. The white-haired captain is certainly a master mariner. Or, is he?
This novel is presented here as an amateur historian's narrative of events that occurred over ...more

020911: first book by amado since reading that twayne lit crit, more awareness of comic, satiric writing. i liked it, but was not too surprised how the narrator interrupts, the characters choose sides, the story works out. i guess i was waiting for it, ready for it, so missed that moment of surprise, though there is mounting tension about how exactly it will come to reward our sympathetic character. does a comic tale that ends happily have less resonance than a tragedy? well it was pleasant- and
...more

As has become routine for me with Amado's novels, it seemed to take forever to get my reading up to speed in Home Is the Sailor. As in every earlier novel of his though, I came to the end feeling I had been told an informative and entertaining tale.
The eponymous sailor, Vasco Moscosco de Aragao, had never sailed a ship in all of his 60 years. He was the son of a Brazilian businessman and raised by his grandfather in the city, caring nothing for business or hard work. Wealthy and gregarious, he m ...more

Well, well, well a very interesting dig on the writing of history, written in a very tongue in cheek fashion in the words of a narattor who on account of his words were trying to write an amateurish historical study of the Captain - the protagonist - to submit for the contention of a prize.
Amado's construction of this book is basically founded on two pararrel narratives, the narrator and the Captain, each with his own live events, finally converging into some aposteriori conclusions. All throug ...more
Amado's construction of this book is basically founded on two pararrel narratives, the narrator and the Captain, each with his own live events, finally converging into some aposteriori conclusions. All throug ...more

Apr 20, 2008
tENTATIVELY, cONVENIENCE
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
literature,
latin-american
Loved it, enjoyed it, totally engrossed. It seems stupid (even to me) to have a bookshelf labelled "Latin American" but the reason I do so is b/c 11 yrs ago I organized a Latin American Festival at Chatham College that stimulated me to read a shitload of Latin American novels - so I tend to lump them all together: not w/ any sortof nationalizing intentions but more geographic/lingual/whatever. Anyway, it never ceases to amaze me how many great Latin American novelists there are. This is the 1st
...more

The original Portuguese title translates as "The Old Seamen or the Seafaring Captain". I read this book in Romanian translation, which more or less kept to the original title and names.
Comandante Vasco retires after a life as a ship captain, and settles down in Periperi, a small coastal town. Soon he becomes something of a local hero, enchanting the people with his adventures on the high seas, and his collection of navigation instruments. However, Chico Pacheco, an elderly local, suspects that C ...more
Comandante Vasco retires after a life as a ship captain, and settles down in Periperi, a small coastal town. Soon he becomes something of a local hero, enchanting the people with his adventures on the high seas, and his collection of navigation instruments. However, Chico Pacheco, an elderly local, suspects that C ...more

At some point I was certain I would give a 2-star rating to this book, but alas, the ending is so beautiful and touching, my rating jumped to 4 stars.
This books has Amado´s usual problems - and I have read 11 books by him - misogynysm, manicheism, whores are incredible people, rich people are evil, priests are a bore, men who like whores are great, house wives are devils etc - anyway, the main character and the story as a whole tells us more than the usual socialist talk. It deals witht dreams v ...more
This books has Amado´s usual problems - and I have read 11 books by him - misogynysm, manicheism, whores are incredible people, rich people are evil, priests are a bore, men who like whores are great, house wives are devils etc - anyway, the main character and the story as a whole tells us more than the usual socialist talk. It deals witht dreams v ...more

Jorge Amado was (he died a few years ago) probably the most famous modern Brazilian novelist and one of my favourite storytellers. His novels are generally set in and around Ilheus, capital of the state of Bahia, and the place where Amado was born.
This book - which I just read for the first time - was thoroughly enjoyable as I knew it would be. The theme of the story seems to be the definition of truth or the accountability of deceit or something like that; maybe it's just a story about an impos ...more
This book - which I just read for the first time - was thoroughly enjoyable as I knew it would be. The theme of the story seems to be the definition of truth or the accountability of deceit or something like that; maybe it's just a story about an impos ...more

I strongly disagree with the view that states that Capt. Aragao is an impostor. What grounds do they have for such a veredict? Both sides of the story are told. And the reader is left to judge. Any of both suggestions could be true. The truth lies were? In any case, Vasco is a lovely character. And in any circumstance all sailors will love him. It is a book that any good sailor will always remember fondly.

Great story, but far from being one of Amado's best works.
...more

This is the author's second novel I read. The first novel read is Captains of the Sands, which I loved reading much more than this one. This novel is also a good novel, a good history fiction novel, but I just wasn't attached and/or connected neither to the central character, nor to the narrator, and nor to any other characters. The novel is very well written and the characters are well developped.
The story is told through a narrator, a witness of part of the story, an amateur Historian, who dec ...more
The story is told through a narrator, a witness of part of the story, an amateur Historian, who dec ...more

The vivid tales of a young Bahia sailor, Guma, and his relationships from and around the sea that he adores and follows. Rich in texture and complexity, yet the narrative flows. This Amado story lures you in and swallows you from the surface to the belly of the water where men of the sea, those worthy of her recognition, are led to rest by Brazil's goddess of the ocean - Lemanjá. As nights turns to dawn, and races along the rocks lead to illegal smuggling and ultimately death, folklore and dream
...more

I have not read any of Jorge Amado's novels since I left Colombia in the late 1980s. At that time, I enjoyed how he brought out life in northeastern Brazil well with interesting characters, story lines, and great humor. This novel is about a man who relates stories about all the places he has traveled as a sea captain. He is later found out by someone in the community to be a fraud, but redeems himself as he is asked to captain a ship along the Brazilian coast. It is not his strongest novel, but
...more

Another of my burgeoning collection of his novels--this is the third one I've read and I found them all wonderful. They are great stories, all, so far, set in and around Bahia, in Brazil.
This is the story of a captain who moved to a suburb, where no-one know he had purchased his title, and how he was welcomed and became the most popular citizen, and what happened when he was drafted to take the place of a captain who'd died. And its also about--theme-wise--the nature of truth and dreams and, I t ...more
This is the story of a captain who moved to a suburb, where no-one know he had purchased his title, and how he was welcomed and became the most popular citizen, and what happened when he was drafted to take the place of a captain who'd died. And its also about--theme-wise--the nature of truth and dreams and, I t ...more

The captain arrives in a quiet seaside community, mostly made up of retired professionals and officials, with a collection of nautical memorabilia and exciting tales of seafaring adventures. His stories, his grog and his friendly nature soon make him a celebrity, which not everyone is happy about. The first part of the book is made up of the captain's story in the town, while the second is an alternative account of him as a wealthy and equally friendly and generous young man in the city, but not
...more

Maybe not Amado's best, but that's still pretty good.
...more

This is outside the scope of what I usually read. Translated from the Portuguese it is the narrative of man who arrives in a small town in the guise of a master mariner. He captures the imagination of the population and much follows. But while the plot is fine, it isn't really what is most striking to me. The form of narration is really quite wonderful. The narrator is another man who lives in the town. He is telling us the story and interjecting episodes from his own life. The writing is lovely
...more
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عودة البحار | 1 | 5 | May 28, 2013 03:46PM |
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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(Wikipedia)
J ...more
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