Adventure with the Captains of the Sands
Quick review of an enjoyable and thought-provoking book by Brazilian author Jorge Amado
I read most of Brazilian author Jorge Amado’s “Captains of the Sands” during a three-week trip across Brazil this summer. We did not go to Bahia, which in retrospect feels like a missed opportunity. Because I was so captured by Amado’s narrative and descriptions of the town and its waterfront that it would in fact have been great to see how much of the Bahia of the “Captains of the Sands” is still visible today.
Amado’s Captains of the Sands delivers so much of what I look for in works of literature. It has interesting characters presented in a way that makes them stand out from each other and enabling the reader (or at least myself) to establish a bond with them; to care about them. It allowed me to go on so many adventures along with its titular characters, which rekindled some of my own childhood happiness and passion. The tale immersed me in the roaming of the Captains as I have not been immersed in a long time. So for me, it was definitely heart-warming and nostalgic.
Yet at the same time, the book is very much grounded in a gritty reality. It made me think more intensely about societal problems such as poverty and the fate of unfortunate children than well-written but somehow colder and more “detached” newspaper articles, scientific studies, facts and figures. I felt sympathy for so many of the book’s characters that – upon further thought – made me feel sympathy for the millions of children who today still face realities at least as gritty as the ones showcased by Amado. This combination of fantasy and adventure, yet also of tragedy and realism is a powerful feat by a work of fiction, in my eyes.
I can highly recommend the Captains of the Sand because of this incredible balance, along with the accessible and very “readable” language and style. It is my first book by Amado, but I am impressed enough to search for more!
Captains of the Sands. By Jorge Amado (2013 [1937]), Penguin Classics; 288 pages.