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rmaclellan's review
4.0
A detailed look at a very specific event, but one that has broader applications and lessons.
The Golden Harvest is set in Ilheus, a cacao city in Brazil's Bahia Province, and the story follows the lives of plantation owners, exporters, peasants, workers and their families through an extreme boom and bust over several years in the early 1940s. Amado's leftist leanings are definitely noticeable - everything is portrayed through the lens of money, employment and class, the plantation workers are written in a very sympathetic way and the communist Joaquim is the only character who can foresee the scope of cacao's boom and bust. For that matter, it felt like Joaquim was the character who came out on top and provided some hope for the future of Ilheus - the old guard are ruined, the exporters will tear each other apart but there's always hope for a better future.
Of course this book is centered around cacao, but the story it tells could be applied to any commodity that becomes the cornerstone of an entire city and community, and the cutthroat, desperate men that thrive on it. Cacao could be replaced with oil, coffee, sugar, timber.
Also, the passages describing the cacao fields are just gorgeous and so evocative. It becomes pretty clear that Amado is writing from experience and memory, as he was born on a cacao plantation in the Bahia. Nobody else could have done that better.
That being said, the book is very detailed and slow-moving. It does make you understand the specific economic situation of Ilheus at this time, but just be aware this isn't a quick read.
The Golden Harvest is set in Ilheus, a cacao city in Brazil's Bahia Province, and the story follows the lives of plantation owners, exporters, peasants, workers and their families through an extreme boom and bust over several years in the early 1940s. Amado's leftist leanings are definitely noticeable - everything is portrayed through the lens of money, employment and class, the plantation workers are written in a very sympathetic way and the communist Joaquim is the only character who can foresee the scope of cacao's boom and bust. For that matter, it felt like Joaquim was the character who came out on top and provided some hope for the future of Ilheus - the old guard are ruined, the exporters will tear each other apart but there's always hope for a better future.
Of course this book is centered around cacao, but the story it tells could be applied to any commodity that becomes the cornerstone of an entire city and community, and the cutthroat, desperate men that thrive on it. Cacao could be replaced with oil, coffee, sugar, timber.
Also, the passages describing the cacao fields are just gorgeous and so evocative. It becomes pretty clear that Amado is writing from experience and memory, as he was born on a cacao plantation in the Bahia. Nobody else could have done that better.
That being said, the book is very detailed and slow-moving. It does make you understand the specific economic situation of Ilheus at this time, but just be aware this isn't a quick read.
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