SOURCE: Dixon, Paul B. “Malandro Heaven: Amado's Utopian Vision.” In Jorge Amado: New Critical Essays, edited by Keith H. Brower, Earn E. Fitz, and Enrique Martínez-Vidal, pp. 57-74. New York: Routledge, 2001.

In the following essay, Dixon analyzes the duality of Amado's utopian vision as presented in his novel Os pastores da noite.

No discussion of Brazilian regionalism would be complete without including Jorge Amado. Few of the country's narrators, if any, have achieved a greater sense of place. Plentiful reference to the unique Afro-Brazilian realities of his native Bahia are, like dendê oil, coconut milk and malagueta pepper in a dish of vatapá, more than just incidental seasonings. To leave them out is all but unthinkable. Neither Amado himself nor his reading public seems at ease with settings other than those connected to the Bahian capital of Salvador or the cacao-growing region surrounding Ilhéus in the...