Caetana's Sweet Song

by Nélida Piñon

Returning to her hometown after years of traveling the world and pretending to be a world-famous diva, Caetana draws the town's most illustrious citizens--among them a cattle baron, an historian and poet, and a pharmacist--into her life.

Genres: Fiction, Portuguese Literature

401 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

Nélida Piñon is a Brazilian writer born May 3, 1937 in Rio de Janeiro of Spanish immigrants. Her first novel was Guia-Mapa de Gabriel Arcanjo (The Guidebook of Gabriel Arcanjo), written in 1961 which concerns a protagonist discussing Christian doctrine with her guardian angel. In the 1970s she became noted for erotic novels A casa de paixão (The House of Passion) and A força do destino (The Force of Destiny), written in 1977.
In 1984 she perhaps had her greatest success with A Republica dos Sonhos, English translation The Republic of Dreams. The work involves generations of a family from Galicia who emigrated to Brazil. This relates to her own family's experience.
She is a former President of Academia Brasileira de Letras and on a personal note she is said to be fond of American television.

Reviews

[Gabriel de Souza · Rating 3 out of 5]

O livro é perfeito, com exceção de um sério problema: ele não consegue segurar o leitor. O enredo é divertido (e ao mesmo tempo profundo e reflexivo), os personagens são muito bem construídos... Mas a narrativa é um tanto quanto confusa e parece lenta (quando na realidade, tem muitas coisas acontecendo). Não tive uma boa experiência lendo o livro, mas não posso negar sua qualidade literária.

[Andyara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bom

[Michelle · Rating 1 out of 5]

I started twice, but the story line moves so slowly, with rather unpleasant and confusing focus on minutiae that I abandoned the attempts. Maybe I'll try again in another 10 years or so.