BAY OF ALL SAINTS AND EVERY CONCEIVABLE SIN

Bahia, Brazil's colonial capital until the mid-1700s, is the setting for Brazilian first-novelist Miranda's historical tome- -which spins itself around the central action of a murderous power play by one political faction against a more enlightened one. Serving as illustratively sympathetic characters against which to measure all the deceit and corruption are the shining (and real historical) figures of Padre Antonio Vieira, a liberal and foresighted Jesuit, and Gregorio de Matos, a Gongoristic satirical poet of the era. Vieira is out of favor with the Church in Portugal, hence more or less exiled in Brazil, while de Matos is a figure of lusty appetite and wicked indiscretion. Between the two, the time and place get pretty well sorted-out. Miranda's book was a hot item in Brazil—but here it's only for those with a strong desire to be lectured to woodenly both in narrative and in dialogue (```I was sorry to have missed the opportunity of meeting your uncle Isaac Aboab de Fonesca in Amsterdam. As you know he was Brazil's first Rabbi; and he founded the first synagogue in Recife. But the intolerance in Brazil made his life impossible...'''). Stiff goods that didn't export well.