Fado Alexandrino
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On the tenth anniversary of the return of their battalion from Mozambique, five men attempt to rekindle the fraternal bond that helped them survive the colonial war that was Portugal's Vietnam. In turn, they tell the stories of their lives before, during, and after the revolution that overthrew the long-lived Salazar dictatorship.Library JournalBetween 1960 and 1974 tiny but once mighty Portugal sent a million and a half troops to preserve its empire in Angola, where men--scapegoats for the politicians back home--became machine gun-clutching animals in Vietnam-like conditions. Ten years after the coup to overthrow the Portuguese dictatorship and the withdrawal of troops from the African country, four ex-soldiers gather over dinner and wine to confess to one another their respective brutalities, which naturally lead to their present-day brutalities at home. Like the author's highly acclaimed autobiographical novel South from Nowhere ( LJ 5/15/83), in which an Army surgeon relives his 1,001 days in the Angolan hell, this longer and more particularized novel unfolds on many levels, and its quadruple confession leaves no doubt about the decadence and corruption of contemporary Lisbon. Recommended.-- Jack Shreve, Allegany Community Coll. , Cumberland, Md.
