Brazil

Picture books are always a pleasure and this one is done with exceptional good taste. Although the themes are the usual ones—the book opens with the inevitable shots of Amerindian life within the Amazonian jungle—the photography is excellent and the choice of particular subjects is often brilliant. The text goes beyond the usual clichés to include some hard-hitting and realistic essays by Antônio Callado, Sérgio Buarque de Hollanda, and Hugo Loetscher that make up for Jorge Amado’s panegyric of Brazil’s “racial democracy” and Oscar Niemeyer’s praise of his own work. The captions by Alexandre Eulálio are done with sensitivity and insight.