Multicultural Review Review of Samba Dreamers by Donna McGrath, University of Rhode Island December 2006    Saudade: homesickness. Samba Dreamers is a wild and passionate story shadowed by the effects of political oppression and rebellion, including the countercultural revolution – Tropicalia – in Brazil during the late 1960s. De Azevedo crafts a novel of intense longing from the point of view of Brazilian and American characters that are deftly tangled in each other’s lives.     José Francisco Verguerio Silva flees his beloved Brazil to Los Angeles, adopts the name of Joe Silva, and attempts to enjoy freedom from dictatorship. The “city reminded him a bit of a difficult woman . . . large billboards wanted this, wanted that, wanted a good smoke, wanted a bottle of gin, wanted a leather suitcase, wanted a baby wrapped up in a present.”     He meets the strong, Amazon-like Rosea Socorro Katz, daughter of Hollywood’s Carmen Socorro -- a Brazilian actress who, through her legendary beauty and stature, is symbolic of the Amazonian culture. Both ache to return to Brazil -- the familiar home of colorful music, language, and food. Although Joe marries Sherri, an aloof waitress who does not care to know that Spanish and Portuguese are not the same language, he begins a mutually heated relationship with Rosea; the difference is that Rosea is in love with Joe, who represents all that is Brazilian to her. Sherri, anthropologist Jeremy Millard, BirdBoy and Melvinor are essential connections to Joe and Rosea. They too, yearn for people and places both real and imagined. Like samba music, de Azevedo’s novel is melancholy, energetic, and fun.