Rare and Commonplace Flowers The Story of Elizabeth Bishop and Lota De Macedo Soares

"[T]he book is at its best describing some of the most subjective sequences: for instance, the private bliss of the Samambaia idyll, the 'house and rock / in a private cloud.'...RARE AND COMMONPLACE FLOWERS has become a Brazilian best seller, and one can see why. For although the book is superficially an exploration of a love affair, it is also deeply concerned with national identity, the nature of the Brazilian character and the effort to build Brazilian cities...RARE AND COMMONPLACE FLOWERS performs an invaluable service: unforgettably memorializing the remarkable Lota de Macedo Soares, and in the process filling in a crucial gap in Bishop's biography.Oliveira, Carmen L. is the author of 'Rare and Commonplace Flowers The Story of Elizabeth Bishop and Lota De Macedo Soares' with ISBN 9780813530338 and ISBN 0813530334.