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by Boomert - The Breadmaker's Carnival by Andrew Lindsay 11 Jan 2010
Set in the fictional Italian town of Bacheretto, The Breadmaker's Carnival is the story behind the first of what becomes an annual celebration of bread and fertility. A dying man narrates a fantastic, erotic, and yet gruesome story to his grandson, a tale that is populated by the inhabitants of Bacheretto in the early part of this century. Gianni is the town baker who runs the bakery La Tarantula, and whose baking and lovemaking is inspired by the sensual Sylvana. His oldest friend, Luigi, has committed himself to a life of searching for the image of God, and his young daughter, Francesca, ignorant of her developing sexuality and yet not afraid of its power, becomes the housekeeper of the local priest, Emile. Pia is an aspiring ballerina who only finds greatness as a dancer after she loses a leg in a freak accident. Her stupendous grace and skill on La Pietra, her remaining leg, cause her to be the object of lust to many of the town's men. As the relationships within the town shift and change, always mirrored by the sensual physicality of sex, food, baking and olives, the atmosphere becomes more erotic, darker, and more mystical. Emile, the priest, corroded by an abused childhood and tormented by Francesca's desirability, performs an act of grotesque mutilation upon the young woman. Concurrently, Gianni's sexual frustration perverts his baking until events culminate in his concoction of outrageously hallucinogenic, aphrodisiac cakes, which are consumed voraciously by the townspeople. The first Breadmaker's Carnival then explodes as a mad yet joyous celebration of bread and sex, but degenerates into illness and violence after the priest's vile act is discovered. Eventually, a massive purging - in every sense of the word - cleanses the town of the corruption that had become inherent in the fundamental components of its life - food, sex and God. Often humorous and charming, yet not afraid to be truly shocking and very disturbing in presenting all aspects of eroticism and desire, Andrew Lindsay's novel is a labyrinthine and stunning task.

Alex Hart is a freelance reviewer and former bookseller, based in Adelaide.

C. 1998 Thorpe-Bowker and contributors

Author Biography: A. Lindsay
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