The World of ""Mestre"" Tamoda

An ambassador of the government of Angola in Europe, Xitu conceived these stories while imprisoned in a Portuguese jail. Set in the 1940s, the tales in this book are divided into three sections: "" `Mestre' Tamoda'' introduces us to the prolix Tamoda, who refers to a toothpick as a ``wooden dental probe.'' In ``The Village,'' Tamoda displays his ``verbal dexterosity'' at a funeral and a soccer match. ``The Town''the best in the collectioncenters on Maraja, a black tennis coach, and Arlete Pinto, the daughter of Portuguese parents. Social climbers, the Pintos are scandalized by their daughter's affair with a ``bush black.'' Once, on a visit to Johannesburg, they made Arlete stay in the hotel alone because her skin was ``too dark''her great-grandmother, they are loathe to admit, was black. To protest the Pintos' racism, the town stages a mock wedding with Arlete and Maraja as bride and groom. One wishes that the three stories cohered as a novel, but they nonetheless provide a trenchantand comicinsight into prerevolutionary Angola. (March)