Waiting for Rain: The Politics and Poetry of Drought in Northeast Brazil.

• Position: Book Review

WAITING FOR RAIN: THE POLITICS AND POETRY OF DROUGHT IN NORTHEAST BRAZIL

Nicholas Gabriel Arons. 355 S. Euclid, Suite 103, Tucson, Arizona 85719: University of Arizona Press, October 2004. (800) 426-3797. www.uapress.arizona.edu. ISBN 0-81652-330-4. 251 pp. $17.95 Paperback.

When droughts hit northeastern Brazil, thousands of rural workers are forced to abandon their homes for the cities in search of work. The double impact of drought and corruption--with politicians taking advantage of drought to buy votes and pilfer government accounts--contributes to a cycle of human suffering.

In order to understand the impact of drought and the phenomenon of drought politics, Nicholas Arons goes beyond traditional social-science scholarship to sources such as novels, poetry, popular art, and oral history. For many people in the region, these artistic renditions of life are, ironically, a better reflection of reality than political rhetoric, government archives, and newspaper accounts--even though they are infused with myth or hyperbole.

Drawing on interviews with artists and poets and on his own experiences in the Brazilian Northeast, Arons addresses how drought has impacted the...