A Lonely Devil

Jamba's ( Patriots ) intriguing fictional memoir-in-exile is narrated by Fernando Luis, a black African living under a repressive communist regime in a former Portuguese colony. Through hard work--and by betraying the only woman who ever loved him--Nando prospers in his country, rising to the position of torturer for the dreaded secret police. But he is burned out by the tender age of 25, unable to find new and creative ways of causing pain. An extended trip to Brazil on government business, however, convinces the young man to try to regain his innocence in the paradise of Bahia. Much of Jamba's prose evinces a particular resonance and electricity, particularly in his description of how Brazil appears to Nando, filled with ``better Africans.'' But the novel's final section is rushed at such an uneven pace that the closing words--``I failed''--become almost as believable a cry from the author as from his repentant narrator. (July)