November 2018: Isabel Allende

Hello all, for November we'll be reading works by Isabel Allende.

For what it's worth, these two books by Allende are part of the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die list:
The House of the Spirits
Of Love and Shadows

FYI, Allende is up for a lifetime achievement award:

"Isabel Allende will be the first Spanish-language author to the recognized with the Distinguished Contribution to American Letters honor, and only the second (since Saul Bellow in 1990) to be born outside the United States."
https://publishingperspectives.com/2018/09/national-book-awards-names-2018-medal...

The only one of hers that I have read is House of Spirits but I have quite a few other one's kicking around.

my all-time favorite of hers is paula, which is gorgeous and also gives you her style and the magical realism she's known for.

if you're looking for something but aren't sure. it's not fiction, though, if that matters to you.

I saw the movie version of House of Spirits when it came out, and then again somewhat more recently (within the past 10 years, give or take). I have Portrait in Sepia on my bookshelf so hope to get to that in November.

>5 sweetiegherkin:
if you haven't read the book, too, it's worth mentioning that the movie is entirely different than the book. the book (which i don't love) follows a few generations of women in this family, and the movie condenses characters significantly, if not generations. (it's been a while so i can't remember for sure if they merge two generations or not.) as is often true in movies, quite a bit is left out.

>6 overlycriticalelisa: I figured as much, but thought I would try a completely different story, especially given that I have the other book already. Plus, one of my coworkers who shares somewhat similar reading tastes started House of Spirits and gave up on it pretty early on, so that wasn't exactly a glowing recommendation.

>7 sweetiegherkin:
yeah, i generally think that an author's most famous or celebrated work is worth reading, just to know. but i was super disappointed in the house of the spirits when i read it as an adult. in high school i thought it was incredible and loved it, but rereading it several years ago i thought it fell far short of where i remembered it landing. most importantly to me, it was not nearly as feminist as i thought it was. (but that could be more a product of the time. still, though.) so i get it.

>8 overlycriticalelisa: Good point about checking an author's most famous book. Too bad you were disappointed. That's not exactly selling me on House of Spirits either :)

In July I finished:

Island Beneath the Sea by Isabel Allende
4****
Audiobook performed by S. Epatha Merkerson.

In a bit of a departure from her usual emphasis on Hispano-American history, Allende gives us a story of an 18th-century slave in French-occupied Saint-Domingue (later to become Haiti). We follow Zarité from her childhood through age forty, from Guinea to Saint-Domingue to Cuba and on to New Orleans.

Allende populates the novel with a wide variety of characters: Zarité’s French master and plantation owner Toulouse Valmorain; the free quadroon Violette Boisier who entertains a wide variety of gentlemen callers, chiefly Valmorain and the French military officer Etienne Relais; Valmorain’s Cuban wife Eugenia Garcia de Solars who is mother to his heir, Maurice; the local doctor Parmentier who is married to a mulatta woman Adele but keeps a separate house from that of his family; and a host of other characters too numerous to mention specifically.

Allende is more than up to the task of relating the historical events that frame this family drama. The time frame of the novel is 1770 to 1810, and we witness the slave rebellion that results in the French abandoning Saint-Domingue to the rebel leaders who will ultimately name it Haiti. As the French leave their plantations and the island for safe haven they migrate to the French colony in New Orleans. But just as they feel settled, Napoleon sells a large tract of land to the United States in what we know as the Louisiana Purchase. Against this backdrop of national and international upheaval, we have the family drama of Valmorain, his slave, Zarité, and their children.

I loved Zarité. She’s intelligent, resourceful, courageous, adaptable and wily. A keen observer and a good judge of character, she makes alliances and bides her time, acting when it is most advantageous to her and her family. And she needs every bit of these skills to navigate the dangerous relationships with Valmorain's two wives: the mentally unstable Eugenia, and the cruel Hortense. Violette is also a richly drawn character – willful, intelligent, confident, loyal and loving. She has made the best of her situation and with the aid of her loyal servant Loula she will ensure the success of her family and those she holds dear. None of the men in her life are a match for her.

S. Epatha Merkerson does a fantastic job of voicing the audiobook. She gives each character a sufficiently unique voice that it is easy to follow the dialogue. But I particularly love the way in which she brings Zarité and Violette to life. These are two strong women, and Merkerson excels in interpreting their characters.

>10 BookConcierge: From the beginning of your review, it sounds like you've read other Allende works before... is that true?

Yes, sweetiegherkin .... I've read many of her books. My favorites by her would include:
Daughter of Fortune
Portrait in Sepia and
Ines of My Soul

>12 BookConcierge: Cool!

I started Of Love and Shadows and it's pretty good so far. I love her lush and rich descriptions of everything.

I started Portrait in Sepia but haven't gotten very far yet. Seems to be a lot of colorful characters though.

I finished Of Love and Shadows and I am mixed. I love her writing style; she is just vivid and fluid. I can smell and see and feel what she is writing about. But I didn't care for the story. She is obviously angry about the political situation but her story was rather disjointed. It seems to be in direct opposition of the fluidity of her prose.

>16 Yells: Hmm, interesting. I am having a similar issue with Portrait in Sepia (finally two-thirds of the way). The story seems to bounce around a great deal, and while a lot is happening, it never feels like anything is happening. In other words, I feel like it's difficult to give a succinct plot outline of this book...

I finally finished Portrait in Sepia a few weeks ago. It wasn't really for me. My review is below.

In a meandering journey over decades and continents, the life of a family is explored, including all its unusual secrets and strained relations against diverse backdrops of war, racism, and illness.

This book was sitting on my bookshelf for quite some time, and I was looking forward to reading it when we chose Allende as the author for the Monthly Author Reads group. Unfortunately, it fell flat for me. I kept waiting for something happen, but the book never really seemed to pick up steam. It seems like Allende was working up to a big reveal at the end, except the reveal wasn't particularly surprising.

Allende obviously has talent, but this title at least was not particularly in my favorite writing style -- her sentences are lengthy, paragraphs go on for pages, and there aren't really chapter divisions. It felt very dense to get through and too much like "work" instead of enjoyment.

The characters were interesting and quirky, but sometimes felt a little one-dimensional. In addition, because the book kept jumping around in time (and small perspective shifts as well), it felt difficult to get a real handle on a character as they kept being reintroduced. I later found out this book is technically a sequel to one of Allende's other titles, so perhaps reading that first might have helped. However, I just don't think it was my cup of tea.

The House of the Spirits – Isabel Allende
Audiobook narrated by Marisol Ramirez and Thom Rivera.
4****

Review UPDATED on second reading, June 2019

Allende covers three generations of the Trueba family in her native Chile. Based loosely on her own family’s history, the novel weaves together personal and political triumphs and tragedies into an epic story of love and history.

I first read this with my F2F book club back in 1997 and was completely enthralled. I’ve been a fan of Allende’s ever since. I love Allende’s luminous writing, and the way that she seamlessly introduces elements of magical realism into her stories. Her gift for vivid description had me feeling cold drafts, luxuriating in sumptuous fabrics, enjoying the sweet juiciness of ripe fruit, hearing the cacophony of a busy marketplace or a student riot, cringing at the stench of human waste in a prison cell. She makes me believe that a woman can have bright green hair, or be clairvoyant and commune with ghosts.

These two examples show both her range from the vaguely humorous to the creepily eerie:
He had to make an enormous effort not to follow her around the house like a hypnotized chicken.
-or-
It had an impossible labyrinth of dark, narrow halls, in which the stink of cauliflower soup and cabbage stew reigned eternally.

And this passage perfectly described the entire novel:
…he told her about his family: a collection of eccentric lunatics for several generations, whom even ghosts made fun of.

The audiobook is narrated by Marisol Ramirez and Thom Rivera, changing narrators as the primary points of view change in the novel from male to female and back again. I thought they did a marvelous job. But this was my second “reading” so I was already familiar with the story. Because it has so many characters and complex story-telling I may not have enjoyed it as much had I not read it previously.

>19 BookConcierge: A lovely review. Allende's writing is indeed very evocative. Even though I didn't love Portrait in Sepia when I read it, it was obvious Allende has a way with words.

FYI, NPR's Latino USA podcast has an interview with Isabel Allende up this week: https://www.latinousa.org/2019/10/04/spotify1941/

I have not listened to it myself yet.

A Long Petal Of the Sea – Isabel Allende
Book on CD performed by Edoardo Ballerini
4****

A family epic covering six decades of history from 1930s Spanish Civil War to 1990s in Chile.

This is the kind of historical fiction at which Allende excels. She seamlessly weaves the real historical events into the story line, while giving the reader characters that come alive on the page and about which we come to care.

She begins with Part 1: War and Exodus, set in the late 1930s in Spain, which is gripped by Civil War. The Dalmau family’s two sons, Guilem and Victor, are both serving at the front – Guilem as a soldier, Victor as a “doctor” (though he doesn’t yet have his degree). Meanwhile, back in Barcelona, Professor Dalmau has opened their home to Roser Bruguera, a young woman with remarkable musical ability and no family ties.

The story follows the Dalmaus as they flee Spain for France, and ultimately sail to Chile to start anew. It is on this voyage to Chile that they encounter the del Solars, a wealthy, influential family. Felipe, the eldest son, and Ofelia, their headstrong daughter will become intimately connected to the Dalmaus.

Among the characters are real-life figures: Salvador Allende, General Augusto Pinochet and Pablo Neruda. The title comes from Neruda’s description of his homeland; he defined Chile as a “long petal of sea and wine and snow…with a belt of black and white foam”.

Central to this work, as to all of Allende’s novels, are the strong women. Roser and Ofelia certainly take center stage. But the older women – Carme, Laura and Juana – are equally strong, resilient, intelligent and determined.

There are a few elements of magical realism, a literary device for which Allende is well-known. But this is not a central focus of the work, and I wouldn’t classify the book, as a whole, as magical realism.

Edoardo Ballerini does a marvelous job performing the audio version. He has a gift for language and for making each character uniquely recognizable. 5***** for his narration.

>22 BookConcierge: Nice review. This book sounds better than the one I read.

My Invented Country– Isabel Allende
Audiobook narrated by Blair Brown
3.5***

In this memoir, Allende looks at her own family history as well as the history of her native country, Chile. She explores the social conventions, politics, natural terrain, geographical difficulties and advantages of this unique land. It’s a story full of mythology – from national legends, to her own family’s stories. Here are the roots of her ability to seamlessly weave elements of magical realism into her novels. Her own family history is rife with examples: a grandmother who could move furniture with her thoughts, ghosts and hauntings, and larger-than-life ancestors.

Blair Brown does a fine job of narrating this memoir. I’ve listened to her narrate a couple of Allende’s books and this is a good partnership.