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A review by book_concierge
Paula by Isabel Allende
5.0
When Isabel Allende’s daughter became gravely ill and fell into a coma, the author spent days at Paula’s bedside. At her own mother’s urging, Allende began to write the story of her family for Paula in an attempt to connect her child with her ancestors, “…so that when you wake up you will not feel so lost.”
Evocative, heart-rending, luminous, suspenseful, triumphant – I cannot think of enough adjectives to describe this beautifully written memoir. Allende lays her soul bare on the page. She brings her own grandparents, uncles, cousins, parents, brothers, friends to life as she attempts to reach the comatose Paula. Her family connections are full of world-famous people – not the least of which was her uncle Salvador Allende – and she had a rather privileged upbringing. She traveled extensively with her mother and stepfather, who was a diplomat, and attended private schools. But all her advantages could not protect Allende from life’s setbacks and tragedies.
With unfailing honesty she relates everything – from being sexually molested as a child to being a television star, from a sheltered young woman to a feminist and political exile, from a traditional wife and mother to a reckless love affair with an Argentinian trumpeter. She also includes many examples of her deep connections to the mystical and spiritual; it’s easy to see why she writes magical realism so well.
The work moves back and forth from Allende’s history to the events in Paula’s hospital room. Those scenes at her daughter’s bedside were some of the most emotional. The fierceness with which Allende fought to bring her precious child back from the abyss, the refusal to take “No” for an answer, the determination to bring her daughter back to California and her home overlooking San Francisco Bay – these passages in the book reveal the woman today, while the scenes relating her history show how she came to be this strong woman.
It took me a while to get into the book. The writing is very dense; a paragraph can last three pages. But once I got used to the rhythm of her writing I was totally immersed and engaged. Allende’s gift for storytelling is evident. There were passages that evoked laughter, sections where I recognized my own relationships with my brothers or grandparents, and scenes that had me in tears or gasping aloud. Towards the end of the book she writes this:
I try to remember who I was once but I find only disguises, masks, projections, the confused images of a woman I can’t recognize. Am I the feminist I thought I was, or the frivolous girl who appeared on television wearing nothing but ostrich feathers? The obsessive mother, the unfaithful wife, the fearless adventurer, or the cowardly woman? Am I the person who helped political fugitives find asylum or the one who ran away because she couldn’t handle fear?
The answer, of course, is that she is all these women. Her experiences may be unique, but her reactions are universal.
Evocative, heart-rending, luminous, suspenseful, triumphant – I cannot think of enough adjectives to describe this beautifully written memoir. Allende lays her soul bare on the page. She brings her own grandparents, uncles, cousins, parents, brothers, friends to life as she attempts to reach the comatose Paula. Her family connections are full of world-famous people – not the least of which was her uncle Salvador Allende – and she had a rather privileged upbringing. She traveled extensively with her mother and stepfather, who was a diplomat, and attended private schools. But all her advantages could not protect Allende from life’s setbacks and tragedies.
With unfailing honesty she relates everything – from being sexually molested as a child to being a television star, from a sheltered young woman to a feminist and political exile, from a traditional wife and mother to a reckless love affair with an Argentinian trumpeter. She also includes many examples of her deep connections to the mystical and spiritual; it’s easy to see why she writes magical realism so well.
The work moves back and forth from Allende’s history to the events in Paula’s hospital room. Those scenes at her daughter’s bedside were some of the most emotional. The fierceness with which Allende fought to bring her precious child back from the abyss, the refusal to take “No” for an answer, the determination to bring her daughter back to California and her home overlooking San Francisco Bay – these passages in the book reveal the woman today, while the scenes relating her history show how she came to be this strong woman.
It took me a while to get into the book. The writing is very dense; a paragraph can last three pages. But once I got used to the rhythm of her writing I was totally immersed and engaged. Allende’s gift for storytelling is evident. There were passages that evoked laughter, sections where I recognized my own relationships with my brothers or grandparents, and scenes that had me in tears or gasping aloud. Towards the end of the book she writes this:
I try to remember who I was once but I find only disguises, masks, projections, the confused images of a woman I can’t recognize. Am I the feminist I thought I was, or the frivolous girl who appeared on television wearing nothing but ostrich feathers? The obsessive mother, the unfaithful wife, the fearless adventurer, or the cowardly woman? Am I the person who helped political fugitives find asylum or the one who ran away because she couldn’t handle fear?
The answer, of course, is that she is all these women. Her experiences may be unique, but her reactions are universal.