A review by lizanneyoung
Lovers at the Museum: A Short Story by Isabel Allende

3.5

 

⭐⭐⭐💫

This story was a fun way to start my month of reading. I haven’t read anything with magical realism in some time, so it was a good way to dip my toe back into it. 

However, it also reminded me of why I would grow frustrated with magical realism short stories when I read them for school. I want to continue to be immersed in the world, and I don’t like having that time cut short. That’s even more so on display here since, as the reader, we are only hearing about the world through secondhand testimony, and never get to really see it for ourselves through the eyes of the main narrator. 

I dislike the police officer’s opinion on museums, as a museum enthusiast. To write off solving the mystery because there are what he considers to be more important things to do, not because he believes in the magic but because he would rather use it to explain away his inability to solve something, was disheartening. But, I think it was meant to be that way, so I understand.