A review by atomic_tourist
A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

A nice read. I appreciated that Allende balanced sentimentality and depth. Her characters were all strong personalities but she resisted turning them into complete stereotypes. It's impossible for me not to compare Long Petal to Min Jin Lee's magnificent Pachinko, and where I think Petal fell short is that it doesn't spend enough time with its characters. Multi-generational sagas are meant to be lengthy works. When they're on the shorter side, like this novel, it means that we readers don't get to know all of the characters very well. I felt that Allende didn't fully flesh out Carme and Marcel, who represented the older and younger generations in the story, and their perspective was lacking.

Also, in a roundabout way, Allende's insertion of her relative (father's cousin), the Chilean politician Salvador Allende, as Victor's close friend, reminded me of Louise Erdrich's fantastic covid novel, The Sentence, where Erdrich inserts herself as the main character's boss. There's something salacious about a self-insertion into a work of fiction. It feels very intimate.