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This book involves the slow death of Paula, actually Isabel Allenda's daughter and not fiction. The political aspects of the chaos in her country Chile' adds to the interest of the book. After that the story enfolds with tension that powerfully draws the reader into it with such intensity that it is almost impossible to remove oneself from the power of Allende's words and the plot that she weaves out of her own life.
We learn of the family background, of the complexities that reveal the characters, their relationship with one another and the effect in which their lives are bound together. In this book too, Isabel Allende has a character with physic ability, However this does not play as important a role as it does in "The House of Spirits." Isabel Allende has an enormous vocabulary. As Paula is in the process of taking her last breaths her mother tells her the story of her life, which actually becomes an autobiography.
She is constantly at Paula's bedside, watching her last days of life. Allende's writing frequently has metaphysical overtones. In her first novel, "The House of Spirits," she has a young girl with amazing physic abilities and a gift for foretelling the future which attracts many people to come to her in order to discover what lies ahead for them.
She writes with an intellectual insight, as she views her story both from the objective and the subjective point of view. There is no doubt that Allende is a master writer although there are times when I wish she would use simpler words as to make a dictionary not quite so necessary.Louise Cabral
She talks about her childhood in Chile, including the political events and their effect on her family. This book tells a story that is at times both heartbreaking and joyous. She describes marriage, her work, her children, her travels, all with emotion and artistry that demonstrate without doubt her amazing talent as a writer. It is a memoir of Isabel Allende's life interwoven with a letter to her daughter who is in a coma brought on by a rare illness. It moves back and forth between the past and the present and both stories are fascinating and powerful. Allende writes with such beautiful language it makes her incredible, yet sometimes sad, journey all the more wonderful and enjoyable to read. While The House of the Spirits (one of her many excellent novels) is not to be missed, if you read only one book by Isabel Allende, this is the one I recommend.
Through her book Paula, I.Allende accomplished to tranform a sad life changing experience of hers, the experience of loosing her only daughter in a hymn for life. Her poetic writing does not leave you stop reading the book. Her passion is succesfully communicated to the readers. Well done Isabele
The book is written using a past, present and future construct which tested my memory. Isabel Allende writes about the relationships of women to their men and their children also including womens' related emotions. She wraps this book around how we live and come to accept death. It touches the senses and emotions. cassandra jennings hall
Even in the midst of the anguish of trying to find a way to communicate with her inert daughter, she found comic relief in the drama of the lives of other patients in the hospital. A writer who can make you laugh, smile, and cry in the same chapter is indeed a writer to be cherished. The author provides compelling stories of her early childhood, great loves, and introduces a parade of interesting characters. Such is the case with Allende's Paula. As a mother, I suffered with Allende's description of her struggle to keep her comatose daughter alive, yet amid the tragedy she could digress and recall earlier periods of laughter and funny irony. All these are gently interwoven with a description of historical events and political turmoil in Chile creating a provocative glimpse of an era which I suspect most US readers were probably unaware. A tender and sensitive description of loss, tragedy, and of finding peace, Paula is indeed one of my more revered reads for this year.
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