Eva Luna by Isabel Allende

Eva Luna Reviews

• 
  Elyse Walters

  "Eva Luna", by Isabel Allende was first written in 1987 --translated from Spanish to English.
  I've read most books of her books - but never read this one.....which is now available as a Kindle download-- for $2.99
  
  Eva, ( a storyteller much like Isabel Allende, and revolutionary), begins this story -- narrating in first person. She describes her mother, Consuelo's, life. Her mother worked for a professor-- and usually did everything he asked her to do. One day an Indian Gardner was bitten by a snake. The professor left instructions of what Consuelo was to do to prepare him for his deathbed. Instead of following his orders she made love to him, thus conceiving Eva.
  As a turn of events - the Gardner recovers - but Consuelo dies after choking on a chicken bone.
  Eva is is left to fend for herself- an orphan. ...and after the professor dies her one friend, Huberto Naranjo at the time - and later sometime lover until she falls for another man - places her in the care a Lady Pimp named La Senora.
  La Senora take Eva under her wing and gives her a makeover. Everything is peaceful for a few years until a new police chief moves in and crashes the brothel.
  
  Next she meets Riad Hilabi -- a man with a cleft lip. Eva moves in with him and his wife, Zulema.
  Things part of the story gets very complicated and dramatic- I won't spoil what happens -but soon Eva is going to flee again. ( after some 'close calls').
  NOTE: This novel moves 'a little' slow until this point - I didn't mind - we are getting to know the characters...... but then things speed up - action gets moving!
  
  Eventually Eva meets Rolf Carle. The two 'do' fall in love - but their love has a bigger purpose than just themselves - they are both strong characters wanting to make a difference.
  Their life is about service. Eva and Carle both work together to help the guerrillas in releasing nine prisoners from jail as an act of rebellion.
  
  Throughout the novel a parallel narrative is told about Rolf Carlie's life from childhood to adulthood. We learn what happened to him as a kid to make him the man he is.
  It was nice to see a strong 'man' in this novel - as well a strong female....which Isabel is known for.
  
  It's been a while since I remember reading early-fiction books by Isabel Allende. After her daughter died - she wrote two excellent non- fiction books. I treasure them both!!!
  Later her fiction books began to get more and MORE contemporary. I liked them, but this is where Isabel's fans began to divide.
  This novel was a nice RE-VISIT down memory lane. If readers liked Isabel' early fiction books - but missed this one - they are sure to enjoy "Eva Luna".
  We will meet Mimi - the Beautiful and enchanting transsexual, and the Professor who is devoted to mummifying corpses. The characters are 'enchanting'.
  
  There is political drama - sexual steam - history - comedy - tragedy -
  mysticism....and Isabel's delightful creative imaginative storytelling.
  OLD SCHOOL Isabel Allende!
  
  
  
• 
  Joe Valdez

  The Year of Women--in which I'm devoting 2021 to reading female authors only--continues with my introduction to Isabel Allende. Eva Luna was published in 1987 and there is little to suggest that I’d fall under the spell of this novel. I didn’t cotton to South American magical realism by a different author, nor did I want to read a lot of colorful hooptedoodle with no story. But with a command of the page that reminded me of W. Somerset Maugham, Allende has such a strong storytelling impulse and talent for painting with words that I was caught up in the best question a reader can have: “What happens next?”  
  
  The story is the first person account of Eva Luna, beginning at the earliest known record of her mother and proceeding through a life of poverty, servitude, narrow escapes, riches, revolution and love until our narrator meets the man she feels is her mate. Her mother was discovered by Catholic missionaries on the dock of a riverside mission in the jungle of some South American country. The men baptize the child with fiery hair the first female name that comes to mind: “Consuelo.”  
  
  With no recollection of her past, Consuelo invents an origin story involving a Dutch sailor setting her adrift in a rowboat. At the age of 12, she meets a Portuguese man who harvests chickens, spending all day with him romping through the jungle, catching and slaughtering the birds. Alarmed by this development, the missionaries send Consuelo to the city to obtain a proper vocation for a Christian woman. They forbid her from taking her parrot or monkey companions along. 
  
  The journey began by canoe, down tributaries that wound through a landscape to derange the senses, then on muleback over rugged mesas where the cold freezes night thoughts, and finally in a truck, across humid plains through groves of wild bananas and dwarf pineapple and down roads of sand and salt, but none of it surprised the girl, for any person who opens her eyes in the most hallucinatory land on earth loses the ability to be amazed. On that long journey, she wept all the tears stored in her soul, leaving none in reserve for later sorrows. Once her tears were exhausted, she closed her lips, resolving from that moment forward to open them only when it could not be avoided. Several days later, when they reached the capital, the priests took the terrified girls to the Convent of the Little Sisters of Charity, where a nun with a jailer’s key opened an iron door and led them to a large shady patio with cloistered corridors on four sides; in the center, doves, thrushes, and hummingbirds were drinking from a fountain of colored tiles. Several young girls in gray uniforms sat in a circle; some were stitching mattresses with curved needles while others wove wicker baskets. 
  
  After three years in the convent, Consuelo shows inclination toward little more than daydreaming. She's placed in the house of a foreign doctor who's developed a highly advanced embalming process for preserving the dead. When their gardener is bitten by a viper, Consuelo deprives her employer of another test subject by saving the Indian's life and hastily conceiving a child with him while he's recovering. A daughter without fangs or scales is born. Consuelo names her Eva ("So she will love life") and without any last name, provides the name of her father's tribe: Luna.
  
  Eva Luna grows up in the house of the professor with little contact with the outside world or other children. On Christmas Eve when she's 6, Eva's mother swallows a chicken bone and dies fearlessly. Eva is raised by her madrina, her godmother, the professor's cook, a devout Catholic from which Eva inherits a defiant independence. As the professor's health fades, she cares for him and upon his death, is named his sole heir, a distinction that doesn't trouble the pastor from claiming all the professor's goods.
  
  At the age of 7, Eva is sent from the place of her birth to earn a living. She befriends a black cook named Elvira but runs afoul with the patrona of her new house, a spinster who does not appreciate Eva's daydreaming. Her cruelty provokes Eva to snatch her employer's wig off her head and flee. She's found in the street by a rascal boy named Huberto Naranjo. He's endeared by Eva's talent for storytelling, but savors his freedom more. Huberto Naranjo convinces Eva to return to her patrona, which she does, for several years at least.
  
  Every time I looked outside from the balcony, I realized that I would have been better off had I not come back. The street was more appealing than the house where life droned by so tediously--daily routines repeated at the same slow pace, days stuck to one another, all the same color, like time in a hospital bed. At night I gazed at the sky and imagined that I could make myself as wispy as smoke and slip between the bars of the locked gate. I pretended that when a moonbeam touched my back I sprouted wings like a bird's, two huge feathered wings for flight. Sometimes I concentrated so hard on the idea that I flew above the rooftops. Don't imagine such foolish things, little bird, only witches and airplanes fly at night. I did not learn anything more of Huberto Naranjo until much later, but I often thought of him, placing his dark face on all my fairy-tale princes. Although I was young, I knew about love intuitively, and wove it into my stories. I dreamed about love, it haunted me. I studied the photographs in the crime reports, trying to guess the dramas of passion and death in those newspaper pages. I was always hanging on adults' words, listening behind the door when the patrona talked on the telephone, pestering Elvira with questions. Run along, little bird, she would say. The radio was my source of inspiration. The one in the kitchen was on from morning till night, our only contact with the outside world, proclaiming the virtues of this land blessed by God with all manner of treasures, from its central position on the globe and the wisdom of its leaders to the swamp of petroleum on which it floated. It was the radio that taught me to sing boleros and other popular songs, to repeat the commercials, and to follow a beginning English class half an hour a day: This pencil is red, is this pencil blue? No, that pencil is not blue, that pencil is red. I knew the time for each program; I imitated the announcers' voices. I followed all the dramas; I suffered indescribable torment with each of those creatures battered by fate, and was always surprised that in the end things worked out so well for the heroine, who for sixty installments had acted like a moron.
  
  This takes us one-fourth of the way through Eva Luna. I was left wanting more. Part of the wonder of this novel is that I can open it to any page and every paragraph is dynamite. Allende doesn't limit her fine writing to the beginning of a chapter. Every page holds a highlight. She not only imagines everything in her world down to the furniture but uses every color and all of her senses to bring that world to life. Characters make discoveries and leave their wisdom behind. In Allende's world, sex is natural, playful and copious.
  
  What did they do when they were alone? Nothing new; they played the same game cousins have played for six thousand years. Things became interesting when they decided to spend nights three in a bed, calmed by Rupert's and Burgel's snoring in the adjacent room. To keep an eye on the girls, the parents slept with their door open, and that also allowed the girls to keep an eye on them. Rolf Carlé was as inexperienced as his two companions, but from the first encounter he took precautions not to get them pregnant, and poured into the erotic games all the enthusiasm and inventiveness he needed to make up for his anatomy ignorance. His energies were endlessly fed by the formidable gifts of his cousins--open, warm, smelling of fruit, breathless with laughter, and exceedingly receptive. Furthermore, having to maintain absolute silence--terrified at the creaking bedsprings, huddled beneath the sheets, enveloped in one another's warmth and aromas--was a spur that set their hearts aflame. They were at the perfect age for inexhaustible lovemaking. The girls were flowering with a summery vitality, the blue of their eyes deepening, their skin becoming more luminous, and their smiles happier; as for Rolf, he forgot his Latin and went around bumping into furniture and falling asleep on his feet; he was only half awake as he waited on the tourists, his legs trembling and his eyes unfocused.
  
  Allende does paint the world as Eva Luna remembers it, but rather than what I think of as "magical realism," this is a world that could exist. Radio soaps and telenovelas pop up throughout the story and some of the descriptions of the little orphan tilt toward the dramatic, but this is the sort of "dramatic" that I enjoy: imaginative, exciting, with bad heroes and good villains and high passions. I couldn't wait to open this book up again to see what Eva Luna was up to. That, in my mind, is what separates this from Hooptedoodle and makes it my favorite read of the year.
  
  Isabel Allende was born in 1942 in Lima, Peru to Chilean parents. Her father, a diplomat, deserted them when Isabel was 2. Her mother returned to Santiago, Chile with three children to live with Allende’s maternal grandfather. The financial and social disempowerment of her mother grew a rebellious streak in Allende against patriarchal society. Her mother remarried another diplomat and moving as he changed posts, Allende attended an American private school in Bolivia and an English private school in Beirut, Lebanon. At age 20, she married an engineering student in Chile and had two children.
  
  In 1967, Allende co-founded the feminist magazine Paula and penned a series of satirical columns for it. Her paternal uncle Salvador Allende, elected the first socialist president of Chile in 1970, shot himself three years later during the U.S. backed military coup by Augusto Pinochet. Allende would flee to Venezuela with her two children. During her exile, she wrote a novel, The House of the Spirits, published in 1982 in Argentina and later to international acclaim.  She lives in San Rafael, California with her third husband, an attorney who Allende married when she was 77. 
  
   
  
  In 2014, Allende was among those awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in the annual White House ceremony. The president said: “When Isabel Allende learned that her grandfather in Chile was dying, she started writing him a letter. Night after night, she returned to it – until, she realized, she was actually writing her first novel. She’s never really stopped. Her novels and memoirs tell of families, magic, romance, oppression, violence, redemption-– all the big stuff.
  
  But in her hands, the big becomes graspable and familiar and human. And exiled from Chile by a military junta, she made the U.S. her home; today, the foundation she created to honor her late daughter helps families worldwide. She begins all her books on January 8th, the day she began that letter to her grandfather years ago. ‘Write to register history,’ she says. ‘Write what should not be forgotten.’” 
  
  
  
  Previous reviews in the Year of Women:
  
  --
  Come Closer, Sara Gran
  --
  Veronica, Mary Gaitskill
  --
  Clothes, Clothes, Clothes, Music, Music, Music, Boys, Boys, Boys, Viv Albertine
  --
  Pizza Girl, Jean Kyoung Frazier
  --
  My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Ottessa Moshfegh
  --
  Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, Fannie Flagg
  --
  The Memoirs of Cleopatra, Margaret George
  --
  Miss Pinkerton, Mary Roberts Rinehart
  --
  Beast in View, Margaret Millar
  --
  Lying In Wait, Liz Nugent
  --
  And Then There Were None, Agatha Christie
  --
  Desperate Characters, Paula Fox
  --
  You, Caroline Kepnes
  --
  Deep Water, Patricia Highsmith
  --
  Don't Look Now and Other Stories, Daphne du Maurier
  --
  You May See a Stranger: Stories, Paula Whyman
  --
  The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, Deesha Philyaw
  --
  White Teeth, Zadie Smith
• 
  Nada Elshabrawy

  الموت لا وجود له يا إبنتي، الناس يموتون عندما يطويهم النسيان فقط. فإذا إستطعتِ أن تتذكريني، سأكون معكِ دومًا.
  
  بعد تأجيل سنوات، قرأتها في وقتها.
• 
  James

  Earlier this year, my friend Nina and I were discussing internationally written literature, specifically from Latin America. We both had a connection to it for a few reasons, which prompted her to suggest a buddy read. We settled on Isabel Allende, and she selected Eva Luna. We spent the last week reading the book and discussing some of the key points and will continue to do so, I'm sure. For now, I'm sharing some of the highlights of my thoughts.
  
  Let's set the stage. Early to mid 20th century. Somewhere in South America (Nina and I saw a few options) but ultimately settled on it purposely being generalist in some areas given there were different cultures involved. Eva's mother lived a tragic life. Let's not even discuss her father. Once we learn about the past, we're ready for Eva Luna, a storyteller who doesn't know she is one until much later on, despite what everyone once told her. She lives in a string of homes, all difficult places. Yet in each, she finds someone to lean on, and develops a life-long relationship with them.. that is, until they are cruelly killed or die of natural causes. Eva has lived a life full of loss. But there are some beautiful moments too, it's not all sad!
  
  The story chronicles Eva's life and relationships. Going into the book, I had little understanding of the detailed theme. If there was one thing I found a bit disappointing, it was the lack of a formal structure in how we learn about Eva's life. It's chronological, but we're not quite sure of her age or role at the time. It's not purposely unclear, just not as important as what's happening to her. I generally prefer a deeper structure, perhaps a timeline or chapter description to showcase what part of her life we are about to explore. Then again, life is messy and often repeats itself, so this was very realistic in other ways. Nonetheless, I'm an orderly guy, so I would've loved just a bit more to make that part of the book come together. Nina had a great theory on this, so go read
  her review to find out more.
  
  The imagery and language are astounding. It was compelling and beautiful, sad and disheartening... but through it all, stunning! I found the way in which Allende shows us how Eva is haunted and impacted by everything around her to be the star of this book. You clearly see and feel everything, yet you know the true horrors are purposefully left out. Eva suffers. We suffer for her. But it's rarely graphic or detailed to the point you can't read it. You know what's going on, and that's enough. Some of the pain occurs when she is a young girl and a teenager. It's insane to accept what once happened to children, specifically female ones. Let's not even discuss the current situation!
  
  Another part of the book I found most forward-thinking was the character of Mimi, my favorite. At some points a man, at others a woman, perhaps shades in between, what Allende discusses ~30 years ago when this was written is fully apropos for today, and it appears so much more for ~75 years ago when some of this took place in the book. I'm truly shocked at the way people react to others. If the person isn't hurting you/someone else/animals, let them do what they want. There are far better things to focus on that something that doesn't truly involve the jerk with the issue! Walk away. Off soapbox as this isn't that kind of novel. It's more about an overall theme of what happened in many similar countries to people who didn't have a lot of money or advancement opportunities.
  
  I will definitely read more Allende, perhaps the short stories by Eva Luna herself (thanks, Nina). Overall, I give this 4.5 stars but I rounded down because of the missing pieces I felt would've made this an absolute stand-out. I still highly recommend it, and this translation in particular was phenomenal. I learned a few new vocabulary words, and when it results from a translation, and the original language was stunning, you know it's a solid book. Thanks for making this a fun read together, Nina.
• 
  Sherif Metwaly

  
  ماذا أكتب؟، السؤال الذي هربت منه على مدار شهور نظرًا لضغوط الحياة وانشغالي، شهور وأنا أقرأ وأكتفي بتقييم صامت حزين متحسرًا على أيامٍ كنت أكتب فيها وأحكي كما يحلو لي، فأقول لنفسي أن لا بأس فهذه سنة الحياة على كل حال. تمرّ الأيام ليأتي عمل أدبي مثل هذا ليضرب بسنة الحياة المفترضة هذه عرض الحائط ، يزلزل كياني ويأسر قلبي بسحره وينتزعني انتزاعًا من صومعة الصمت وطاحونة الحياة، يشعرني بسخافة كل هذه العقبات أمام دقائق أكتب وأحكي فيها عن شعورٍ يصعب وصفه، أحكي فيه عن قلم إيزابيل الليندي الذي يثبت للمرة الثامنة قدرتة الاستثنائية على خطفي من عالمي الكئيب، ما الجديد الذي يمكن قوله عن شهرزاد قلبي وعقلي؟، ألا تكفي هذه السطور القليلة للتعبير عن جمال هذه الرواية وعظمة أثرها في روحي وقلبي؟.. يبدو أنه لا مفرّ من الحكي
  
  في الصفحة الأولى تجد مكان الإهداء اقتباسًا من ألف ليلة وليلة: "..فقالت حينئذٍ لشهرزاد: يا أختاه قُصّي علينا حكاية نمضي بها الليلة"، وفي الصفحة التالية تبدأ الحكاية بهذا السطر:"اسمي إيفا، وهو يعني الحياة"، بعد هذين السطرين تعيش الحياة حرفيًا بكل كيانك، متسائلًا ألف مرة ومرة: أهي حياة إيفا أم حياتك؟. ومع النهاية فقط تكتشف أنها ليست حياة إيفا ولا حياتك، إنما هي الحياة مجردة من أي نسب، نعم، حكاية إيفالونا هي حكاية الحياة ذاتها.
  
  الحب والحرب والدراما، مزيج إيزابيل الليندي المميز الذي ترتكز عليه كأساس لمعظم رواياتها، وهو أساس الرواية هنا مع استبدال الحرب بخلفية سياسية لثورة شعبية ضد الديكتاتورية والظلم تُطبخ على نار هادئة في خلفية فصول الرواية، أما الحب، فكان له نصيب الأسد من الأحداث، وهنا، كالعادة، للحب بريق مختلف، وأشكال وألوان ستكتشفها لأول مرة، وسحر خاص لن تجده سوى في روايات إيزا العزيزة. لكن، على عكس المعتاد، وحيث تتوقع أن تنتصر الحكاية في النهاية للحب كونه محور الأحداث، نجد هنا اختلافًا جوهريًا أعطى للرواية سحرًا خاصًة يجعلها تتفرد عن باقي رواياتها.
  
  المعتاد أن الحكايات في روايات إيزابيل تكون الوسيلة لربط الأحداث وتضافر الخيوط وتلاقي المصائر، لكن هنا، الحكايات هي الغاية قبل الوسيلة، هنا الحكاية عن سحر الحكايات نفسها، عن قوتها الفريدة وقدرتها على تحديد المصائر، بالحكايات عوّضت إيفا نفسها عن أمومة فقدتها مبكرًا، وبفضلها نجت من طفولة ممزقة طاردها فيها شبح التشرد والجوع، ثم مراهقة متأججة المشاعر ومشتتة الأهداف، ثم أنثى مكتملة الأنوثة تسافر من مكان لآخر تشاهد العالم بأحداثه وصراعاته، بالحكايات ناضلت، وبالحكايات ذاقت العشق ففهمت معنى الحياة وسر الوجود.
  
  خلال رحلتها نلتقي بتاجر عربي له شفّة أرنبية وقلب حنون، وثائر رافض للواقع، وخادمة هي منبع الحنان، وصحفي حالم بالحرية والحب، لكل شخصية حكايتها وصراعاتها وأحلامها، شخصيات ثرية ومعقدة بدرجة تكفي لأن تستقل كل شخصية منها برواية خاصة، وستنبهر كالعادة من كم التفاصيل والصراعات والأحداث ما بين الخيال والواقع، والدمج العبقري بين التاريخ والحاضر، والتي لو تحدثت عنها بإسهاب لاحتجت لكتابة رواية أخرى..
  
  هذه رواية في مديح الخيال باعتباره السلاح الأقوى لتحمّل قبح الواقع، وسحر السرد القادر على امتصاص آلام قلبك ومعالجة شروخ روحك، لأجل كل هذا زلزلتني وأخرجتني عن صمتي، ولأجل إيفا حاولت أن أكتب، أن أحكي أكثر عمّا فعلته بي، ولكن ما قيمة كلماتي مادامت ستعجز عن وصف كل هذا السحر؟، وهل يجوز أن أحكي في حضرة شهرزاد؟.
  
  تمت.
  
• 
  Luís

  What a joy to read! Eva Luna's imaginative universe, blending tale, fiction and reality, completely fascinated me. His adventures are sometimes so incredible that we no longer know what world to be. But I think that is more to me and makes the novel charming.
• 
  Annette

  Eva Luna chronicles the life of Eva and her relationships. It is set in South America. As with other books by this author, she creates authentic characters and weaving rich historical background into their stories.
  
  However, I struggled to connect with Eva. She was orphaned at young age, and had little assistance going forward. She had to forge her own way, which wasn’t easy. With time, she discovers that she is a gifted storyteller.
  
  The story is character-driven, which I love. However, the complicated life of Eva with not much of a plot driving the story and detailed descriptions made it a slow-paced read.
  
  For me personally, the style of writing of this author is either I connect constantly or I don’t due to the overwhelming descriptions. And the latter is the case here.
  
• 
  Dalia Nourelden

  إنني أحاول شق طريق وسط هذه المتاهة ، وأن أضفي شيئا من النظام على هذه الفوضى الكبيرة ، وأن أجعل الحياة محتملة. عندما أكتب أتحدث عن الحياة مثلما أحبها أن تكون "
  
  
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• 
  Josie

  I found that reading this book was a bit like attending a storytellers' cocktail party, at which the hostess (the author) has got drunk and decided to rapidly parade every unusual and eccentric character she could possibly imagine before the gathering, in order to impress her friends.
  
  A host of unusual tales tumble out of this book, like so many magpie-gathered jewels that had been crammed into a box. Eva Luna hits us with one bizzare scenario after another, in rapid succession. Whilst an amazing and tumultuous tale is told, I found it a little frustrating... I wanted to know Eva Luna and the characters she encounters, a little more, explore their emoitional depths, understand their motives, perhaps even warm to them.
  
  The book is suffused with lyrical flashes and memorable imagery and yet at other times I felt that monumentous events and important relationships are glossed over too rapidly.
  
  
• 
  Audrey

  Perhaps it is merely a reflection of my feebleness as a reader that I assume the basic conceit of any first person novel is for the author to be the narrator, more or less. In my defense, this book is dedicated to Allende's mother. And the story itself is about a girl who loses her mother and loves her mother deeply and has all kinds of wooooonderful adventures, only to discover writing and have even more maaaaaaagical adventures, and become highly successful, and be pursued by a general and also a communist rebel and a successful photographer. Everyone loves her. Something about it rubs me the wrong way. Maybe because I think the narrator is Allende and yet my main problem with the narrator is that she apparently has no flaws. She is never mean to anyone in the book, never angry, and, truth be told, never too interesting. People want a narrator who is riddled with doubt and self-loathing. Someone a little more like you and me. Instead we get heavy handed and self important:
  
  "I just do what I can. Reality is a jumble we can't always measure or decipher, because everything is happening at the same time....I try to open a path through that maze, to put a little order in that chaos, to make life more bearable. When I write, I describe life as I would like it to be."
  
  Barf. I will also say I disliked that the narrator had a quality of simply announcing the events of the book. One day she was just done with loving her communist rebel. Poof. One moment she just decided she was beautiful. Abracadabra. Always with little or no lead-up. I like to move with a narrator, not several steps behind her.
  
  There were still flashes of the mystical storyteller I recall so fondly from House of the Spirits. Maybe I was just younger then. I don't know. All I know is I'm glad I checked this book out of the library instead of buying it.
• 
  Beatriz

  En Eva Luna, la autora retrata la convulsa y relativamente reciente Latinoamérica política, cultural, económica y social. Son todos sus países y a la vez no es ninguno. Por lo mismo, me llamó mucho la atención que la ficha de este libro en GR indicara que está ambientado en Chile. Con conocimiento de causa puedo afirmar que no es así y borré inmediatamente ese dato. Sí, por supuesto hay varias referencias a sucesos y situaciones de la historia chilena, pero de igual manera a la de muchos otros países de América, generando una amalgama que no deja duda que la autora es una de las máximas exponentes del realismo mágico.
  
  Esta novela es la primera que leo de Isabel Allende y me dejó absolutamente fascinada su calidad narrativa; te envuelve y te seduce con las historias de un sinnúmero de personajes que rodean la vida de Eva y Rolf, los personajes principales. En capítulos alternados entre ellos, conoceremos sus experiencias de vida desde su más tierna infancia y cómo forjaron su destino entre tragedias y desarraigo, pero con un espíritu de superación que hace inminente su encuentro hacia los últimos capítulos.
  
  Lamento haber tardado tanto en descubrir a Isabel Allende y con seguridad voy a seguir incursionando en sus otras obras.
  
  Reto #28 PopSugar 2021: Un libro de realismo mágico
• 
  Francisca

  I can’t say this book is among my five favorite from Isabel Allende, but that doesn’t mean this isn’t a really good book. It mostly means Allende is an excellent writer, and there are many of her books to make the list.
  
  One of the things I liked most, is the dual narrative. One side telling the story of Eva, the protagonist, conceived when Eva’s mother takes pity on a man who after being bitten by a snake is condemned to death, and Rolf, whose destiny finally brings him to South America where he will, eventually, fall in love with Eva.
  
  An excellent example of the amalgam of mystic and brutality that is Magic Realism, Eva Luna transports us to places and times that exist but never as in the narrative, which fills them with spirits and fairies and the unseen miracles of the everyday.
  
• 
  Paul

  Set in an unnamed South American country with the usual magic realism, an assortment of generals and dictators, a good dose of sensuality and an eclectic cast of characters, the novel moves from the 1950s to the 1980s. It is told in the first person and is the story of Eva Luna, told in parallel with the much less detailed story of Rolf Carle. It is the story of a storyteller and has lots of twists and turns. It has been described as picaresque. Allende challenges the usual male hegemony she finds through her storytelling.
  The characters do jump off the page and even the less sympathetic characters have some humanity. But it is the women are strong:
  “I stopped examining myself in the mirror to compare myself to the perfect beauties of movies and magazines; I decided I was beautiful for the simple reason I wanted to be. And then never gave the matter another thought.”
  There are elements of Scheherazade in Eva and this is followed up particularly in the volume which follows this, The Stories of Eva Luna. I didn’t love this as much as The House of the Spirits. The ending felt rather rushed and forced and somewhat melodramatic.
  The opening is certainly strong:
  ‘My name is Eva, which means “life,” according to a book of names my mother consulted. I was born in the back room of a shadowy house, and grew up amidst ancient furniture, books in Latin, and human mummies, but none of these things made me melancholy, because I came into the world with a breath of the jungle in my memory’.
  Eva combines fiction and life and through the section on the escape of the guerrillas from prison towards the end Allende illustrates a device often used in oppressive regimes, telling the truth in a work of fiction. Allende charts the birth of a writer:
  “I awakened early. It was a soft and slightly rainy Wednesday, not very different from others in my life, but I treasure that Wednesday as a special day, one that belonged only to me. I took a clean white sheet of paper-like a sheet freshly ironed for making love-and rolled it into the carriage. . . . I believed that that page has been waiting for me for more than twenty years, that I had lived only for that instant.... I wrote my name, and immediately the words began to flow, one thing linked to another and another. . . .1 could see an order to the stories stored in my genetic memory since before my birth, and the many others I had been writing for years in my notebooks”
  Memory sustains life and this is certainly a life enhancing novel, despite the loss of focus at the end.
  
• 
  Ahmad Sharabiani

  Eva Luna, Isabel Allende
  
  Eva Luna is a novel written by Chilean novelist Isabel Allende in 1987. Eva Luna takes us into the life of the eponymous protagonist, an orphan who grows up in an unidentified country in South America.
  
  تاریخ نخستین خوانش روز چهاردهم ماه جولای سال 2005میلادی
  
  عنوان: اوا ل‍ون‍؛ نویسنده: ای‍زاب‍ل‌ آل‍ن‍ده‌؛ م‍ت‍رج‍م‌: خ‍ل‍ی‍ل‌ رس‍ت‍م‌خ‍ان‍ی‌؛ ت‍ه‍ران‌: ب‍ازت‍اب‌ ن‍گ‍ار، 1383؛ در 346ص؛ شابک 9648223068؛ موضوع داستانهای نویسندگان شیلیایی آمریکایی - سده 20م
  
  بلیزا کرپوسکولاریو در خانواده‌ ای چنان تهیدست به دنیا آمده بود، که حتا نامی نداشت روی بچه‌ هایش بگذارد؛ در سرزمینی ناسازگار چشم به جهان گشوده و پرورش یافته بود، که بعضی سال‌ها در آن باران‌های سیل‌آسا می‌بارید، و سیلاب دار و ندار مردم را با خود می‌برد؛ اما سال‌های دیگر حتا قطره ‌ای باران نمی‌آمد، و قرص خورشید چنان بزرگ می‌شد، که افق را پر می‌کرد، و زمین به بیابانی خشک بدل می‌شد؛ «بلیزا»، تا دوازده سالگی کار و هنری جز تحمّل گرسنگی و درماندگی دیرپای نداشت؛ تقدیرش چنین بود که در اثنای یک خشکسالی طولانی، چهار برادر و خواهر کوچک‌ترش را به خاک بسپارد؛ و وقتی که دانست پس از آن‌ها نوبت خود اوست که بمیرد، تصمیم گرفت راه بیفتد رو به سوی دریا و دشت‌ها را پشت سر بگذارد، تا شاید با سیر و سفر عفریت مرگ را بفریبد؛ زمین پوک شده بود؛ شکاف‌های عمیقی بر آن پدید آمده بود؛ صخره ‌ها، سنگواره‌ های درختان و بوته ‌های پرخار، و استخوان‌های جانوران، رنگ باخته زیر پرتو آفتاب، بر سراسر آن سرزمین پراکنده بود.؛ گهگاه با خانواده‌ هایی روبرو می‌شد که مانند خود او، با امید واهیِ رسیدن به آب، به سمت جنوب روان بودند؛ بعضی‌ها داروندارشان را بر دوش یا بر گاری‌های کوچک گذاشته، و به راه افتاده بودند؛ اما، به دشواری می‌توانستند پوست و استخوان خود را به جلو بکشانند، و برخی در نیمه راه ناچار می‌شدند، بارهاشان را بگذارند و بروند.؛ آنان با درد و رنج فراوان خود را به پیش می‌کشیدند؛ پوست‌شان به کلفتی پوست تمساح شده بود؛ و چشمان‌شان، پنداشتی که با شراره‌ های سرختاب می‌سوخت.؛ هر وقت «بلیزا» از کنارشان می‌گذشت، با حرکت دست سلامشان می‌گفت؛ اما نمی‌ایستاد، چون نیرویی برایش نمانده بود، که آن را صرف دل سوختن به حال آنان بکند.؛ بسیاری از رهروها در کنار جاده از پا افتادند؛ اما او آن اندازه سرسختی نشان داد، که توانست زنده بماند، و از آن دوزخ سوزان بگذرد، و در پایان سفر، خود را به نخستین چکه‌ های آب و رشته‌ های باریک و کمابیش ناپیدای جویبارک‌هایی برساند، که باریکه‌ های سبزه‌ زار را سیراب می‌کردند، و در پایین دست‌ها پهنا می‌گرفتند، و به نهرک‌ها و مرداب‌ها راه می‌یافتند
  
  تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 24/05/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی
• 
  Cheryl

  "She placed at my feet the treasures of the Orient, the moon, and beyond. She reduced me to the size of an ant so I could experience the universe from that smallness; she gave me wings to see it from the heavens; she gave me the tail of a fish so I would know the depths of the sea."
  
  I've read a few of Allende's novels and her memoir. I must say, I've settled on this one as my favorite just as one would settle on choice of wine: a few sips here and there, tightening of the tastebuds around one flavor and the instinctive feeling. Not too much logic involved, only how it makes a person feel.
  
  This story spans decades, as one has always come to expect of the Allende novel. The storytelling is refined and told in the retrospective view, something Allende does masterfully. As usual, she gives justice to the inner psyche of her many characters, protagonists and antagonists alike. There are so many characters and yet so much intimacy as each character is deftly explored and familiarity established. Maybe this is what enticed me during the many days I stayed with this book.
  
  Or maybe I was drawn to the dance of Eva Luna, she who name means life. It's possible that as Eva went from the young girl who battled many obstacles to the fearless young woman she became, I was drawn to her risky love choices and her modern political reality. There is a certain mystical realism that is utterly convincing but most importantly, I love how Eva uses her imaginative strength to triumph over a challenging reality.
• 
  Gabrielle

  This is my first novel by Isabel Allende, and I am probably not shocking anyone by saying that she puts the "magic" in magical realism. And with the story of "Eva Luna", she weaved a brightly colored, shimmering yarn about the magic of story-telling, which may very well be the last remaining bit of magic well and truly alive in the world.
  
  The first strand of this story is the life of Consuelo, Eva's mother, her strange upbringing and life until the birth of her only daughter. Eva's strand of the story stems from it, but closely entangled to it is the story of Rolf Carlé, a young boy born half a world away but who is destined to cross paths with Eva one day. The smaller, but equally bright strands of story reserved to Mimi, Huberto and Riad turn this novel into a fantastic tapestry, which pays homage to Sheherazade and other women who have had to enchant people with stories to make a living.
  
  Of course there is a plot, but that plot didn't seem to me like it was the most important part of "Eva Luna". What truly matters here is that language can dance on the page until you are feasting your eyes and your imagination on it's pirouettes.
  
  Lovely, dreamy, a little evasive but absolutely spell-binding.
• 
  Asmaa Elhelw

  ساحرة 🌠🌠🌿
• 
  DD

  For some reason, this is one of my all-time favorite books. I think I was deeply moved and inspired by the novel because of the formative time period in my life when I read it. For me, it's about a woman who has had a difficult early life and who develops resilience and forbearance in the face of adversity. The entire novel for me is about the journey not just of herself but of an entire society that learns to adapt and transform reality in order not to dwell in suffering but to live a life of appreciation and joy.
  
  One aspect of the book I particularly liked is how Eva Luna comes to accept herself as a woman in ways that seem so natural and practical. For example, a passage in the novel reads, "As I approached my seventeenth year, I grew to my full height and my face became the face I have today. I stopped examining myself in the mirror to compare myself to the perfect beauties of movies and magazines. I decided I was beautiful - for the simple reason that I wanted to be." In our society where women are taught to be obsessed with their appearance, this view seemed so refreshing to me.
  
  Allende chooses to weave throughout her novel a refreshing perspective of living in gratitude even when faced with lack of material and/or physical wealth, unlike so many contemporary novels today in which people seem so cynical, privileged, and lacking in integrity in their relationships. For example, she describes a scene of great environmental catastrophe: "Victims on the roofs of houses [waited] patiently to be rescued by military helicopters. Although stunned and hungry, many sang, because it would have been pointless to aggravate misfortune by complaining."
  
  There are so many pearls of wisdom in this book plus it's a whirlwind story that blends reality with fantasy in entertaining, fascinating ways. Ultimately, the novel is also a love story because she created the opportunity for love on many levels by never being defeated by life's difficulties.
• 
  Eman Mostafa

  
  كان يا مكان ، كانت هناك امرأة مهنتها رواية الحكايات .. وكانت تنتقل في كل الأنحاء عارضة بضاعتها : قصص مغامرات وحرمان ورعب وحب ، كل واحدة منها لها سعر مناسب ..
  
  
  
  كان يا مكان .. كان فيه رواية اسمها إيفا لونا، الشوق ليها عدى كل الحدود وكان نفسي اقراها جدا، ولما يأست من توافرها pdf رحت اشتريتها .. وداليا الجميلة الحمدلله ربنا بعتها ليها عشان نقراها سوا واتقاسم معاها صدمة سنين الانتظار وسقف التوقعات اللي وقع فوق دماغي 🤕🙈
  
  ××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××
  
  لقد أردت يومها الإمساك بقدري بين يدي ، وقد جرت لي منذ ذلك الحين أحداث كثيرة ، حتى صرت أشعر وكأنني عشت حيوات عديدة ، وأنني كنت أتحول إلى دخان في كل ليلة ، لأولد من جديد في الصباح ..
  
  إيفا لونا، عاشت حيوات كثيرة بالفعل، منذ ولادتها يتيمة الأب والأم الحياة لم تحنو عليها يوماً .. اختلفت الوشوش وتوالت البيوت والشقاء كان مصيرها دائما وأبدا .. وفي خط زمني آخر التقينا برولف كارليه الذي ولد من صلب رجل قاس تعذب كل من تعامل معه .. وطبعا احنا عارفين ايه اللي بيحصل في الروايات اللي زي دي بتاعة كذه خط زمني 🤷🏻‍♀️😂
  
  قلبي كان يحدثني منذ ذلك الحين أن حياتي ستكون سلسلة طويلة من الوداعات ..
  
  
  
  ××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××
  
  أول مره اخوض تجربة "الرغي بدون هدف" في قراءاتي الأدبية، ربما بسبب سوء التوقيت وعدم استعدادي لقراية سرد يحمل الكثير من الوصف والتفاصيل، ربما بسبب كبر حجم الرواية، ربما بسبب انتظاري لها قرب عامين وكنت اتخيلها قريبة من رواية "سفينة نيرودا" او حتى تحمل بعض سمات "ما وراء الشتاء" التشويقية .. كل هذا صب في عدم انبهاري بالعمل واحباطي الشديد في النهاية ..
  
  حتما الأسلوب لا غبار عليه فأنت تقرأ ترجمة صالح علماني، ربما لهذا السبب اكملت الرواية لأسلوبها وسردها وقوة السحر الذي يتميز به علماني رحمه الله .. مشكلتي مع الفكرة نفسها .. مشكلتي مع ايزا العزيزة 🤕
  
  الكثير والكثير من علامات الاستفهام حول العلاقات المحرمة الغير مبررة في القصة!! علاقة أبوية نضيفة ليه ابوظها؟؟ ليه احشر مشاهد جنسية تجمع بين نساء متزوجات وقريبهم لم يضيف للقصة غير الاشمئزاز ولم يؤثر على الأح��اث بالمرة!!
  ليه أمجد المتحول الجنسي من رجل لامرأة واوصفها بالملاك المنزل من السماء؟؟؟
  كل ما اندمج في القراءة واذوب مع جمال الأسلوب يحدث تفاصيل كفيلة بحرق الرواية بضمير مستريح :)
  
  ××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××
  
  شكرا لداليا تاني وتالت عشان شاركتيني الرحلة دي ♥️♥️ وإن شاء الله نقرا كتير سوا تاني 🥰🥰
  
  = الاقتباسات :
  
  -أظن أن علاقتك به عابرة ..
  ـ وأنا أمل أن تدوم إلى الأبد ..
  -ليس هناك ما يدوم إلى الأبد يا بنيتي سوى الموت وحده ..
  ـ وأنا أسعى لأن أعيش الحياة كما أحبها أن تكون ، مثل رواية ..
  
  كانت فترة طيبة من حياتي ، على الرغم من إحساسي الدائم بأني معلقة بسحابة، ومحاطة باللامبالاة والكذب. كنت أظن في بعض الأحيان أنني أطل على الحقيقة، لكن سرعان ما أجد نفسي تائهة في غابة من الغموض ..
  
  ومرت أمام ناظري مناظر المنطقة الخلابة ، لكنني لم أرها ، لأن نظري كان موجها إلى أعماقي ، وأنا ما أزال مبهورة باكتشافي الحب .. أحسست في تلك اللحظة أن ذلك الشعور بالامتنان سيتجدد في حياتي كلما تذكرت رياض الحلبي ..
  
  وكان يعرف من تجربته أن كل شيء يترك أثرا فيه ، وأن كل حدث يترك لطخة في ذاكرته ، وقد يمضي وقت طويل في بعض الأحيان قبل أن ينتبه إلى أن حدثا معينا قد خلف أثرا عميقا في ذاكرته. فقد تتجمد الذكرى في مكان ما من ذهنه ، ثم فجأة ، وبآلية تداع للخواطر ، تظهر تلك الذكرى أمام عينيه بزخم وإلحاح. كان يتساءل أيضا عما يبقيه هناك، ولماذا لا يتخلى عن كل شيء ويرجع إلى المدينة، فذلك خير له من البقاء في متاهة الكوابيس ..
  
  ليس جميع الناس قادرين على الهجرة يا رولف .. إنها تعيش في سلا ، تعنى بحديقتها وذكرياتها ..
  
  من دون أن يخطر ببالي بأنه قد نسيني وأن العثور عليه سيكون صعبا لأنني لم أكن قد عشت في الحياة ما يكفي لتحويلي إلى متشائمة ..
  
  كان رياض حلبي واحدا من تلك الكائنات المهزومة بسبب عواطفه ..
  
  تصوري يا عصفورتي ، أنام طويلًا في ذلك الصندوق كي يأتيني الموت ويجدني جاهزة للقائه ، لكن ما يأتيني أخيرا هو الحياة ..
  
  احسست أن كل يوم يمضي يجعلنا أكثر غربة أحدنا عن الآخر ، فحزنت على كلينا ..
  
  لكن الوقت انقضى ، وبدأ شبح هوبيرتو يتقلص أخيرا، وصار حضوره أقل تسلطا في ذهني، إلى أن اتخذ حجما معقولًا ، فأصبحت قادرة على العيش حينئذ من أجل أشياء أخرى ، وليس لاشتهائه وحسب .. بقيت أنتظر زياراته ، لأني كنت أحبه وأشعر بأني بطلة تراجيديا ، بطلة رواية ، لكنني استطعت كذلك أن أعيش حياة هادئة ، وأن أمارس الكتابة في الليل ...... وكنت أنمي في نفسي مشاعر رومانسية تجاه ذلك الرجل الذي كان يصبح أكثر جفافا وقوة مرة بعد أخرى ، لكنّني تخليت عن رسم الخطط للمستقبل ..
  
  
  
  
  2/9/2022 ✅
  .
• 
  Antonomasia

  The first book I’ve read by Isabel Allende, and she reminds me of Neil Gaiman: mesmerising popular storytelling at its best.
  
  Eva Luna is a novel from the 1980s, and as such its use of stereotypes sometimes falls below standards now expected in the literary world, but the characters were so grand and involving that they often felt more like archetype than stereotype.
  
  The unnamed fictional country in which Eva lives seems designed to take in as much as possible of the northern half of South America: tropical, Caribbean, oil rich (Venezuela?), vastly forested (Brazil?), but also containing part of the Andes.
  
  Some of the sexuality in the novel - scenarios which female characters enjoy but which, if they had been written by a man would now be dismissed as male fantasies - made me think of an idea mooted a few months ago by a GR friend, that contemporary left & literary discussion of sex has become so focused on avoidance of harm and on power analysis that it’s almost forgotten about pleasure.
  
  Eva Luna seems to be a lightly-metafictional telenovela in a book (albeit I’ve never seen a telenovela, and not watched a soap episode for maybe 15 years). Allende, through her heroine, who appears to be the same age, writes about what it feels like to have so many stories to tell (and she was not wrong, as her prolific output and sales continue now, even if she gets less press coverage than in the 80s and 90s). The semi-fairytale/magic-realist story of the heroine, the strong-willed and gifted daughter of a servant, and her remarkable vagaries of fortune, could be seen as showing too much good luck compared with most real people in such circumstances - but it is also, like the fairytale, a type of story which provides hopes and dreams which may sustain during drab or difficult lives.
  
  I’m always glad to discover that I actually like the work of a popular author, one who writes well enough that I feel no need to make excuses for the style (as I might with, for example, a lot of genre crime). I find it useful to like writers whose books are ubiquitous to borrow or buy, and whom a lot of people have heard of. Isabel Allende can be added to that list.
• 
  Carmo

  Sempre que leio Isabel Allende, pergunto-me onde irá buscar imaginação para escrever histórias destas cheias de reviravoltas e de enredos improváveis. O facto é que o faz e bem, e eu nunca me canso de a ler, sobretudo quando quero uma leitura leve mas que tenha um conteúdo bem estruturado.
  
  Ainda não foi este a bater A Casa dos Espíritos, mas não ficou longe.
• 
  Zoe Artemis Spencer Reid

  A story about a storyteller stumbled from one bizarre event to others while also telling stories of these eccentric personalities she met, came and went through her life, whom she loved or had loved her and shaped her life. Eva Luna herself, started as a rebellious orphan, full of wonder with fantastic imagination and streak of dramatic insanity that could surprise you when its infrequent but impressive occurrence. Weirdly enough, despite being supposedly such a talented inventor of fantastical stories, writing a telenovela about the story of her life was the big destiny of her existence. That and devoting her entire being waiting for her soulmate, revolving around men and falling in love with them or more like in love with her idealistic fantasy of romantic love and being disillusioned afterward. She ended up as a dull, damsel in distress who was flat, boring, loved by everyone, faultless and flawless. This very disappointing resolution mirrored the book story line, which was very interesting in the beginning with its alluring prose, sometimes beautiful moments, and odd but fascinating happenings, progressed to boring half-cooked political plot about guerrilla war and melodramatic telenovela itself. I lost interest halfway down the book and around last quarter of the book, I just wanted it to be over. It was not that bad, if one was into telenovela stuff, in this case, with stroke of perverse taste and sexual relationship in certain flavours, it just put me off from the already banal tale. The writing style was the saving grace for me, and some of the sideline characters were delightful.
• 
  Ryan

  The Good:
  The characters are all amazing - mythical figures inhabiting an unnamed part of Latin America some time in the middle of the 20th century. The setting is vivid, and the series of vignettes through the first half of the book read like fairy tales. It's also pretty funny.
  
  The Bad:
  The sense of magic really died away in the second half. It became a fairly shallow political story full of neat resolutions and pleasant anticlimaxes. And books about writers always feel a bit self-congratulatory.
  
  'Friends' character the protagonist is most like:
  Eva is the emotional rock to her loved ones, and fiercely loyal, just like Joey. She also works in media.
• 
  elisa

  why are so many literary writers like you know what this novel's missing? a little bit of incest, for flair.
  
  eva luna suffers the unfortunate fate of starting stronger than it ends. by the 60% mark, its magical momentum has petered out and the narrative begins to drag. like a self-fulfilling prophecy, its romance falls into the conventional, easy to anticipate formulas eva becomes used to reading in books, hearing on the radio, and watching on telenovelas. eva, a main character who was once so rebellious, wide-eyed, and full of wonder becomes a dull damsel whose life revolves around the many men who throw themselves at her feet. the progression of a plot filled with revolution, magic, and found family is hard to reconcile with the hurried romantic ending of the novel, or the way this romantic ending seemingly suspends eva's character development for the latter half of eva luna, so that she exists in a kind of permanent stasis.
  
  i will say, this is magical realism through and through. its narrative landscape is bursting with detail, at times nonlinear, not relegated to one single geographic location or character's head. the style, as with many magical realist texts, is expository for much of the novel, something many reviewers appear to take issue with. this critique—that allende tends to tell more often than she shows—fails to acknowledge that magical realism was a literary movement in many ways born out of a tradition of oral storytelling and of observations of cultures caught in the throes of colonial rule.
  
  the "show, don't tell" rule of thumb is to many a western invention that punishes nonwhite modes of storytelling for their ability to ground a story not in images, but in ideas. a number of these writing rules (long-held beliefs about telling a story "the right way") were popularized through the creation of the master of fine arts (MFA) + writing workshops in twentieth century america, which sought to stamp out leftist creative inclinations, effectively replacing manifestos, for example, with literary fiction. the CIA (yes, the CIA) peddled workshops like these to begin to build a western canon that would kill what they called "communist propaganda." this is something to keep in mind when you read a work, especially one from a culturally specific literary movement, and find yourself battling an urge to cry, "show, don't tell!"
  
  eva luna's expository style is actually its strong suit. it's a dense read, yes, but its power lies in its ability to mimic oral storytelling traditions, to move through time and space at eva's whim, to span an entire lifetime and in so doing, trace a lineage of lives and deaths through the pangs of colonialism, magic, and desire. every time i pick up a magical realist text, i'm left reeling, delighted by density and detail, and this was no exception, in spite of the major issues i took with the plot mechanics. and, i should mention, the very dated writing, in terms of transmisogyny, orientalism, and questionable treatment of black characters.
• 
  Ray

  Eva Luna has a gift. The child growing up in an unnamed South American country is blessed with the ability to weave compelling tales which enchant her audience - children and adults alike. It provides her with a way to survive in an extremely tough world. She is born into the underclass and jobs are brutish, insecure and poorly paid. People close to her die or get sick on a regular basis.
  
  Cue a fascinating journey involving amongst other things mummies, a stuffed puma, corrupt politicians and policemen, a (Lebanese??) shopkeeper with a harelip, an old lady in a lifesaving coffin, street urchins and a smoldering revolution. Allende manages to pack so much life into a short book, much of the story is tragic but at the same time positive and life affirming.
  
  Some great funny bits amongst the grit and grime - who wouldn't want to pour a full chamberpot over the head of a pompous politician?
  
  A truly wonderful read
• 
  نبال قندس

  مذهلة
• 
  Ivana Books Are Magic

  Having previously read
  The House of the Spirits ,
  Of Love and Shadows,
  Daughter of Fortune and
  Zorro , I can't deny having certain expectations when it came to this author. Did I expect to like this book based solely on the fact I enjoy her writing? I must admit that I did. Did I end up liking it? Very much so, thanks for asking.
  
  
  At this point, I think I can say that I'm not only familiar with this writer's style but also with Allende's imaginative scope. Allende's imagination is truly impressive. Still, I realized that her imagination (despite being so potent), is in some ways a world within world, a labyrinth of sorts, that is a narrative enclosed within certain themes. I will explain what I mean later on, but for now it will suffice to say that having identified those themes I could foresee much of what happened. That being said, I still felt this book was magical in the sense that it managed to steal my heart. There was at least a dozen times that was truly moved while I was reading it and it was more that enough to make up for occasional predictably and possible flaws. Allende's a talented writer, no doubt about that. You may tire of her books, you might even dislike her style to start with, but you must give her credit, for if this is not writing talent, what is? Nevertheless, I could help wondering how I would have felt about this book if this was my first Allende and not book no.5. Would I have had enjoyed the story more?
  
  As I was reading this story, all of the Allende's other novels came to my mind. That analytical part of my brain didn't seem to get in the way of the other part that enjoyed this novel for what it was- good literature. Knowing where the narrative is going to take me didn't ruin neither the feeling of an authentic story, nor the emotional impact it had on me. The fact that I didn't find many things plausible didn't bother me either ( it is called magic realism for a reason, right?). However, at some point the similarities between Eva Luna and all her other female protagonists started to create this feeling of deja vu than subsequently lead to ask myself how much of them was in Eva Luna (and vice versa). I wonder how much these mental wanderings of mine were prompted by the fact that Eva Luna is, among other things, a novel about a woman who becomes a writer. In this novel, I really hung on those passages about the writing process. I found what the author (or Eva Luna? Or is it the same person in this case?) had to say about it very interesting. When Eva Luna explained how and even more importantly WHY she writes---that's such a precious passage. As someone who obviously loves reading, I found myself (metaphorically) nodding in agreement. We write and we read to make sense of this world. To put things into perspective. To be heard....Allende's (or Eva Luna's ?) words made me think of Tennessee Williams who (in one of her prefaces) compared all writers with a little Southern girl who wanted to be heard and payed attention to. In one other instance (or perhaps within the same preface) Williams said (something along the lines) that in real life we love and betray one another, if not in the same breath, then within a very short time period. Literature gives us an opportunity to process things. In life so many things are happening at once that sometimes we're simply unable to make heads or tails of it.
  
  A few words about this novel. Its protagonist is Eva Luna, a daughter of a servant and of a wandering Indian. Eva grows up in a house of her mother's employer, a strict doctor who doesn't even know Eva is there and who didn't even notice that his loyal servant (Eva's mother) had been pregnant. Eva's mother conceived her with a snake bitten Indian. Eva's Indian father miraculously survived the snake bite, but left her mother as soon as he recovered. Eva Luna is an imaginative child, enchanted by her mother's stories. Eva's inherited, among other things, her mother tendency to daydream. What does life has in store for this little girl? As I was reading the story of Eva Luna and her childhood, I couldn't help comparing it with the childhood of the protagonist of Daughter of Fortune. Is this one so different, I asked myself? As long as I enjoy her writing, does it even matter? Should it matter?
  
  I will explain what I mean. If my observations are correct, Allende's novels are strikingly similar not only in their choice of protagonist, but also in their plot. It is almost as there is a formula to them (something you wouldn't exactly expect in magic realism). Often there is a young female protagonist with an interesting family background. This background is always revealed, making her novels a mix of individual and collective, of individual story and family sagas. Childhood memories always play an important part in the development of the heroine (and the other protagonists for that matter. ) The atmosphere of South America as a multicultural and unique blend of contrasts, is always well recreated and often reflected on. Often there is an elderly man who not having an emotional contact with anyone establishes it with a young girl. In The House of Spirits, the strict (scientific) Estaban loves his granddaughter dearly. In Eva Luna, the little girl cares for a dying elderly man so tenderly that he decides to leave everything to her, despite him not being exactly sure who she is. This older man, an employer of her late mother, establishes a first real emotional connection only on his death bed. As a life of one young girl gets started. An appropriate metaphor, I would say. Life and death travel hand in hand in Allende's novels- as they do in life.
  
  
  There is another theme that is often repeated in Allende's novels. Theme of forbidden 'almost' incestuous love (the so called
  Wuthering Heights syndrome, love between people not related but raised together or in some cases that of one raising the other- this would qualify as
  The Thorn Birds syndrome, right?) are frequent. In addition, Allende's heroines often fall in love with man who are revolutionist and guerrilla fighters. Often they have to hide their love from everyone. Likewise, often her heroines have to decide between two man, one of whom was their first love and to whom they feel bound with strong strong passion AND the other someone they met after the first, learned to love more slowly but more steadily). As far a I noticed this was pattern was followed in Eva Luna, Daughter of Fortune and Of Love and Shadows. Another thing I noticed is that there is no stereotyping. A heroine may have romantic feelings or attraction even towards man from the regime (take for example, the army fiance in Love and Shadows and the military figure who courts Eva in Eva Luna).
  
  
  Often the female protagonist is, at some point in the narrative, imprisoned or tortured. At any rate, the heroine always observes a lot of suffering but despite of it she always manages to establish meaningful relationships and friendships. There is always a bit of humour, amidst of all the melancholy, death and sadness. Her female protagonist always feel a connection with their country and people. Their gaze is both critical and loving at the same time. The conditions and the times in which the heroine lives in are always turbulent, there is always a revolution of some kind. Politics are always a part of her heroine's life, which doesn't mean that romantic lives of Allende's heroines are lacking in anything. Quite on the contrary, the themes of politics, war, power, oppression and danger often get mixed up with friendship, idealism, artistic tendencies and love. Moreover, Allende's heroines often break taboos be it by falling in love too early and running away only to change their mind and fall in love with someone else towards the end of the novel, or by loving someone out of their social circle, or/and someone of other race or religion.
  
  Isabel Allende has a very unique writing style, and this I'm sure, was noted by many. Personally, I'm a fan of her style of writing but it is not the only thing that fascinates me. You see, somehow Allende manages to retell stories without making them sound repetitive and that is something quite exceptional. I could find 1000 similarities between her novels, between her protagonists, between her plots...I could find so many to make a good case that she is recycling them...However, I don't believe that to be the case. As Allende herself notes in Eva Luna- sometimes changing even a little detail can change the story. For example, at one point in the story, Eva retells the story of a death of loved one in such a way as to make that person deal with loss more easily...and who knows if this 'invented' story isn't in some ways true? Perhaps their loved one really felt they were there with them in that moment? So, I'm not sure it could be said that Allende recycles her stories. Probably it wouldn't matter to me- even I believed it to be true. Her stories move me deeply. You know how most painters have a certain style and you can recognize them in different stages of their artistic development? Well, the same can be said about Isabel Allende. I might never tire of her books. Enough said.
  
  
  The only novel of hers that I didn't fall in love with was
  Zorro. I used to think that Zorro didn't turn out that well because Isabel Allende was limited by the theme and because those limitations somewhat cramped her style. Now, that I think about it, I think Zorro failed because the protagonist was a man. Allende was meant to write from a female point of view, her novels are stories told from a distinctly womanly/feminine point of view. Not that I mind that, you know. Her sensual heroines are a refreshment. In real world, I find it hard to believe that such bold woman would be so universally liked- but who knows? After all, persons who know how to love are often the ones who end up being loved the most. How can love be just a coincidence? The more we love, the greater the odds we will be loved in return. Friendships are born out of love. Romantic love is just another form of love. Friendship are hardly ever developed without courage and initiative. The same could be said for love. It is not a matter of chance or of a coincidence. I, for one, don't believe in coincidences. I believe in magic.
• 
  Jennifer

  It is hard for me to recapture the innocence I once had with books, where the words were so real it was like being in a super reality. Age, a better understanding of the world, and my new education to psychotherapy has made literature more understandable and a little less mystical. But Allende gets me pretty close. The psychological lense of me understands Eva Luna's storytelling as therapeutic tool, her retelling of a traumatic past with newly imagined happiness makes the present palatable and a future possible. And I'm grateful that despite the novel's trekking through some terrible times--destruction of the Indians, abusive childhoods, government suppression, guerrilla revolutions, and violence against women--Allende does not glory in the gore but tells her story frankly and magically. The novel let me taste again the wonderful mystery of the literary art. Sure, at times logical and understandable with child development and psychoanalytic theory, but mysterious and fiercely beautiful nonetheless.
• 
  Joy D

  A beautifully written celebration of the senses, this historical fiction is set in an unnamed South American country and recounts the life of Eva Luna. The story opens in the early twentieth century with Eva’s mother’s tragic life story, including Eva’s birth. It then follows Eva as she moves from place to place, encountering challenges and developing friendships. Eva is a strong female who must make her way in the world with little assistance. Orphaned at an early age, her life is full of sorrow, but she gradually learns she is a gifted storyteller and she uses this gift to barter for what she needs. She encounters an assortment of diverse and colorful characters from many socioeconomic and political backgrounds. One of these characters, Rolf, is the subject of a significant sub-plot, which details his childhood and emigration to South America.
  
  The book is character driven. There is no predominant plotline that encompasses the entire novel; however, Eva’s life is eventful, full of drama, deprivation, political struggles, and personal challenges. Allende’s writing is lyrical, full of imagery and emotion. Eva suffers, and it is easy to empathize with her. Eva relates segments of her imaginative stories, showing the power of storytelling to both escape from suffering and inspire hope for the future. At times the storyline ventures into unlikely scenarios and coincidences, and it could have used a bit more information on Eva’s age at each major event during the timeline. Allende is known for employing magical realism, and uses it here, but not in an overpowering way. Recommended to those who enjoy tales of overcoming adversity or the power of storytelling.
  
• 
  César Lasso

  It's the only book by Allende I have read and I really liked the story. The characters are very varied. There's an important character, an Arab immigrant, who is a lovely person, honest, generous and modest.
  
  Anyway, I've been told this author can get very repetitive... Save for that sweet Arab immigrant, I didn't find much in the book that might encourage me to go on with other works by Allende.