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- Womens memoirs - |
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Paula |
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 Paula byIsabel Allende Harper Collins 336 pages, 1996 ISBN 0060927216 Reviewed by author Susan Albert (A March selection of the Reading Circle of the Austin TX Story Circle) If you are looking for an easy book to pass a few hours, pass this one by. Paula is not a book you can read at one sitting, or - if you want to comprehend the whole story, in its infinite variety and complexity - only once. Like all great works of literature, this memoir has both a fascinating surface and a challenging depth and rewards repeated reading by revealing surprising new aspects of itself each time you open it. Paula is the story of Isabel Allende’s life through December 6, 1992--the day her daughter Paula died. Paula had fallen into a coma the previous December in Madrid, where she lived with her husband. Allende stayed almost constantly with her daughter, and on January 8, began writing the book as a letter to the unconscious girl. Throughout the book, there are two time-lines, two stories. The present time of the writing, from January 8 through December 6, the story of the progress of the daughter’s illness and the mother’s profound commitment to the dying girl; and the past time of the narrative, the rich and unforgettable story of the mother’s life. It is the plaiting together of these two time-lines that gives the book its special poignancy: the life of the mother, written to bring the daughter back to life. Allende’s life story - a multi-layered and ever-changing fresco as she calls it - is a richly chaotic jumble of scenes and vignettes in which appear crowds of bizarre and outrageous characters. The omniscient Tata, the ghostly Meme, the needy mother, the provident Tio Ramon, the invisible husband, the nurturing Willie, the reckless son Nicholas, the daughter Paula, dedicated to God. Each of these characters has his or her own story, brilliantly told, with irony and humor and a genuine reverence for the human condition. And there is Allende’s story too, the narrative thread that links all the separate vignettes. Her birth in 1942, her childhood, her life as a wife and mother, her work in print journalism and television, her involvement in the angry whirlwind of Chile’s political turmoil, her growing career as an internationally-respected novelist. But while Allende’s autobiography provides the narrative form of the book and its rich and varied content, it is the darkly compelling memoir of the dying daughter and the desperate mother that frames the whole and gives it significance. Paula’s death is a tragedy in which the reader participates, feeling the helpless mother’s anguish, suffering with her through the long days of watching and praying, marveling at her courage and commitment. But it is also a tragedy transformed - by hope, by faith, by constancy and witness. It is a healing tragedy in which life and death are so vibrantly intermixed that we no longer know who is dead and who still lives. Allende’s gift is to bring all her characters to life, and so she does: "On this January 8, 1992, I am writing you, Paula, to bring you back to life." Don’t read this book once. Read it for Allende’s story, for Paula’s story, for the stories of each of the other characters. And reflect, as you do, on the way our stories bring us all to life. -- Susan Wittig Albert is a best-selling author and founder of the Story Circle Network, an organization for women who want to explore their lives through writing. For information about the Network, go to www.storycircle.org Be sure to visit Mystery Partners, Susan Albert's website. |
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