In March, I had the absolute pleasure to dive into the work of Isabel Allende, an author I had been wanting to discover for quite some time but somehow had never done so. Well now consider this situation fixed since I spent the month immersed into her world through four of her books: The Soul Of A Woman, The Wind Knows My Name, Violeta and The House Of The Spirits.
Allende is a Chilean author who started her writing career working for various magazines until she published her first novel The House Of The Spirits at age 40. The book quickly became a best seller and was critically acclaimed after its publication in Spanish. I love reading success stories of people who have found their gifts and honed their craft a bit “later” in life and I found her story incredibly inspiring. Since then, she has written over 20+ books, the latest one published this year. However, she once said that her most significant achievements were not her books, but the love she has for her people and the ways in which she has tried to help others. After the death of her daughter Paula, she founded the Isabel Allende foundation, an organisation whose mission is to invest in the power of women and girls to secure reproductive rights, economic independence and freedom from violence.
She strikes me as the type of woman who goes for what she wants and is unapologetically herself. Her determination to support women in real life also comes across in her books in my opinion as her female characters tend to be portrayed as strong, independent and determined.
The Soul Of A Woman is an autobiography where Allende shares lessons from her life and what it means to be a woman. She explains that she was already a feminist in kindergarten and has always been outspoken regarding women’s rights. I have found the book very inspiring and there are quite a few passages that have stayed with me. She shares that to be a woman means to live in fear and that every woman has a fear of man in her DNA, which is hard to argue with when you see the state of the world. She also discusses lighter topics such as sensuality or the fact that caring about your appearance doesn’t make you a bad feminist. I loved reading this book before the other ones because it gave me a lot of insights into the stories and I couldn’t help but notice the elements that were inspired by her own life through her fictional characters.
Then I read The Wind Knows My Name, which is a story that made me travel from 1938 Vienna to 2019 Arizona. I love books where we discover characters that initially have nothing to do with one another until their stories ultimately weave together. I cried reading about 5-year old Samuel being shipped off to the UK by his mother to escape Nazi-occupied Austria and then cried again when 7-year-old Anita found herself alone in a refugee camp in Arizona without any news from her mother. This book touches on very sad topics but I couldn’t put it down and I absolutely loved it.
I continued with Violeta which is the story of *spoiler* Violeta, a woman born in 1920, the first girl in a family of five sons. She shares her story in the form of a letter to someone she loves very much, although we don’t learn until very late who that person is. She grows into a strong, independent woman, determined to make her own way in a world that isn’t designed for women to thrive. I think Allende took a lot of inspiration from her own life to write this character. I also love stories where we get to follow a character through different stages of their life and the way they evolve as the years go by. It’s like following a new friend and when the book ends, you are not fully ready to part ways.
Finally, I read The House Of The Spirits which is a book that is often used as an example of magical realism alongside Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ One Hundred Years Of Solitude. The book tells the story of the Trueba family through three generations of women in a country facing political turmoil and uncertainty. I love the spiritual elements and connection to other realms that you can also find in Allende’s other books. And once again, I also loved following these characters throughout their lives. It is a big book, the kind where you have to be very focused when reading as the descriptions are quite rich and there’s a lot going on. But it's completely worth it.
Overall, I am excited to read more of her books in the future. She has the ability to write about women beautifully, presenting them as the main character of their story as opposed to an accessory to a man’s life. And I am now 100% an Allende fan.
I hope you enjoyed this review and possibly inspired you to pick up one of her books.
Love,
