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Tuesday, December 15, 2020

A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende

I loved this book.  I ready it over several days of Thanksgiving weekend, after having retinal surgery and feeling visually impaired and yet mostly able to read.  This is a sweeping novel without magical realism and informed by real events.  It begins in Spain in the time of the civil war, and ends in Chile after Pinochet.  There is a lot to unpack here, but it carries a faint hint of uneasiness and not belonging.  It is  the story of those who are displaced, who by leaving their home land are forever relegated to being without roots.
The story follows Victor and Roser.  Roser is engaged to Victor's brother, who is killed in the Spanish Civil War.  After that, the situation deteriorates in Spain, and Victor and a now pregnant Roser emigrate (with the help of Pablo Neruda) to Chile.  They marry for legal purposes, and while they love each other, it is the love of family, not a couple.  This causes the sorts of down stream damage that you might imagine. They build a life together, the three of them, but it is one with a back line of sadness throughout.  Allende is a beautiful story teller, and spending time in one of her stories is always time well spent.
 

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