"Listen, Paula. I am going to tell you a story so that when you wake up you will not feel so lost." So says Chilean writer Isabel Allende (The ...
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May 07, 2011
K.D.
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"What do you want us to learn, Paula?
After reading up to her closing lines: Godspeed, Paula, woman. Welcome, Paula, spirit on page 330 of this amazing 1995-published memoir, still the question above is the one that reverberates inside my head. This is one of the questions the 49-y/o Chilean-American novelist, Isabel Allende asked her 29-y/o comatose daughter, Paula Frias Allende.
The reason is Bhang. My 29-y/o officemate who is currently comatose right after giving bi More...
After reading up to her closing lines: Godspeed, Paula, woman. Welcome, Paula, spirit on page 330 of this amazing 1995-published memoir, still the question above is the one that reverberates inside my head. This is one of the questions the 49-y/o Chilean-American novelist, Isabel Allende asked her 29-y/o comatose daughter, Paula Frias Allende.
The reason is Bhang. My 29-y/o officemate who is currently comatose right after giving bi More...
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Jul 04, 2011
Afnan
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طوال يومين، وأربع مائة صفحة، توحدت مع فجيعة هذهِ الأم المكلومة بإبنتها، ومع خوفها، بكاءها، ومع عجزها وقلّة حيلتها.
أدركت بأن الأدب واسع، واسع جداً، إلى الحد الذي إحتوى فيه كل رهافة وعظمة هذه العاطفة الأمومية المُعجزة.
وإلى الحد الذي إستطاع أن يصف فيه كل هذا الكم من العاطفة، والماسأة، والحُزن، والغُربة، والفجيعة.
أنهيت الكتاب وأنا أحسِبُ أنَّ لا أشقى على وجهِ هذهِ الأرض من أمٌ تُمتحن في ابنٍ لها.
رائع، مؤثر، وإنساني من الدرجة الأولى.
من الكُتب التي يجب أن تُقر More...
أدركت بأن الأدب واسع، واسع جداً، إلى الحد الذي إحتوى فيه كل رهافة وعظمة هذه العاطفة الأمومية المُعجزة.
وإلى الحد الذي إستطاع أن يصف فيه كل هذا الكم من العاطفة، والماسأة، والحُزن، والغُربة، والفجيعة.
أنهيت الكتاب وأنا أحسِبُ أنَّ لا أشقى على وجهِ هذهِ الأرض من أمٌ تُمتحن في ابنٍ لها.
رائع، مؤثر، وإنساني من الدرجة الأولى.
من الكُتب التي يجب أن تُقر More...
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Dec 17, 2009
Bookshop
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Isabel Allende starts this book as a collection of letters to her daughter who fell into a coma. She wrote this while caring for her in a Madrid hospital so that when Paula, the daughter who might be suffering from brain damage, woke up, she could read everything about her ancestry.
Isabel Allende is known for her story-telling but I've actually never read her fiction. Sorry, I lied. I read Daughter of Fortune a long time ago but I've forgotten everything about it. But I like her biog More...
Isabel Allende is known for her story-telling but I've actually never read her fiction. Sorry, I lied. I read Daughter of Fortune a long time ago but I've forgotten everything about it. But I like her biog More...
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Sep 09, 2011
Olivia
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Beautiful in delivery, exquisite in prose. This may not be a book for everyone because of the subject. This book is written as a letter to the authors' daughter while she lays in a fatal coma. The beauty of the book is in it’s communiqué of the authors’ life as the niece of an assassinated ruler in Chile and her exile from her home country. Because I am a fan of this author and her writing style, I lunged into this memoir with the intent of understanding the author a little bit more. I am i
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Oct 06, 2008
Kristen
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Several years ago I read Isabel Allende's fiction and remembered liking it, so enroute to the library checkout I grabbed her nonfiction book, "Paula," on impulse. I have mixed feelings about it. It is a definite page-turner, alternating between the true story of Allende's daughter Paula and her terrible health condition, and the flashbacks of Allende's own very eventful life. Allende wrote the personal history as a way of telling Paula her story and staying sane during the health ordea
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Dec 17, 2009
Valerie
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Never has a book been written more from the heart...A cathartic story written from mother to daughter that brings you on an emotional journey.
When Allende's beautiful, 20-something daughter falls into a coma and is hospitalized in Madrid, Allende finds solace in documenting her own life story and family history in this moving novel.
Allende's talent for story telling made me fall in love with Paula and pray each night for her recovery (I know, what a sap!).
B More...
When Allende's beautiful, 20-something daughter falls into a coma and is hospitalized in Madrid, Allende finds solace in documenting her own life story and family history in this moving novel.
Allende's talent for story telling made me fall in love with Paula and pray each night for her recovery (I know, what a sap!).
B More...
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Mar 13, 2008
Nubia
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I was hooked with this novel. Allende's prose is beautiful and the story is powerful. I read this book before I became a doctor and before I became a mom, and I was able to feel the love and the sorrow she felt in this period of her life, though. After reading the book I decided to be a mom and to have a vaginal birth to experience what she describes, the explosion of love.
After I read about Porfiria (the disease Paula had)I understood the relation between symptoms and her inhability to More...
After I read about Porfiria (the disease Paula had)I understood the relation between symptoms and her inhability to More...
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May 21, 2008
Paula
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I almost can't believe it took me this long to read this book, but then I remember that I took a four-month hiatus from it because it was so depressing.
Yet, simultaneously, it was fascinating. Somehow, Allende has created a work that's part memoir, part biography, part history lesson, and part... something ethereal, I suppose. I noticed the shift in perspective about 3/4 of the way through the book, and yet somehow it felt appropriate, as it became less of a narrative for Allende's d More...
Yet, simultaneously, it was fascinating. Somehow, Allende has created a work that's part memoir, part biography, part history lesson, and part... something ethereal, I suppose. I noticed the shift in perspective about 3/4 of the way through the book, and yet somehow it felt appropriate, as it became less of a narrative for Allende's d More...
Mar 12, 2009
Chandra
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Essential reading for any and all Allende fans. I would recommend reading some of her fictional work (namely House of the Spirits) prior to reading this since this is a memoir of sorts - Allende tells her life story as she tends to her gravely ill and comatose daughter. In order to cope she began to write out the details of her life - ostensibly to share with Paula when she wakes (she never did). We learn about her uncle Salvador Allende's infamous political overthrow and her family's subsequ
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Jan 06, 2009
Kelsey
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Isabelle Allende won me over with her family history. With a slightly fanciful twist this historical novel is interwoven with the drama of her current life. It is an interesting method, but the story of her family is an amazing one.
Isabelle Allende happened to be present for some of the most formative events/moments of Argentina's history. Even those of us with no former knowledge can recognize some of the names and events she throws out.
Great book. Decide for yourself how you feel More...
Isabelle Allende happened to be present for some of the most formative events/moments of Argentina's history. Even those of us with no former knowledge can recognize some of the names and events she throws out.
Great book. Decide for yourself how you feel More...
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May 12, 2008
Cynthia
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I can't believe I didn't read this sooner. Nobody is going to be shocked that this is about grief. All the books I'm reading this year are about grief. I picked this up in the Las Vegas airport, trying to find something that would successfully drown out the sound of the vending machines. (It's not my town.) I was instantly sucked in and under Isabel's spell. It's the marrow of life and death, all the things that people are afraid to say, the reason why you hear people say, "Well, if I die..
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Aug 07, 2011
Cuando uno piensa en los libros de Isabel Allende, generalmente se asocia con una ficción de fácil lectura, asociado con una época, o mejor dicho, con la sensibilidad de una epoca. Una narración emotiva que en una manera u otra se asocia con un periodo de la histora, generalmente chilena, pero también a veces internacional. Paula es una excepción en muchos sentidos. El primero de ellos es la situación en la que el libro fue escrito, y razón por la cual me decidí a comprar un libro de una autora
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May 13, 2011
Nancy
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The first half of this books feels voyeuristic to me- just a little bit too revealing.[return][return]Writing is a long process of introspection; it is a voyage toard the darkest caverns of consciousness, a long, slow meditation.[return][return]Sage advice from her uncle;[return][return]"Remember that all the others are more afraid that you."[return][return]Allende's daughter lay dying, she wants to comfort her son in law but she has nothing;[return][return]How can I console him when I
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Nov 02, 2011
جودي
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انهيت رواية هي الدخول الاول لي الى عوالم هذه التشيلية المبدعة, رواية تختفل بالحزن و الفقد و الدموع و تصور الموت على انه قدر لابد و ان يكون جميلا
قد لا تكون رواية مكتملة الفصول و الشخصيات و العقدة الروائيةالمحبوكة, بل هي اقرب الى مذكرات ام تتعايش مع فقدانها لامها التي تحتضر لمدة سنة كاملة ما بين اسبانيا و كاليفورنيا
تكشف ايزابيل الليندي عن ذكريات طفولتها في بلدها الجريح تشيلي الذي عانى مرارات الانقلاب الديكتاتوري
العسكري على سلفادور الليندي عم الكاتبة
الكتاب مليء بتفاصيل عن More...
قد لا تكون رواية مكتملة الفصول و الشخصيات و العقدة الروائيةالمحبوكة, بل هي اقرب الى مذكرات ام تتعايش مع فقدانها لامها التي تحتضر لمدة سنة كاملة ما بين اسبانيا و كاليفورنيا
تكشف ايزابيل الليندي عن ذكريات طفولتها في بلدها الجريح تشيلي الذي عانى مرارات الانقلاب الديكتاتوري
العسكري على سلفادور الليندي عم الكاتبة
الكتاب مليء بتفاصيل عن More...
Oct 28, 2011
Sydney
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Paula, by Isabel Allende, is a memoir written about the authors life, and her families lives. Written at the beside of her daughter, who is in a coma due to a rare blood condition, she writes this book so saying to her daughter, ‘Listen, Paula. I’m going to tell you a story, so that when you wake up you will not feel so lost.’’ Through the book Isabel learns to let go of her slowly dying daughter, though this is a hard process for her, as it is for every parent, she realizes that her daughter wo
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Aug 18, 2011
Jessica
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A largely non-fiction, personal memoir from Isabel Allende, written during her daughter's coma and leading up to her eventual death. The present-day stuff, while at times (desperately) rambling, is incredibly heart-wrenching to read, especially when she writes about her and her son-in-law coming to terms with the gravity of Paula's situation. The memories are so well written and great stories in and of themselves.
Allende is a fabulous writer, even in this more lightly edited stream-of- More...
Allende is a fabulous writer, even in this more lightly edited stream-of- More...
Mar 05, 2011
Aniela
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It is an autobiography written during the watching over her dying daughter. But the book is not that gloomy due to the talented combination of dramatic moments, humour and wisdom. The writer tries to find out the sense of this suffering. The power of this book is probably created by the archetype that underlies it, rendered in the classical myth of goddess Demeter descending to the Underwold in search of her daughter Persephone. The book is thus structured on 2 story lines: Isabel Allende's tumu
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Dec 03, 2010
إبراهيم
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كتبت بعد قرائتي لها العام الماضي:
ليس أمرًا هينًا (على كل حال) أن تتمكن كاتبة(أو كاتب) من جذبي لتفاصيل خاصة جدًا بتلك الطريقة المشوِّقة بدون عوامل قد تكون مساعدة كجودة اللغة (في العربية مثلاً) أو عنصر التشويق والمفاجأة (في بعض رواياته) أو غير ذلك، يكون الحدث مستكينًا هادئًا، وتأتي الحكايات والتفاصيل على مستوى متقارب ومتباعد منه، تشد وتجذب، وتجعل القارئ يتماهى تمامًا مع شخصيات العمل (وليس بالضرورة أبطاله) ..
أقرأ "باولا" مستمتعًا، وأتذكر أحد الأصدقاء يهمس ليه (إنها ليست رواية)، More...
ليس أمرًا هينًا (على كل حال) أن تتمكن كاتبة(أو كاتب) من جذبي لتفاصيل خاصة جدًا بتلك الطريقة المشوِّقة بدون عوامل قد تكون مساعدة كجودة اللغة (في العربية مثلاً) أو عنصر التشويق والمفاجأة (في بعض رواياته) أو غير ذلك، يكون الحدث مستكينًا هادئًا، وتأتي الحكايات والتفاصيل على مستوى متقارب ومتباعد منه، تشد وتجذب، وتجعل القارئ يتماهى تمامًا مع شخصيات العمل (وليس بالضرورة أبطاله) ..
أقرأ "باولا" مستمتعًا، وأتذكر أحد الأصدقاء يهمس ليه (إنها ليست رواية)، More...
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Aug 13, 2010
Manal
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هل يبدو مشوّقاً الإصغاء لامرأة تحكي حياة الأشخاص،الأشياء من حولها
وحياتها أيضاً؟
بالنسبة لي لا ، بالرغم من أنني من ذات الجنس إلا أنني إلى الآن لا أشعر بأريحية تجاه أي امرأة تسرد قصصاً واقعية تخصها بإسهاب
إيزابيل هاهنا تقوم بذات الدور ، لا أسلّم بتصنيف هذا الكتاب كرواية إلا أن مساحة الاستطراد التخيلية التي تبثها إيزابيل ترشّحه لذلك
إيزابيل كاتبة وليست أديبة ... في هذا الكتاب
روح شخصية المرأة الثورية ذات القضية تستفرد بالعمل هذا بقوة تنمحي معها حضور أي شخصية More...
وحياتها أيضاً؟
بالنسبة لي لا ، بالرغم من أنني من ذات الجنس إلا أنني إلى الآن لا أشعر بأريحية تجاه أي امرأة تسرد قصصاً واقعية تخصها بإسهاب
إيزابيل هاهنا تقوم بذات الدور ، لا أسلّم بتصنيف هذا الكتاب كرواية إلا أن مساحة الاستطراد التخيلية التي تبثها إيزابيل ترشّحه لذلك
إيزابيل كاتبة وليست أديبة ... في هذا الكتاب
روح شخصية المرأة الثورية ذات القضية تستفرد بالعمل هذا بقوة تنمحي معها حضور أي شخصية More...
Jul 22, 2010
Jean
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When Isabel Allende’s twenty-eight year old daughter, Paula, became gravely ill and slipped into a coma, Allende’s literary agent suggested she write a letter to Paula as a way of coping with trauma and grief. The letter grew into Allende’s first “non-fiction” book. In it she weaves personal history together with her day-to-day routines at Paula’s bedside. Allende’s family history was melodramatic (“My relatives are very extravagant people.”). Life in her adopted country, Chile, was in blood
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Apr 14, 2010
Amanda B.
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I have become very interested in Isabel Allende’s books. She is a very impressive author and the facts that she integrates her Hispanic culture makes me eager to read her books. This particular book came to my attention from my older sister’s book stash. I have read The House of the Spirits which contained elements of magical realism, and the moment I saw that this was a memoir I wanted to read it all the more. I was interested to see how this one author could write in these two different genres
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Mar 20, 2010
Kathy
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Para mi leer este libro significó un cambio de pagina con Isabel Allende, fue como reconciliarme como una amiga con la cual ya no recordaba porque estaba peleada. No se si recuerdan que a principios de años leí La Casa de los Espíritus y les comente que no me gustó, pues al leer Paula y verme cara a cara nuevamente con Isabel, con su forma de escribir, con sus historias del golpe militar en Chile y mas aun con sus sentimientos mas profundos por la agonía de tener a su hija enferma me hizo cambia
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Jun 24, 2009
Bridget
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I actually listened to an audio book of this title, but hey, that still counts, right?
The book is a letter that Allende is writing to her 28-year-old daughter, Paula, who lingered in a coma for a while, and later died. Allende wants her to know what has happened, and what people have come into the family's life, so that, as she says, "when you wake up, you won't feel lost."
I thought this book was pretty amazing. Never maudlin, it is written in a very conversa More...
The book is a letter that Allende is writing to her 28-year-old daughter, Paula, who lingered in a coma for a while, and later died. Allende wants her to know what has happened, and what people have come into the family's life, so that, as she says, "when you wake up, you won't feel lost."
I thought this book was pretty amazing. Never maudlin, it is written in a very conversa More...
Apr 06, 2009
Smallworld
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http://smallworldreads.blogspot.com/2009...
"Listen, Paula. I am going to tell you a story, so that when you wake up you will not feel so lost. The legend of our family begins at the end of the last century…"
I've had this book by Isabel Allende on my shelf for nearly a year. I have no idea what took me so long to read this beautiful book, written by Allende as her daughter lay in a coma. I'm glad I finally did.
"You have been sleeping for More...
"Listen, Paula. I am going to tell you a story, so that when you wake up you will not feel so lost. The legend of our family begins at the end of the last century…"
I've had this book by Isabel Allende on my shelf for nearly a year. I have no idea what took me so long to read this beautiful book, written by Allende as her daughter lay in a coma. I'm glad I finally did.
"You have been sleeping for More...
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Jul 01, 2009
Kerri
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Fantastic book! Great stories. I was thinking after I bought the book, "oh shoot! why didn't I get this in Spanish!" However, Allende's writing is so elevated with lots of extensive vocabulary that I find it hard to digest it all at times...even though it is in English. I read slowly and pause so that I can get it all in. It is a refreshing challenge. I am not complaining, on the contrary, it is fabulous the way she writes, her style, language, story telling skills, the jumping
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Jan 02, 2009
Jan
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"Listen, Paula. I am going to tell you a story so that when you wake up you will not feel so lost." So says Chilean writer Isabel Allende (The House of the Spirits) in the opening lines of the luminous, heart-rending memoir she wrote while her 28-year-old daughter Paula lay in a coma. In its pages, she ushers an assortment of outrageous relatives into the light: her stepfather, an amiable liar and tireless debater; grandmother Meme, blessed with second sight; and delinquent uncles who
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Dec 20, 2010
Pikachu
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I have mixed feelings about this memoir. On the one hand, it was a very beautifully written account of a woman dealing with the death of her daughter--something very horrible that should never happen to anyone, but does, and Allende's way of dealing with this horrible situation was quite unique.
On the other hand, it was an autobiography shrouded in magic realism, with histories of relatives exaggerated and, I suspect, slightly fabricated, taking place during the revolutions and wars in More...
On the other hand, it was an autobiography shrouded in magic realism, with histories of relatives exaggerated and, I suspect, slightly fabricated, taking place during the revolutions and wars in More...
Sep 18, 2010
Fahima
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Mar 23, 2010
Mahmoud
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اسمعي يا باولا سأقص عليكي قصة لكي لا تكوني ضائعة تماماً عندما تستيقظين ... رائعة هذه القصة التي قصتها إيزابيل الليندي على أبنتها في غيبوبتها التي لن تفيق منها أبداً ، وملهمة لأقصى حدود الإلهام ، سلطت الضوء على جزء هام من تاريخ تشيلي ، وعوضت بحكايتها الصفحة الفارغة في الوكيبيديا عن سيلفادور الليندي ، ذلك الرجل الذي سمعت عنه كثيراً ولم أستطع أن أحصل على معلومات كافية عنه ، اليوم إيزابيل الليندي تحكي حكاية هذا الرجل من قلب بيته .. تحكي كيف يكتشف المرء نفسه ولا ييأس ولا يمل طالما كان في العمر بقية ،
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Mar 20, 2011
Sarah
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As with any and all of Allende's books, I am undone by the time I turn the last page--she opens the imagination to adult wonder, bittersweetness, and unconditional love. This book was a slice more personal to me, since it is a memoir about nursing a terminally ill loved one out of the world, but it still contains much of what I love in Allende's writing in general. Her scenes and lines ebb and flow with magic, rich and deep color, refreshment, and the innocence of a child telling a story, as o
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