A Night with My Hero

The other day, enthralled in my seat inside Seattle’s Benaroya Hall, I saw in person and heard the live voice of one of my literary heroes. Isabel Allende dazzled the captive audience with her charm, wit, and humor. Her words were meaningful and profound, but she also gave practical advice. At times she had me laughing out loud at her stories; they were plain, ordinary stories, but she told them with extraordinary delivery. (She said she couldn’t tell a proper joke, but I beg to differ!) She was full of energy, wisdom, and grace.

When asked whether she molds her protagonists into her own likeness, she answered: readers will find the author in all the characters in their books, showing in the gaps and appearing in the space between the lines. When asked for her advice to writers, she mentioned the importance of discipline, but noted: no one cares about the 1,000 drafts you wrote or all the hard work you put into your book—truth is, people only care whether they like your story. Also this: that she could teach people how to write, but not quite how to tell a story. There’s a difference, you see: being able to tell a story well, like being able to tell a joke well, is a Gift. Yes, it’s a skill that can be honed and mastered with enough discipline and practice, but there is something else there—Instinct—that is very hard to teach.

It is this gift, this instinct, that sets her apart and shines in her writing. She knows when to deliver the punchline, how to deliver the punchline, and how to hold you in suspense. She doesn’t spell things out for you; rather, she stimulates the best of your imagination with a few words, then leaves it up to you to paint the rest of the picture and come to your own conclusions. She is entertaining without being overbearing. Though she often writes about complex themes and subject matters, she writes simply, is frank and to-the-point, and is seldom frilly with words.

I have read only four out of the dozens of books she has written so far, but there is always that familiar lyricism in her writing—it flows so easily, like a song. Her writing is intimate, as if your close friend were merely relaying her experiences to you. Her writing is wise and insightful without sounding preachy. Most delightful, though, is the way she injects humor—at times self-deprecating, other times sarcastic, and many times laugh-out-loud hilarious—in even the gravest, most serious of subjects. Honestly, I think she just hates being bogged down, and after swimming in dark waters, her natural capacity for joy and lightness buoys her back up to optimism. She shows an abundance of grace, and one gets the feeling she truly knows what it is to live fully, with open arms, and from different perspectives. Yes, people, this is what I gather simply from her writing!

There are so many writers I admire, so many whom I'd love to emulate, but it wouldn’t be fair to start a list here because they are all brilliant in different ways and within their own genres. But in the context of fiction and the kind of books I personally would like to write, Isabel Allende has truly been a model and inspiration. It is her style—insightful, wise, witty, humorous, openhearted, and lyrical—that I hope my own readers might find in my books as well. And if so, I would soar with such a compliment, and cherish the honor.