[WPF] Violeta by Isabel Allende - 4 stars

[Jen K]

Violeta tells her story through a letter to her grandson. She was born in one pandemic in 1920 and anticipates ending in another pandemic in 2020. Violeta was born to an elite family in a South American country where class is everything but when her father loses everything, even his life, to the financial downturn of the great depression, the women move to the rural south of the country taken in by kindly teachers through connections of the governess. Violeta comes of age in the country with a strength and confidence thriving in the hard life of living on the land but also maintaining her studies and learning as traveling teacher in the summers. She goes on to have tumultuous relationships, becomes independent through business and sees her own family rise and fall through as the world changes through the decades of politics and awareness.

Violeta mostly tells the story which can be a tricky device but Allende does it well and especially as an audio. I appreciated the sweep of history during a century of many changes including the politics under a dictator supported by the US including the ugliness that was hidden with the means justifying the end. Allende also does well to highlight gender violence as in issue looking at both sides and how it needs to be countered beyond being "family business". It is a tale of adventure and continued learning.

[Joanne]

You liked it it a bit more than I, and I am guessing listening to it is probably a factor. I had a hard copy, and found it very hard to connect to any of the other characters. I like this author, but this one disappointed me

[Jen K]

I definitely think the audio helped. It was as if she was telling her story to me and I enjoyed that aspect. I do think that she tried a to pack quite a bit into the story and that the other characters suffered for it.

[Holly R W]

Jen, I'm so glad that you liked the book. My take on it is similar to yours. I did like how Allende told both Violeta's story while at the same time, showing us what was happening in the larger society.

Having read her earlier memoir, The Sum of Our Days, I can see Allende's adding to the story aspects which resonate in her own life:

- a feminist point of view
-drug addiction - (She encountered this in her step-children.)
-her awareness of the prevalence of domestic abuse. (She has a foundation which helps women in these situations.)
- the politics of dictatorships, which she herself experienced.
- an acceptance of gender differences. She highlighted a lesbian couple in the book and has family members/friends who identify as LGBTQ.

[Jen K]

@Holly, similarly I read her later memoir, The Soul of a Woman and found some of the aspects that you mention as intentional drawing from her own experiences and passions. The later memoir is definitely one of those quickly written while housebound during pandemic but still good. I really appreciate her continuing to speak for women experiencing violence and discrimination on identity.