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Loading... Paula (original 1995; edition 1995)by Isabel Allende, Margaret Sayers Peden (Translator)
Work detailsPaula by Isabel Allende (1995)
None. This is one of my all-time favorite books. Allende writes great fiction but this account of her own family history is even more powerful. (  ) astrologerjenny | Apr 25, 2013 |  This is one of my all-time favorite books. Allende writes great fiction but this account of her own family history is even more powerful. ( ) astrologerjenny | Apr 24, 2013 | If you have read and enjoyed any of Isabel Allende's novels, I highly recommend this memoir written by Allende while her daughter Paula lay in a coma. Having read The House of the Spirits and Of Love and Shadows, it was incredible to read about the real life occurrences and people that inspired those novels. Mix that with a mother's love and anguish towards her comatose daughter, and the result is a rich and compelling read. ( ) purplehena | Mar 31, 2013 | very touching... make you cry with isable allende ( ) ariesblue | Mar 31, 2013 | Moving reminiscence of Allende's daughter as she battles a life-threatening illness. (  ) June6Bug | Nov 11, 2012 | no reviews | add a review Is replied to in
Amazon.com Amazon.com Review (ISBN 0060927216, Paperback)"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 exultantly torment Allende and her brothers. Irony and marvelous flights of fantasy mix with the icy reality of Paula's deathly illness as Allende sketches childhood scenes in Chile and Lebanon; her uncle Salvatore Allende's reign and ruin as Chilean president; her struggles to shake off or find love; and her metamorphosis into a writer.(retrieved from Amazon Wed, 02 Jan 2013 12:58:53 -0500) Paula is a soul-baring memoir, which, like a novel of suspense, one reads without drawing a breath. The point of departure for these moving pages is a tragic personal experience. In December 1991, Isabel Allende's daughter, Paula, became gravely ill and shortly thereafter fell into a coma. During months in the hospital, the author began to write the story of her family for her unconscious daughter. In the telling, bizarre ancestors appear before our eyes; we hear both delightful and bitter childhood memories, amazing anecdotes of youthful years, the most intimate secrets passed along in whispers. Chile, Allende's native land, comes alive as well, with the turbulent history of the military coup of 1973, the ensuing dictatorship, and her family's years of exile. As an exorcism of death, in these pages Isabel Allende explores the past and questions the gods.… (more) (summary from another edition) |
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Wikipedia in English (2)
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