Book Review: Eva Luna by Isabel Allende
Just finished reading Eva Luna by Isabel Allende, another magnificent book. I’m looking forward to reading more of her work. I remember the ‘House of the Spirits’, another of her books, came out as a movie starring Meryl Streep quite a few years ago.
The setting of ‘Eva Luna’ (and Isabel Allende’s life and other works) is South America. The book centres on the obervations and experiences of a young girl struggling in difficult circumstances towards womanhood, her relationships with the colourful characters who come and go in her life starting with her mother and after her mother’s death, a variety of female carers, father figures, employers, friends and lovers as well as her encounters with the fascinating world of the backstreets and servant’s quarters of a South American city and as a surrogate daughter in the tormented household of an estranged Arabic couple in a South American village where traditional Indian culture is mixed with foreign and colonial elements.
There is internal and external tumult as guerilla warfare and revolution is played out in the steamy jungle of the country while at the same time Eva comes to terms with love, passion, cruelty and death. Eva gradually fulfils her life ambition to become a writer, having always been a storyteller, and Allende constructs a reflecting mirrors device - the budding writer, Eva, begins to relate the stories we have already lived through with her to an imaginary audience and so a sense of the circulatory and ever-spinning wheel of time and life is created.
I would be interested to read about Allende’s background to explore ideas about the melding of imaginary and autobiographical elements in writing which we have been talking a lot about in my writing class - I’m realising how much of a writer’s experience and self goes into their work.
You are lucky to be such an avid reader, Ruth. I’ve nearly finished “The Poisonwood Bible”. That was a marathon for me!!
It’s funny, I could never get into Allende. I know she’s heralded as a great writer, I guess I just can’t get into her style. Having read your review though, I might try this one. I am reading a mixture at the moment; James Elroy (yiou know that LA crime noir style), Phillip Roth, Joyce Carol Oates (The Tatooed Girl, Iris Murdoch and more Jewish stuff by Bernice Rubens. I read this bizarre book the other week called Something Might Happen by Julie Myerson. I liked the story but the style took a lot of getting used to - extremely staccato.
Someone mentioned Iris Murdoch the other day - I’ve heard about the movie with Judy Dench, supposed to be moving. Haven’t read any of the others but a couple of people have recommended Phillip Roth to me. I’ve haven’t dabbled in crime fiction in recent years, it doesn’t appeal - maybe I overdid it with the Agatha Christies. Someone mentioned the Donna Tartt book you liked, ‘The Secret History’ in the last writing class. Apparently she has another one out too. It’s so great getting other people’s recommendations for books because it opens up lots of of possibilities I may never have considered.
Sean is embarking on a “reading programme” as set by me!! He likes non-fiction but is a keen writer and so I told him he needs to explore more fiction. He read The Secret History by Donna Tartt and enjoyed it but thought it was too flowery in some parts. I read her second book “The Little Friend” when I was pregnant with Judah. I enjoyed it but was disappointed with the ending and didn’t think it was up to her original standard. There is an article about Philip Roth in this week’s SMH. He writes well but once again it’s an acquired taste. Do oyu like John Irving? I really enjoyed A Widow for One Year (the protaganist’s name is Ruth) and A Prayer for Owen Meany. The only thing I find off putting about Irving is his obsession with sex and women as pawns in sexual farces. Maybe it’s men’s reading. As for crime writing - I have really gone off it too. So much of it is junk writing. I can’t stand Patricia Cornwall - don’t know how I ever read half of her stuff, Kathy Reichs, that guy who writes the Inspector Rebus novels, etc. I LOVE Patricia Highsmith - try Deep Water and the Two Faces of January - and Barbara Vine but you can keep the rest. I always think that crime fiction is aimed at the less serious reader. I like to be scared but I don’t want to have the plot spoon fed to me. James Elroy is a very different style of crime writing - you might like it - Kate Connors got me interetsed in him.