I got this book on libby as an audiobook have no idea who Heather Gay was. I had never heard of her and just wanted a book about the Mormon faith. ThiI got this book on libby as an audiobook have no idea who Heather Gay was. I had never heard of her and just wanted a book about the Mormon faith. This is a memoir-ish. I have a feeling that her husband would tell a very different story. Poorly written, it was a pity me story by a very privileged, spoiled human being. ...more
I read this book simultaneously in English and in Spanish and I felt that the English translation left a bit to be desired. Allende's verbiage is diffI read this book simultaneously in English and in Spanish and I felt that the English translation left a bit to be desired. Allende's verbiage is difficult - think of someone in a foreign country trying to translate, "Well, bless your cotton socks." How would they do that? Exactly. With difficulty. The translator actually skipped a word or phrase here or there when the going got tough. So, strike one.
I'm not going to comment on the literary form, nor Isabel's writing, though I felt that some of the characters lacked 3 dimensions at times. But I am going to comment on the historical veracity of the book in terms of what happened in Chile:
I'm Chilean. Born there, did high school and college there. But lived my first years in the States and have been here for over 40 years since college. So where was I during the Allende administration? Smack in the midst of the "revolution." And that's where the book fails categorically.
This book is one I could compare to Eric Trump (if he could write a complete sentence) writing a book about his father's presidency. This is how Isabel Allende's slant on her uncle, Salvador Allende's presidency, seems to me.
And here's the problem. This book is touted as "historical fiction" with historically accurate names and dates. The reviews of the book take what she has written as history. If a writer is going to use names, dates and events then the facts should line up. They don't. Isabel writes the Chilean portion of this story from a very lopsided viewpoint.
She blamed businessmen and the United States for the coup. Oh no. It wasn't the conservative right that brought about the coup. It was millions, and I mean millions of women from all walks of life who demonstrated, marched and banged their empty pots demanding law and order be returned to this beautiful country. Not to mention that food and toilet paper would be nice as well. Because there was none. My father in law had cows and a butcher shop. He was caught selling meat to someone who didn't hold the JAP - Junta de Abastecimiento Popular - card, given by the communist party to followers. His shop was confiscated, his herd and his shop were confiscated and he was imprisoned. He lost the shirt off his back. The spaghetti factory -- Lucchetti - was overtaken by the workers. Within two months there was no pasta to be had on the grocery store shelves. My cousins were taken hostage in their farm, blockaded in their house for months. The workers barbecued the prize bull. Toothpaste was gone, I brushed with a baking soda paste. Novacaine was gone, so I have a tooth pulled with no anesthesia. When we'd hear that a store had cooking oil, we'd go wait in line for 2, 3 or 4 hours - lines winding around blocks to get some oil. And those were just annoyances.
Isabel Allende forgot to mention the atrocities committed by her uncle's regime. Like for example when they planted a bomb in the military hospital and erred on the placement blowing up the maternity ward with babies in incubators, new mothers and personnel. Or when they blew up a bridge that happened to have a busload of cops crossing. They all died. They were all part of the band going to play music at a plaza. Or did she mention the plot to poison the cadets from the Naval Academy scheduled to march during the Independence Day parade on September 18? No? She must have forgotten that part.
I lived in Reñaca. That's where the truckers - not the truck owners - truckers - had stopped and were on strike. There was no food and no gas to transport food anyway and we were all fed up. My mother and I would make pots of soup to take up to them, maybe 3 or 4 blocks from my house, to feed them. They were on strike for weeks before the coup. These weren't wealthy, conservative aristocrats. These were hard working guys with families to feed. And doctors? Plenty of doctors, engineers and intellectuals fled the country during Allende's regime. Why? They knew what was coming - that they'd be targeted as "superior" to the communists.
That's just the tip of the iceberg. There is much, much more.
I'm not a conservative. I'm a flipping bleeding heart liberal - always have been, and so were so most of the people who were afraid our country was going to go the way that Venezuela has gone in recent years. And it would have. There were many reasons why the 30-some percent of the vote (not 50%) went to Allende - poverty, class and caste, ignorance, lies, empty promises - but what Allende did to our country was unconscionable - and what Isabel Allende wrote was a fairy tale.
And what's funny is that all those "exiliados" the people who fled after the coup, they didn't go to Cuba or to one of the USSR's countries. Half of them came to the big, bad United States, including Isabel Allende.
While the topic was excellent, the author got sidetracked embedding her own history as well as modern events into this disjointed narrative. I was hopWhile the topic was excellent, the author got sidetracked embedding her own history as well as modern events into this disjointed narrative. I was hoping for a more personal account which was lacking as well.
I'll look for a more scholarly version of Ida's life. ...more
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