If you
have never read an Isabel Allende book, don’t make Paula your
introduction to this internationally known writer. Many years ago Isabel
Allende’s, House of Spirits came
highly recommended to me by a friend. In my thrift book rummaging I came across both
House of Spirits and Paula and after many years of my personal library shelf,
Paula jumped out at me last year. Yes, normally a three hundred page book would
take me about a month of leisure reading time, but the dramatic pauses that I
had to take to get through this book took months. It was a very slow read for
me because of the limited subject content. As a mother I truly felt what Isabel
Allende went through, however the repetition of the waiting for the miracle
left the book on my nightstand for many nights.
I made
it through the book riding on the beautifully first hand historical accounts of
Chilean history and the admirable descriptions of the country she loved that I have
never visited before. As a history buff I thrive on the unknowns of history
that can only be told by native sons and daughters of times and places far away
from my quaint little dwelling here in Texas. Isabel Allende brought those
still faces of time like Pablo Neruda, Victor Jara, Salvador Allende and
Augusto Pinochet into the lime light of my heart and etched them into my memory
as forces of nature that once created, inspired, changed, destroyed and took
you to that moment in time where you question the sanity of humanity based on
the actions of man.
She also
drops pearl of wisdom to those who have hope for the world: “Silence before
being born, silence after death; life is nothing but noise between two
unfathomable silences.” She also hints little tid bits of love to her fellow
writers as an act of sharing her gifts unconditionally: “They say a book is
never finished; instead, the author just gives up.”
Although
reading Paula was bitter sweet, I’m not giving up. I still have House of Spirits on my library shelf,
and I pass it every day so I am sure it will jump out at me too. On to the next
Isabel Allende!
Akua Gray
July 30, 2015
Houston, Texas
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