In this deeply revealing second memoir, after Paula
, novelist Allende (The House of Spirits
) utilizes her family and the complex network of their relationships as the linchpin of the narrative. While weaving in her candid opinions on love and marriage, friendship, drug addiction, the writing life and religious fanaticism, Allende continues to work through the grief over her daughter's death. “In these years without you I have learned to manage sadness, making it my ally. Little by little your absence and other losses in my life are turning into a sweet nostalgia.” And though Allende's insight is keen, her prose polished and her language hypnotic, it's the stories of her close-knit family that move the memoir forward. “We lived as a tribe, Chilean style; we were almost always together.” While much of the story is infused with melancholy, her world is by no means without humor, mirth and wisdom. She celebrates friends' triumphs and exploits their foibles, including the “odyssey of the boobs,” without taking herself too seriously. This is a book to savor. (Apr.)
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Reviewed on: 02/18/2008
Release date: 04/01/2008
Genre: Nonfiction
Paperback - 301 pages - 9780061551840
Paperback - 518 pages - 9780061563102
Hardcover - 320 pages - 9780061551833
Compact Disc - 9 pages - 9780061571169
Paperback - 320 pages - 9780007299850
Paperback - 301 pages - 9780007269495
Hardcover - 301 pages - 9780007269488
Other - 336 pages - 9780062254467
Paperback - 320 pages - 9780007269501
Hardcover - 320 pages - 9781554681730
Mass Market Paperbound - 336 pages - 9780061782329