Violeta by Isabelle Allende
This is the saga of Violeta del Valle who lived for 100 years. She is born in 1920 during the flu pandemic and dies in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic. I liked how she bookended the story that way.
Violeta is born into a privileged family, but when the stock market crash happens during the great depression, her father loses everything. Her family retreats into exile to a country in South America. The author deliberately doesn’t tell us what country.
The story is made up of so many characters. Violeta has many friends who help them. She has many siblings, but most don’t appear in the book. She has an older brother Antonio who is a lawyer and he is a major character.
Violeta becomes engaged to a man who is part of a wealthy German family. I got the feeling they might be connected to the Nazi’s who hid in South America after the war. They married and she met someone else she lusted after more. I say, “lust because it didn’t feel like love”. The first husband was Catholic and refused an annulment.
She had a son and a daughter. The husband hated the son and doted on the daughter. Their lives were tragic, but Violeta seemed to care more about her business than her family. She wasn’t the best role model. I guess I didn’t really like her very much.
Her brother fell in love with her nanny who we eventually discover is a lesbian.
There are so many characters that I can’t say much about many of them without spoilers.
Isabelle Allende is a good writer. I enjoyed – The House of Spirits many years ago. I think this story started out slowly and I found it difficult to believe a lot of what was told.
Violeta was always the best at whatever she did. She made money easily even with all the tragedy in her life.
It was interesting but not a book I would have chosen on my own. This was a book club pick. The book club is part of my local library, and they were having a celebration of South America and that is why this book was chosen. The discussion was interesting because they invited a lady from South America to read it and lead the discussion.
It wasn’t one of my favorites. It felt too much like reading someone’s diary.
I did love the cover. It is beautiful and does catch your attention. The story was too slow for me.
Published January 25, 2022.
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Books by Isabelle Allende:
Upcoming Reviews:
The Invited by Jennifer McMahon
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I am looking forward to the election being over. I am so tired of the political ads. Luckily, I escape often from the television by reading.
I met D M Pulley at an author event recently and couldn’t wait to start her book. I will tell you more about her once I review the book. I am about a hundred pages in and it is so good.
Are you reading something you think I need to get on my radar?
Happy Reading!
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