Como siempre Isabel Allende, no decepciona

لا يوجد غير صراع الحياة..

Isabel Allende no decepciona nada. Al principio me costó un poquito meterme en la historia pero en seguida consigues meterte en el interior de la historia y vivir una vida completamente impredecible y dura junto a los protagonistas de la historia.

Lange tijd zag het er naar uit dat dit alweer een driesterrenboek zou worden (hakken over de sloot dus), zoals ik er de laatste tijd zoveel heb gelezen. Wat deed me dan van mening veranderen? "Imagine challenging a bully to a duel to see if you could both jump across the tracks in front of a speeding train. He makes it, the bully is smashed to smithereens," zoals een zekere Jan hier ergens op goodreads schrijft. Dat is op het einde van het eerste deel. Dan komen er nog drie. En die lezen als... een trein, jawel. En telkens weet de verteller aan z'n noodlot te ontkomen, terwijl andere mensen in zijn omgeving "smashed to smithereens" worden. Ondertussen zijn we bijna dertig jaar verder en ik denk dat het koppel nog altijd samen is. Het lijkt erop dat hij zijn duivels uiteindelijk toch heeft kunnen bezweren.

Loved this book! While I wasn’t the biggest fan of the shifts between first and third person which felt jumpy/irregular, it was beautifully written and kept me hooked all the way through. Love the ending, especially knowing this is loosely the story of Allende’s husband’s life.

As I was finishing up this book on my train ride into work, a particular passage resonated with me. Allende does a masterful job of weaving together characters as they begin to know themselves and heal from old psychic wounds.

Later in the day, I was discussing new plans with my co-worker who said, "Thinking of yourself as a failure for moving back home is such a white people thing."

I immediately pulled out this book, because she reiterated the same passage that I found so significant earlier: "There are no such things as failure and success, Greg; those are gringo inventions. You just live, that's all, the best you can, a little every day; it's like a journey without a destination; it's the getting there that counts."

Es un regalo muy lindo por parte de Isabel Allende a quien acaba siendo su marido. Tal vez de esa forma funciona excelente, pero como libro no mucho. Muy random, sin suficiente sustancia que sacar de él. Igual es una lectura dulce y sencilla, para nada desagradable.

No language in the world has enough words for me to describe how bad this was

Estou pouco a pouco a reler os livros da minha escritora preferida, Isabel Allende. Agora foi a vez de "O Plano Infinito" que tinha lido pela primeira vez há mais de 20 anos e do qual já só recordava breves passagens e a inesquecível Tamar.
Este livro conta-nos a história de Gregory Reeves desde a sua infância nómada devido ao seu pai, que pregava o plano infinito pelos EUA fora, até à meia idade, altura em que se reencontra consigo próprio. Com uma vida marcada por problemas vários, desde a negligência e segregação de que foi vítima na infância e adolescência à sua ida para a guerra do Vietname, passando pelos seus relacionamentos falhados e pelos seus problemas com os filhos, Gregory Reeves consegue ficar em paz consigo próprio e com os outros e o livro termina com um reinicio na sua vida.
Termino com a dúvida se será um livro um bocadinho autobiográfico, uma vez que também Isabel Allende foi casada com um advogado americano que perdeu filhos para a toxicodependência e com quem iniciou uma relação também na meia idade.
Sou suspeita porque gosto muito da escrita desta autora, mas para mim é mais um livrinho 5 ⭐!

The story-line of this book did not strike as being exciting (it is somewhat predictable and slow-moving) but there are excellent characters and incidents in it. On the whole I enjoyed it and thought it was worth reading but I think that for most readers it might well be too long and contain too little action. One of my criteria for deciding that the writer is worth reading is that he/she does not write the same book each time (with different names) and, having read 'Paula', that would seem to me to be the case with Isabel Allende. Thus I shall read another one before long!

I liked this book. It is more of a biography of several people than a novel. Not my favorite Allende book. It was very drawn out and contained too much detail of mental struggles for my taste. It is the life story of her second husband. Sorta.

السؤال الذي يخطر على البال ودائما اثناء القراءة لأم الحكايات كيف تكتب ايزابيل الليندي كل تلك القصص وكيف تجاري الأحداث حتى تصب في مجرى واحد! مذهلة