This is Isabel Allende's funny and sorrowful tribute to her native country. She starts off with amusing stories: a cat-killing refrigerator; her grandfather's insistence that he saw the devil on a bus; her father who disguised himself as a Peruvian Indian woman with bright petticoats and a wig with long braids. Later in the book she moves on to the horror and repression suffered by the Chilean people following the CIA-assisted military coup in 1973.

The book is not so much a memoir as it is an exploration of the nostalgia that has informed Allende's life and writing. She left Chile in 1975 to escape Pinochet's dictatorship. Her longing for that country of her memory and invention is palpable on every page.

I've read several of her novels and always imagined her as a serious person. Here in her non-fiction writing I was surprised and delighted by her sense of humor. It's very wry and sometimes has barbs, but I found myself laughing out loud many times. She shares bizarre stories about her loony family members and explains the origins of the Chilean national character traits.
The book is loosely organized, but Allende has the charms to make it work. There's a little history, a little geography, some politics, a lot of Chilean culture, and a whole lot of heart.

If you've read her novels, this book will give you some insight into how she comes by some of her wild creations. Her first book, The House of the Spirits, began as a letter to her beloved grandfather who was dying. She describes the resulting novel as "an attempt to recapture my lost country, to reunite my scattered family, to revive the dead and preserve their memories, which were beginning to be blown away in the whirlwind of exile."

I personaggi dei romanzi, come i fantasmi, sono esseri fragili e timorosi; bisogna trattarli con cautela perché si sentano a loro agio nelle pagine.

La Allende ripercorre, attraverso ricordi, aneddoti e descrizioni varie, gli anni trascorsi nella sua terra, il Cile, e nella sua città, Santiago, con un colorito contorno di parenti, amici e tradizioni. Almeno fino a che il golpe militare del 1973 non la costrinse, due anni dopo, a lasciare questo Paese e ad imboccare un altro cammino.
Un periodo lungo diciassette anni, dominato dal terrore, che avrebbe proiettato la sua ombra per ancora un quarto di secolo. Un periodo in cui la paura veniva sentita come un persistente sapore di metallo in bocca.

Il libro è un forziere al cui interno vi sono racchiuse molte perle, bellissime e preziose; ma quanto è costato raccoglierle?

Considerazioni amare:
... non sarei una scrittrice se non avessi provato l’esilio. [...]
... cominciai inconsciamente a inventare il mio paese.

Nessuna vera recensione; lascio parlare l’Autrice, perché parole migliori non ne potrei davvero trovare:

Non avendo radici solide, né testimoni del passato, dobbiamo affidarci alla memoria per conferire continuità alle nostre vite; ma la memoria è sempre confusa, non ci si può fare affidamento. I ricordi del mio passato non hanno un contorno preciso, sono sfumati, quasi che la mia vita sia stata solo una successione d'illusioni, immagini fugaci, episodi che non riesco a spiegarmi o che mi spiego solo in parte. Non ho alcun tipo di certezza. E non riesco neanche a immaginare il Cile come un luogo geografico con delle caratteristiche precise, come un posto definito e reale. Mi appare come i sentieri di campagna all'imbrunire, quando le ombre dei pioppi confondono lo sguardo e il paesaggio sembra solo un sogno.

Ed ecco ancora uno sprazzo...
L’immagine di quegli alberi della casa dei miei antenati mi torna spesso in mente quando penso alla mia sorte di esiliata. Sono destinata a vagare da un posto all’altro, adattandomi a nuovi terreni. Credo che ciò sia possibile perché nelle radici conservo manciate della mia terra, che porto sempre con me.

E tra i suoi ricordi più dolci:
Lo zio [Pablo] rubava i libri nei negozi e li sottraeva ai suoi amici perché pensava che tutta la carta stampata fosse patrimonio comune dell’umanità. [...]; mi regalò una bambola quando terminai ‘Guerra e pace’, un librone stampato con caratteri piccolissimi. [...], mi regalò una torcia elettrica. I ricordi più belli che conservo di quegli anni sono i momenti passati a leggere libri sotto le lenzuola, con la mia torcia. I bambini cileni leggevano romanzi di Emilio Salgari e Jules Verne [...] io mi rimpinzavo di piatti più succulenti, come ‘Anna Karenina’ e ‘I Miserabili’. Come dessert assaporavo fiabe.

Un viaggio indimenticabile, colmo di rimpianti, di nostalgia, di illusioni e innocenti invenzioni, appena venato di ironia laddove l’argomento lo permette, così... tanto per alleggerire tensioni, verità e dolori; ricordi di un grande Paese, rivisitati con gli occhi del cuore, come solo può viverli una persona esclusa, lontana dalle proprie radici... esiliata.

Ogni libro è come un messaggio in una bottiglia, affidato al mare con la speranza che raggiunga l’altra costa.

Cara Isabel, il tuo messaggio mi è arrivato...
________________________________________

Oct 21, 830pm ~~ Review asap.

Oct 22, 10am ~~ I learned a lot about Isabel Allende in this book. I learned a lot about the geography and political history of Chile. I also now understand a friend of the family better, because she is from Chile and matches to a tee Allende's personality profile of the typical Chilean. And I discovered that the USA is a bigger buttinsky then I ever realized. I never knew about my country's involvement in Chile and I am thoroughly disgusted. When is my government going to learn to Live And Let Live and quit being afraid of everyone who has different ideas?!

But anyway, about the book. I enjoyed it very much. I have read a couple of Allende's novels, many years ago. I chose this book as part of an order from my favorite online book seller. So of course now that I have learned that one book of hers I have is actually number 2 of an 'involuntary' trilogy, I went back and ordered numbers 1 and 3. And I have her book Zorro out in my Spanish Language Bookcase. I read both long enough ago that they will be new to me. So guess who is being added to my 2023 reading plans?!

It was a pleasure getting to know the author and I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys her work or wonders about the woman behind the books.

I've never been tempted by Allende's fiction, and I can't say I am now, but this is one well-written, engaging memoir! To break things down, I'd say it's about 65% memoir/20% history/15% travel narrative. Other reviewers have said the book is meandering, which is true, but she tells the story in a way that makes sense to her; autobiographies need not be strictly chronological narratives. If you're wondering why no fifth star, well, she does dwell on the negative at times, both in Chile and the USA - unfortunately for her, she makes an offhand comment that that America won't elect a non-white president a few years before just that happens. I'm left wondering also whether she's an accurate source for explain the current Chilean mindset, when she hadn't lived in the country (just visited) for the 30 years prior to writing this story?

Audio narration by Christine McMurdo-Wallis was spot on: five stars there!

Definitely recommended

My 5th Isabel Allende book! A couple of years ago I read Allende's autobiographical work Paula, which is a sad account of her daughter's long coma and death, and what Allende went through at that time. "My Invented Country" gives a broader overview of the author's life from childhood to the turn of the century. This book was published in 2003 and I googled some recent stuff on her and things have changed inevitably (Willy and her are no longer together since 2015).

There's no doubt that Isabel Allende has a very charming personality. I sort of have a love-hate relationship with her books. They are easy reads, but at times I find myself annoyed by the characters and the many love scenes. Anyway, I enjoyed this non-fiction work a lot and I think it's probably my favorite Allende book. She really comes across as a thoughtful and determined woman. I love her reflections on where she comes from and how she has changed due to moving around the world a lot. I could totally relate to a lot of what she said, which was very consoling for me.

"Being a foreigner, as I have been almost forever, means that I have to make a much greater effort than the natives, which has kept me on my toes and forced me to become flexible and adapt to different surroundings. This condition has some advantages for someone who earns her living by observing; nothing seems natural to me, almost everything surprises me. I ask absurd questions, but sometimes I ask them of the right people and thus get ideas for my novels."

Allende introduces the reader to Chile, her home country and where her parents come from. Sometimes Allende feels very Chilean, but sometimes she feels like a foreigner when she returns back to Chile (she has lived in the US since the 80s). When she describes Chileans, she uses a lot of generalizations, which are subjective of course, but after a while made me roll my eyes. No doubt that the book is very entertaining and I learned a lot about Allende's background and her views on life. Highly recommend this to any Allende reader.

"...In contrast, those of us who have moved on many times develop tough skin out of necessity. Since we lack roots or corroboration of who we are, we must put our trust in memory to give continuity to our lives ... but memory is always cloudy, we can't trust it. Things that happened in the past have fuzzy outlines, they're pale; it's as if my life has been nothing but a series of illusions, of fleeting images, of events I don't understand, or only half understand. I have absolutely no sense of certainty."

Ruhlar Evi'ni yazarken kendi hikayesinden beslendiği her şeyi görmüş oldum. gerçeküstü yazılan hikayenin gerçek tarafı kitabın kendisi kadar etkileyici. binlerce km uzakta aynı hayatı yaşıyor olmamıza yine şaşırdım, her karşıma çıktığında yine şaşıracağım.

Isabel Allende looks back with nostalgia at her beloved Chile. She tells amusing family stories, and the tragic outcome of the military coup of 1973. Allende admits she embellishes her tales about the Chilean people, but her love for the country is evident.

البرنسيسية ايزابيل الليندي....الأقرب الي القلب دائما وأبدا....
مجرد الإمساك بكتاب لها هو متعة لا شبيه لها...
ربما الكتاب صيغة معادة بطريقة مختصرة من مذكراتها العظيمة (باولا)...ومن روايتها الأولي بيت الأرواح...ربما ركزت أكثر هنا علي وصف بلادها تشيلي بناسها وطبيعتها وجغرافيتها وما مر بها من عواصف السياسة...


ويبقي أجمل ما في الكتاب كلمات ايزابيل الليندي التي تصف ببساطة حنينها لذكريات طفولتها وشبابها في تشيلي والتي تقول فيها:
هكذا هو الحنين ..
رقصة بطيئة دائرية..
الذكريات لا تنتظم متسلسلة ..انها مثل الدخان شديدة التغير وسريعة الاختفاء..
واذا لم تكتب اختفت في النسيان...

This was one of the few Isabel Allende’s books I hadn’t read, at this point (I’m still missing a few, though). I wasn’t particularly interested, considering that this is non-fiction and I didn’t use to read much non-fiction back in the day (a lot has changed since then, I guess). So, I picked this up at my aunt’s and gave it a read.

It’s fun how I live in the same country, but everything is completely different for me. Well, not everything, but a lot has changed since the 60s. There are a few things that basically remain the same. Some of her comments about Chilean character and society hold true.

It’s hard to classify this book. It’s a bit memoir and a bit essay. She’s basically talking about how she sees her (our) home country. And I find it very interesting how she reflects on how being Chilean has defined her character in one way or another. She talks about how Chileans don’t like talking too loud and order everything in diminutives (agüíta, cafecito), which is something that’s very ours. She links it with what she seems to think of as an inferiority complex on our part. Or how we don’t like to show off. She analyzes all that and tries to reconcile it with her own identity.

That is also interesting, because Allende also makes a point of showing how different she is from Chilean society. I guess that that’s something everyone does from time to time. We see a lot of stuff we don’t like, and desperately want to show that we’re not like that. If someone says Chileans are “classist”, they immediately follow by saying that they are no, of course. Or make a comment on how obsessed Chileans are with last names and the schools people went to (seriously, it’s usually one of the first things you get asked by anyone you meet), but they don’t really care.
Allende does this all the time, showing herself as a rebellious and unconventional woman (I don’t doubt that she is, of course). She has a critical outcome on our society, and calls out hypocrisy and how fake are some standards.

Allende’s Chile is also very different from mine. I was brought up in a small town, born after the dictatorship and so on. Her Chile is Santiago’s upper class, in the middle of the 20th century. That makes for a completely different Chile for both of us. My only criticism is that the book seems to assume something like “Santiago is Chile” (NOT), and it shows a narrow view of what Chile actually is. Of course, it’s understandable because it’s about Allende’s memoirs, so trying to show the whole of Chile isn’t the scope of this book.

Allende’s style is engaging and entertaining, so I enjoyed this book. It’s an interesting view of my own country that showed me how different can be my perspective from others, even if we’re talking about the same country. If you’re curious about Chile’s recent history, it’s an interesting source (not really historical, but shows a contemporary perspective).

My Invented Country is part memoir, part description of Chile, but more love letter to Allende's first home. It is more rambling and repetitive than other books of hers, although perhaps because you expect her characters to ramble and forgive them. She admits to being an unreliable narrator: "Don’t believe everything I say: I tend to exaggerate and, as I warned at the beginning, I can’t be objective where Chile is concerned. Let’s just say, to be completely honest, that I can’t be objective, period" (p. 208).

Even though Allende's book was subjective and rambling, with descriptions often painted with bold colors and a broad brush, My Invented Country was an interesting read. Her story describes periods of privilege and deprivation, gender oppression and inequality, political repression, and life in at least four countries. "Chile, that mythic country that from being missed so profoundly has replaced the real country," is always at the center of her story, however, and described fondly, despite its problems (p. 191). She loves the US, her adopted home, too, although she notes that she often misunderstands Americans and their customs (and them, her).

Allende has been citizen, temporary resident, exile, and immigrant at different points. "The exile looks toward the past, licking his wounds, the immigrant looks toward the future, ready to take advantage of the opportunities within his reach" (p. 184). We live in a world, though, that does not appreciate polyamory, whether it be with multiple partners or countries.

This book has helped me understand that I am not obligated to make a decision: I can have one foot in Chile and another here, that’s why we have planes. (p. 207).

I read this book with my mother.

n  

Night, snow and sand compose the form
of my slender homeland,
all silence is contained within its length,
all foam issues from its seaswept beard,
all coal fills it with mysterious kisses.
————— PABLO NERUDA

n

My Invented Journey: A Nostalgic Journey Through Chile was a beautiful memoir by Isabel Allende as she reminisces about the country that she had to flee after the military coup on September 11, 1993 carried out by General Pinochet and deposing the socialist Allende government. She shares her earliest memories of a house that she never knew but had heard so many stories about the large old house on Calle Cueto, where her mother was born and that her grandfather spoke of so frequently that Isabel felt that she had lived there. When she was in Venezuela, she wrote daily letters to her grandfather as he was dying knowing that she was unable to return to Chile. At the end of a year, she had her first book, The House of Spirits, where the large old house on Calle Cueto became the protagonist of her tale. This beautiful memoir is an unforgettable portrait of the Chilean people with a violent history and an indomitable spirit. In this memoir, Isabel Allende explores not only the myth and magic of her homeland in Chile, but the role of memory and nostalgia in shaping her life and her books. As she wraps up her memoir, she talks about the letter which became her first novel, The House of Spirits:

n  

”If someone had asked what it was about, I would have said that it was an attempt to recapture my lost country, to reunite my scattered family, to revive the dead and preserve their memories, which were beginning to be blown away in the whirlwind of exile. It wasn’t a small thing I was attempting. . . I was dying to tell that story.”

n

And on that note, I am going to reread The House of Spirits, one of my favorite books and the one that made me realize that I would read everything that Isabel Allende writes. While I have made a lot of progress, I still have a rich wealth of books from which to choose, many waiting in my library.

quem me conhece sabe que a isabel allende faz parte da minha família, pelos livros espalhadas pela casa e pelas discussões à volta deles. cresci com medo de ler “a casa dos espíritos” porque achava que era efetivamente sobre espíritos e ninguém decidiu esclarecer-me sobre o assunto. cresci com um tio que gostava mais de “eva luna” e uma avó que não conseguia escolher um predileto.
ao ler este livro mergulhei um bocadinho mais no que é o seu mundo inventado; mergulhei no Chile sem pressa de vir à tona e reencontrei Isabel como amiga, como acontece sempre que a leio.
até breve ❤️‍