Eva Luna (in Spanish)

Eva Luna chronicles the life of Eva and her relationships. It is set in South America. As with other books by this author, she creates authentic characters and weaving rich historical background into their stories.

However, I struggled to connect with Eva. She was orphaned at young age, and had little assistance going forward. She had to forge her own way, which wasn’t easy. With time, she discovers that she is a gifted storyteller.

The story is character-driven, which I love. However, the complicated life of Eva with not much of a plot driving the story and detailed descriptions made it a slow-paced read.

For me personally, the style of writing of this author is either I connect constantly or I don’t due to the overwhelming descriptions. And the latter is the case here.

The Good:
The characters are all amazing - mythical figures inhabiting an unnamed part of Latin America some time in the middle of the 20th century. The setting is vivid, and the series of vignettes through the first half of the book read like fairy tales. It's also pretty funny.

The Bad:
The sense of magic really died away in the second half. It became a fairly shallow political story full of neat resolutions and pleasant anticlimaxes. And books about writers always feel a bit self-congratulatory.

'Friends' character the protagonist is most like:
Eva is the emotional rock to her loved ones, and fiercely loyal, just like Joey. She also works in media.

The first book I’ve read by Isabel Allende, and she reminds me of Neil Gaiman: mesmerising popular storytelling at its best.

Eva Luna is a novel from the 1980s, and as such its use of stereotypes sometimes falls below standards now expected in the literary world, but the characters were so grand and involving that they often felt more like archetype than stereotype.

The unnamed fictional country in which Eva lives seems designed to take in as much as possible of the northern half of South America: tropical, Caribbean, oil rich (Venezuela?), vastly forested (Brazil?), but also containing part of the Andes.

Some of the sexuality in the novel - scenarios which female characters enjoy but which, if they had been written by a man would now be dismissed as male fantasies - made me think of an idea mooted a few months ago by a GR friend, that contemporary left & literary discussion of sex has become so focused on avoidance of harm and on power analysis that it’s almost forgotten about pleasure.

Eva Luna seems to be a lightly-metafictional telenovela in a book (albeit I’ve never seen a telenovela, and not watched a soap episode for maybe 15 years). Allende, through her heroine, who appears to be the same age, writes about what it feels like to have so many stories to tell (and she was not wrong, as her prolific output and sales continue now, even if she gets less press coverage than in the 80s and 90s). The semi-fairytale/magic-realist story of the heroine, the strong-willed and gifted daughter of a servant, and her remarkable vagaries of fortune, could be seen as showing too much good luck compared with most real people in such circumstances - but it is also, like the fairytale, a type of story which provides hopes and dreams which may sustain during drab or difficult lives.

I’m always glad to discover that I actually like the work of a popular author, one who writes well enough that I feel no need to make excuses for the style (as I might with, for example, a lot of genre crime). I find it useful to like writers whose books are ubiquitous to borrow or buy, and whom a lot of people have heard of. Isabel Allende can be added to that list.

It is hard for me to recapture the innocence I once had with books, where the words were so real it was like being in a super reality. Age, a better understanding of the world, and my new education to psychotherapy has made literature more understandable and a little less mystical. But Allende gets me pretty close. The psychological lense of me understands Eva Luna's storytelling as therapeutic tool, her retelling of a traumatic past with newly imagined happiness makes the present palatable and a future possible. And I'm grateful that despite the novel's trekking through some terrible times--destruction of the Indians, abusive childhoods, government suppression, guerrilla revolutions, and violence against women--Allende does not glory in the gore but tells her story frankly and magically. The novel let me taste again the wonderful mystery of the literary art. Sure, at times logical and understandable with child development and psychoanalytic theory, but mysterious and fiercely beautiful nonetheless.

What a joy to read! Eva Luna's imaginative universe, blending tale, fiction, and reality, completely fascinated me. His adventures are sometimes so incredible that we no longer know what world to be. But I think that is more to me and makes the novel charming.

Isabel Allende is one of my favorite authors and I’m having fun re-reading some of her books. It took me a little longer to complete this one. I mean that in a good way. Her writing is so beautiful and so rich, that I often found myself re-reading paragraphs. I love the depth and richness of all the characters.

A quote that I loved:
“The house was a vast labyrinth of books. Volumes were stacked from floor to ceiling on every wall, dark, crackling, redolent of leather bindings, smooth to the touch, with their gold titles and translucent gilt-edged pages and delicate typography.”

“Perhaps we had the good fortune to stumble into an exceptional love, a love I did not have to invent, only clothe in all it’s glory so it could endure in memory—in keeping with the principle that we can construct reality in the image of our desires.”

I am so torn with my rating. The beginning of the novel deserves 5 stars. But once Eva Luna moved on from Riad Halabí (about halfway in the novel) the story became rushed and not as descriptive. I was unsatisfied with the ending because there could have been more character development on Rolf Carlé. Rolf Carlé’s story was shared alongside Eva Luna’s account of her own life. I feel like since Rolf Carlé was such a prominent character he deserved more. What exactly? I don’t know but I definitely needed more.

Nevertheless, Eva Luna is a great story filled with characters I will always remember, passion and eroticism, and of course in true Allende fashion, historical and feminist connections.

Earlier this year, my friend Nina and I were discussing internationally written literature, specifically from Latin America. We both had a connection to it for a few reasons, which prompted her to suggest a buddy read. We settled on Isabel Allende, and she selected Eva Luna. We spent the last week reading the book and discussing some of the key points and will continue to do so, I'm sure. For now, I'm sharing some of the highlights of my thoughts.

Let's set the stage. Early to mid 20th century. Somewhere in South America (Nina and I saw a few options) but ultimately settled on it purposely being generalist in some areas given there were different cultures involved. Eva's mother lived a tragic life. Let's not even discuss her father. Once we learn about the past, we're ready for Eva Luna, a storyteller who doesn't know she is one until much later on, despite what everyone once told her. She lives in a string of homes, all difficult places. Yet in each, she finds someone to lean on, and develops a life-long relationship with them.. that is, until they are cruelly killed or die of natural causes. Eva has lived a life full of loss. But there are some beautiful moments too, it's not all sad!

The story chronicles Eva's life and relationships. Going into the book, I had little understanding of the detailed theme. If there was one thing I found a bit disappointing, it was the lack of a formal structure in how we learn about Eva's life. It's chronological, but we're not quite sure of her age or role at the time. It's not purposely unclear, just not as important as what's happening to her. I generally prefer a deeper structure, perhaps a timeline or chapter description to showcase what part of her life we are about to explore. Then again, life is messy and often repeats itself, so this was very realistic in other ways. Nonetheless, I'm an orderly guy, so I would've loved just a bit more to make that part of the book come together. Nina had a great theory on this, so go read her review to find out more.

The imagery and language are astounding. It was compelling and beautiful, sad and disheartening... but through it all, stunning! I found the way in which Allende shows us how Eva is haunted and impacted by everything around her to be the star of this book. You clearly see and feel everything, yet you know the true horrors are purposefully left out. Eva suffers. We suffer for her. But it's rarely graphic or detailed to the point you can't read it. You know what's going on, and that's enough. Some of the pain occurs when she is a young girl and a teenager. It's insane to accept what once happened to children, specifically female ones. Let's not even discuss the current situation!

Another part of the book I found most forward-thinking was the character of Mimi, my favorite. At some points a man, at others a woman, perhaps shades in between, what Allende discusses ~30 years ago when this was written is fully apropos for today, and it appears so much more for ~75 years ago when some of this took place in the book. I'm truly shocked at the way people react to others. If the person isn't hurting you/someone else/animals, let them do what they want. There are far better things to focus on that something that doesn't truly involve the jerk with the issue! Walk away. Off soapbox as this isn't that kind of novel. It's more about an overall theme of what happened in many similar countries to people who didn't have a lot of money or advancement opportunities.

I will definitely read more Allende, perhaps the short stories by Eva Luna herself (thanks, Nina). Overall, I give this 4.5 stars but I rounded down because of the missing pieces I felt would've made this an absolute stand-out. I still highly recommend it, and this translation in particular was phenomenal. I learned a few new vocabulary words, and when it results from a translation, and the original language was stunning, you know it's a solid book. Thanks for making this a fun read together, Nina.