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From Amazon
"Nostalgia is my vice," admits Isabel Allende in My Invented Country. A question about nostalgia propels an exploration of her past, including the complicated history and politics of Chile, where she spent the better part of her childhood. Despite her strong connection with Chile, Allende says she has been an outsider nearly all her life. Her stepfather was a diplomat, so her family moved quite frequently. However, in her travel diary Allende compares everything to Chile, her "one eternal reference" point.
"From saying goodbye so often my roots have dried up," she notes. She successfully reclaims them, however, through two channels. Allende relays anecdotes about what she calls her untraditional family--whom she has based some of her novels upon, including The House of the Spirits. Like a few of her novels, though, her own story is lost in heavy policy analysis. Interspersed among her ancestors' tales is an all-too-exhaustive report of Chile: the terrain, its people, customs and language, its heroes and villains and its government.
Allende fled Chile after the military coup on September 11, 1973. Twenty-eight years later and now living in the United States, she is haunted by this date when terrorists attack New York City and Washington, DC. Allende admits that the place she is homesick for may have never existed. In spite of that, Allende asserts that she can live and write anywhere: "I don't belong to one land, but to several, or perhaps only to the ambit of the fiction I write." The irony is that she steadfastly has "one foot in Chile and another here". --C.J. Carrillo, Amazon.com --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
Allende's novels-The House of the Spirits; Eva Luna; Daughter of Fortune; etc.-are of the sweeping epic variety, often historical and romantic, weaving in elements of North and South American culture. As with most fiction writers, Allende's work is inspired by personal experiences, and in this memoir-cum-study of her "home ground," the author delves into the history, social mores and idiosyncrasies of Chile, where she was raised, showing, in the process, how that land has served as her muse. Allende was born in Peru in 1942, but spent much of her childhood-and a significant portion of her adulthood-in Santiago (she now lives in California). She ruminates on Chilean women (their "attraction lies in a blend of strength and flirtatiousness that few men can resist"); the country's class system ("our society is like a phyllo pastry, a thousand layers, each person in his place"); and Chile's turbulent history ("the political pendulum has swung from one extreme to another; we have tested every system of government that exists, and we have suffered the consequences"). She readily admits her view is subjective-to be sure, she is not the average Chilean (her stepfather was a diplomat; her uncle, Salvador Allende, was Chile's president from 1970 until his assassination in 1973). And at times, her assessments transcend Chile, especially when it comes to comments on memory and nostalgia. This is a reflective book, lacking the pull of Allende's fiction but unearthing intriguing elements of the author's captivating history.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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First Sentence
I was born in the years of the smoke and carnage of the Second World War and the greatest part of my youth was spent waiting for the planet to blow apart when someone dis pressed a button deploying atomic bombs. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
I was born in the years of the smoke and carnage of the Second World War and the greatest part of my youth was spent waiting for the planet to blow apart when someone dis pressed a button deploying atomic bombs. Read the first page
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Eloquent Giant,
By Alan Cambeira "author of Azucar's Trilogy" (Dominican Republic, author of Tattered Paradise...Azucar's Trilogy Ends) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)
This review is from: My Invented Country: A Nostalgic Journey Through Chile (Hardcover)
Because Isabel Allende is one of my absolute favorite and most admired writers (bar none), I pride myself in having read all her published novels and stories --in the original Spanish, then the English translations. With the publication in 1982 of la casa de los espíritus [The House of The Spirits], Allende merged as one of the most important literary voices of her generation. Her works are characterized by a deliberate recurrence of certain pronounced elements: realism, family, history, fantasy. This delicately balanced admixture produces the fusion of realism and fantasy [el realismo mágico]--the artfully narrative world reminiscent of Alejo Carpentier and Gabriel García Márquez. Additionally, the predominance of female protagonists in her novels and stories is readily evidenced. Strong, independent, and intelligent, Allende's women know how to enjoy life and don't fear men in the least. Nor do these bold female protagonists allow themselves to be defeated by their circumstances --all this is quite revolutionary in Latin American literature. Totally, Allende's feminine perspective dramatically alters and enriches the horizon of contemporary Latin American fiction. So, any work by Isabel Allende is a treasure. She is an eloquent giant of a talent. MY INVENTED COUNTRY [Mi país inventado: un paseo nostálgico por Chile], while certainly not a work of fiction, is nevertheless very valuable in any Allende collection and worth reading.Alan Cambeira
5.0 out of 5 stars
Just a wonderful read,
By
This review is from: My Invented Country: A Memoir (Paperback)
This is just an absolutely charming story of the author's early life in Chile.Just an amazing family - surrounded by wonderful characters at all stages of her childhood years. I strongly recommend this book as simply a lovely and humorous read even it you have no particular interest in Chile.
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Other Sept. 11,
By
This review is from: My Invented Country: A Memoir (Paperback)
Simply an amazing memoir that reveals more than I ever knew about Chile and Chileans. The funny thing is you start of thinking the book will be mainly about the events of Sept. 11, 1973, when Pinochet took power in a coup but it is not at all. That event is really the one that has led Allende on this long journey as a observer of life par excellence.In reality the book is more about a woman searching for her sense of place in a world turned upside down by living a life in exile. The honesty and power of her words is just so uplifting without descending into "look at me, me, me" sort of navel gazing. If I could give it ten stars I would.
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