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From Amazon
"Listen, Paula. I am going to tell you a story so that when you wake up you will not feel so lost." So says Chilean writer Isabel Allende (The House of the Spirits) in the opening lines of the luminous, heart-rending memoir she wrote while her 28-year-old daughter Paula lay in a coma. In its pages, she ushers an assortment of outrageous relatives into the light: her stepfather, an amiable liar and tireless debater; grandmother Meme, blessed with second sight; and delinquent uncles who exultantly torment Allende and her brothers. Irony and marvelous flights of fantasy mix with the icy reality of Paula's deathly illness as Allende sketches childhood scenes in Chile and Lebanon; her uncle Salvatore Allende's reign and ruin as Chilean president; her struggles to shake off or find love; and her metamorphosis into a writer.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
Allende is a mesmerizing novelist (The House of the Spirits; The Stories of Eva Luna) who here takes on a double challenge. Writing nonfiction for the first time, she interweaves the story of her own life with the slow dying of her 28-year-old daughter, Paula. A magician with words, Allende makes this grim scenario into a wondrous encounter with the innermost sorrows and joys of another human being. In 1991, while living in Madrid with her husband, Paula was felled by porphyria, a rare blood disease, and, despite endless care by her mother and husband, lapsed into an irreversible coma. Her mother, as she watched by Paula's bedside, began to write this book, driven by a desperation to communicate with her unconscious daughter. She writes of her own Chilean childhood, the violent death of her uncle, Salvador Allende, and the family's flight to Venezuela from the oppressive Pinochet regime. Allende explores her relationship with her own mother, documented in the hundreds of letters they exchanged since she left home. Allende later married-and divorced-an undemanding and loyal man and became a fierce feminist, rebelling against the constraints of traditional Latin American society. Eventually, hope waning, Allende and her son-in-law take the comatose Paula to California, where the author lives with her second husband. The climactic scenes of Paula's death in the rambling old house by the Pacific Ocean seem to take place in another time and space. Only a writer of Allende's passion and skill could share her tragedy with her readers and leave them exhilarated and grateful. QPB selection.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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First Sentence
LISTEN, PAULA. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
LISTEN, PAULA. Read the first page
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Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
Rambling and long winded,
By A Customer
This review is from: Paula (Paperback)
The author jumps right in with characters that are colorful but at the same time made it confusing to keep track of them all. I found the descriptions of her upbringing and home life very insightful. I was hoping to learn more about the disease that her daughter was afflicted with yet not much detail was given at all. This book might have held my interest more if the author had thought to break some of her writing into paragraphs. I found myself thinking that I was reading one long sentence after a while.
4.0 out of 5 stars
In retrospect....,
By Kate (Australia) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Paula (Paperback)
Isabel Allende is by far my favourite author, and I had always thought that 'Paula' was my favourite of her works.However, stepping back from her books for sometime, then re-reading 'Paula' recently, I have had mixed feelings regarding the work. The piece strikes me as somewhat more repetitive then I remember. While I completely understand a mother's love and the sorrow Allende must have felt during this period, her laments are almost word-for-word repetition. By far, the more interesting section of the book is that related to the family history and specifically, Paula's personality and place in the family scheme of things. Additionally, the continous use of similar metaphors and talk of spirits begins to wear down on even the most devoted of fans. Paula's condition is never explained, and while I understand that it is as simple as a websearch, I felt that it was a major oversight to put it in relation to the context of their family. Likewise, I felt that Paula's life was discussed too little, and Isabel's perhaps too much. Of course, it was Isabel's attempts to make sense of something completely senseless, and thus we can hardly blame her from trying to think of things unrelated to her daughter and ensuing sorrow. A final criticism, much of the material covered in 'Paula' is again covered in Allende's 2003 biography 'My Invented Country'. If anything, 'Paula' serves as a suitable testment to the woman's extraordinary life. Don't get me wrong, the work is still of four star quality. The writing is vivid, spiritual and alive, the story is un-put-down-able, emotions are wrenched from within, and the piece has a round cohension of which I truly admire.
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Pain of Too Much Tenderness.,
This review is from: Paula (Paperback)
A most poignant book by Isabel Allende. She surmounts words and feelings alike. The book lays bare the true story of her daughter's giving way too early, too slowly, and too sorely. It's a narrative that weds emotion to mystery; that nameless and dire facet of life. It reconciles contraries and makes peace with eyes too tender to shed their loved ones. Paula is not only a life-experience account, but also a true-to-heart revelation borne on human nature; how at times of utmost suffering we still manage to live on, as intimates, otherwise called memories, walk us along the remaining, and wavering, path of life. A tear and a smile, Paula.
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