The Stories of Eva Luna
by Isabel Allende
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Book Summary Information
Author: Isabel AllendeEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2001-11-13
ISBN: 0743217187
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Scribner
Book Reviews of The Stories of Eva Luna
Book Review: Kieslowski...
Summary: 5 Stars
I regret that it has taken me so long to "discover" Isabel Allende. I was overwhelmed by this marvelous collection of 23 short stores. They are done in a "Scheherazade" format, as Rolf Carle urges in the Prologue: "Tell me a story you have never told anyone before. Make it up for me." Allende foreshadows much of the sensuality of the stories in the Prologue, as the Carle and Luna rest after love making, and in the painting that is their images, "their skin gleams moistly." And they lay "...in intimate complicity." Other reviewers, and I would join them, compare her writing to the "magic realism" in Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and other Latin American authors (what is it about the Latin American experience that lends itself to this motif?). Unquestionably there are the Arabic and Latin influences on her stories, but I'd like to add a third comparison--that of the Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski, and in particular, his one hour long vignettes, 10 in all, that composed his Decalogue. I would be mesmerized by his movies; what aspect of the human condition would he explore in breathtaking and painful accuracy this time? With each story of Allende I felt the same way.
I didn't find a weak story among them. In most there is woven some element of eroticism, or at least plain lust. In several there are acts of revenge achieved. There are the "eternal" themes of Latin America: the Catholic Church, endless civil war, Indians, the rural environment of "Agua Santa," and the colonial experience. And there are the universal themes: greed, the memories of experimental first love suppressed, euthanasia, natural disasters endured, aging and dying. The countries in which the stories take place are never fully identified, sometimes it seems to be Chile, sometimes Peru, others it is in the Caribbean, and then there is the element of "oil" which might mean Venezuela or Ecuador.
Allende's descriptive powers dazzle, whether it be of a person: "She was fleshy, with the milky skin of reddish blondes, the kind of skin that in youth reflects light with opalescent brush stokes, but with age becomes crinkled paper." or of the act of love: "Her mother was transformed into a round, rosy, moaning, opulent siren, an undulating sea anemone, all tentacles and suckers, all mouth and hands and legs and orifices, rolling and turning and cleaving to the large body of Bernal..." or of the evolution of Latin American social structures: "The era of undisguised plunder had been replace by one of corruption and bribery..." or as Indians saw in the coming of the white man, in Walimai: "We explained that the jungle is not something to be tossed over your shoulder and transported like a dead bird..." and, gulp, "...even out of his mind would he ascend the matrimonial gallows."
Ms. Allende is the niece of Salvador, whom she says she did not know well, and is the one who, as democratically elected President of Chile, died during the CIA sponsored coup, on a Sept. 11th famous to others, but not most North Americans, in 1973.
The Stories of Eva Luna are a wonderful introduction to her work, more of which I will certainly be reading.
Summary of The Stories of Eva Luna
Isabel Allende is one of the world's most beloved authors. In 1988, she introduced the world to Eva Luna in a novel of the same name that recounted the adventurous life of a young Latin American woman whose powers as a storyteller bring her friendship and love. Retruning to this tale, Allende presents The Stories of Eva Luna, a treasure trove of brilliantly crafted stories.Lying in bed with her European lover, refugee and journalist Rolf Carle, Eva answers hes request for a story "you have never told anyone before" with these twenty-three samples of her vibrant artistry. Interweaving the real and the magical, she explores love, vengeance, compassion, and the strenghts of women, creating a world that is at once poingnantly familiar and intriguingly new.
Rendered in the sumptuously imagined, uniquely magical style of one of the world's most stunning writers, The Stories of Eva Luna is the conerstone of Allende's work. It is not to be missed by anyone -- whether a devotee of Ms. Allende's oeuvre or a new acquaintance to her work.
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