“You only have one life, but if you live it well, that’s enough.“
I picked this book out primarily because of randomization. The reviews I glanced at for this book were middling but nonetheless I wanted to keep an open mind. The premise was at least interesting.
I liked how it pondered the power of the human story and the importance of memory. It also confronts us with how people perceive age and the elderly which was certainly food for thought, while dealing with the ramifications of romance that cross social and racial boundaries. Furthermore, the book had an ending that is open to interpretation, which was decent. It also deals with the dual narrative of Irina, Alma’s carer and how she struggles to recover from the trauma of her own past.
That being said, the story has quite a lot of exposition to pad it out and as a result it felt like the reader is kept at arms length. While I have read Allende’s work in the past, it was way back in 2013 and as such I think I may need to give her other work a reread. I’m sure the post is on my blog somewhere and likely serves as a weird time capsule into the book addled past. I can’t remember if her other books keep the reader at arms length just like this one did.
I’m also not a big fan of romances where a couple reconnect after years mainly due to a promise made by both of them, such as in the creatively titled film A Promise (2013, dir. Patrice Laconte). Frankly, such plots are boring and they don’t really interest me. I know it happens in real life it just makes the characters really flat and one dimensional if it’s used as a literary plot device. Not to mention, the later romance between Alma and Ichi goes to great lengths to romanticize cheating.
While the dual narrative was fine, the romance between Alma’s grandson Seth and Irina was weak at best and I didn’t particularly like him as a character because he seemed very self important and almost seemed to be blaming her for her initial reluctance to be in a relationship with him despite her obvious trauma. He comes across a lot of the time as quite inconsiderate. Either he’s got a very dry sense of humour which doesn’t translate across to English very well or he’s genuinely an inconsiderate oaf who is more concerned about how Irina living with him will affect his day to day life. I don’t know which.
The book also had far too many minor plots going on and seemed to be on a narrative ticklist as it barraged through them like a train with broken brakes. Nothing was beyond remit – AIDS, racism, child molestation. You name it it’s probably a side arc here.
Ultimately, this book was okay but by keeping me at arms length it meant I wasn’t fully immersed in the story.
MY RATING: *** / *****
Every Book Is Beautiful 