Book Review: A Long Petal of the Sea

I’m not sure that A Long Petal of the Sea is Isabel Allende’s most lauded work. I have been meaning to read her, but I started here only because it was a book club thing. This is one of Allende’s more recent books (2019, out of the 28 listed on her site; she’s published four since, if you can believe it). It is historical fiction. It doesn’t have the magical realism elements that I was looking forward to in her writing (which she seems to have slowly shed as the decades went by), but I have learned recently that I also very much enjoy great historical fiction. A Long Petal of the Sea is based on Allende’s family history and is definitely historical fiction—great historical fiction that I enjoyed reading. The writing style is beautiful (even through translation), the characters engaging, the story interesting, the history even more interesting… even the structure wasn’t totally straight-forward, giving us a little ride on our way through. It’s a wonderful book.

Victor Delmau was on his way to becoming a full-fledged doctor when the Spanish Civil War scooped him up in its jaws as a field physician. Roser Brugeura was a poor shepherdess when Victor’s father brought her home to train as a pianist and give all the privileges he can offer her. As the Spanish Civil War bleeds into the advancing World War, Victor and Roser are forced to marry to protect her unborn child and flee Spain for France and eventually Chile as part of Pablo Neruda’s ship full of artists. Meanwhile, in Chile, the Del Solars are embroiled in family drama of their own and politically at the other end of the spectrum. When the newly-minted Delmau family and the Del Solar family collide, they’ll forge decades of history through political unrest, a coup, military rule, and another immigration to flee another war… and back again. What makes a country yours? And what makes a marriage—or love—endure?

I have been meaning to read Isabel Allende for many years. Actually, I am fairly certain I read The Stories of Eva Luna when that book of short stories came out. I read it because I knew Allende was a Latin American magical realism author and Eva Luna was a book everyone was talking about. I had not read Eva Luna, the novel that the stories were based on, and I’m not sure I even knew of its existence. I don’t remember if I liked that collection or not, which means some day I will read it again and then review it for you. I would pause to read it now, but I have way too much on my TBR. A large portion of my TBR right now is in thanks to the six book clubs I have joined. (Don’t even.) One of them read A Long Petal of the Sea. Thus, I read it, now, too.

The title refers to a Pablo Neruda poem in which he calls Chile “a long petal of sea and wine and snow / with a belt of black and white foam.” Neruda is a character in this story, though his importance is largely offscreen: as the man who brought the Delmau family to Chile and also as the poet who is quoted at the start of each chapter. Neruda was a real, historical character (a political activist and poet, among other things) but is stretched by fictionalization here, as are all the characters. Some of the characters, too, are composites or based on people who were not part of this particular story. Allende’s grandfather was already in Chile when the actual ship full of Spanish refugees arrived. Her family member was also the president of Chile we see in part of the book. And Victor is based on someone from the ship (the Winnepeg) who told Allende his story as an old man. (Note: the real Victor died six days before Allende had a final draft ready to send him.) The historical events in this novel and the general settings are accurate, though, and I understand Allende did meticulous research over years.

Because of everything above, I appreciate the edition I have (the 2020 Ballantine Books English language edition, the most common one I’ve seen) because of its end matter, including an interview with Allende and acknowledgments that give us Allende’s background and where the story came from, as well as the history of it. All that said, reading this book is not like reading history. You learn things, sure, but in the nicest possible way. You are invested in characters, watching the world and events unfold in their lives. And the language is almost like poetry, itself.

It does get a little meander-y at times, lingers long enough that Allende is telling much more than showing. Like when no one is fleeing from violence, there are long stretches. It might not feel like this except that we’re not always sure where we are going, what questions we have about these characters or their futures. Some readers are fine without a hero’s journey or a three-act story, but I found that without it, I got lost sometimes, hanging on for the history and the beautiful words, which was almost not enough. Of course, the further I went in the story, the more I wanted to know about their eventual lives. But where was I going? I dunno. This wandering didn’t improve upon Allende’s decision to sometimes loop back around, suddenly lurching forward or veering back in time to cover some bit of information. It felt to me like she suddenly remembered something and wrote it down, deciding not to go back and edit it back to a chronological presentation. I liked the loopy feeling of these parts while also finding them inconsistent with the remaining structure.

And because of this wandering, too, some of the characters just fade into the story and, in some cases, fade back out. Like they would in real life. But as a story, this felt strange. There is a perspective character that starts out really strong and important, for example, and then just slowly disappears until we don’t hear anything more about her. And we’re left wondering about the themes she had introduced and the questions she had posed. I’ll just tell you now: concentrate on Victor and Roser—theirs are the stories that stick with us all the way through; theirs are the through-lines.

And speaking of plot, there were a number of people at my book club who were conflicted or didn’t like the ending. For even while there are loose ends as far as story-cohesiveness goes, there is almost too much tied up too neatly. Many of us thought the book should have ended before the last chapter. There would need to be a few clues to the future embedded earlier in the book, but otherwise I think I agree with this opinion. It’s not the kind of book that needs to be tidied up at the end, especially dealing as it does with themes of war, home, immigration, and love. Everything’s a mess. Fine. The unexpected happens. You survive or maybe you don’t. Fine. People are violent and cruel and often left to look after themselves and their own. Fine. I was appalled at the suffering of some and the ambivalence of others, the bravery of some and the cruelty of others. I didn’t need a bow on that besides the conclusion of one marriage.

I guess that lack of traditional plot is why I wasn’t completely enamored with the book, why I felt it lagged at times. Otherwise, like I said, it is a beautiful book and so very interesting. I didn’t know the first thing about the Spanish Civil War when I started. I didn’t know a tremendous amount about modern Chile. (I could have used a few maps, like of Spain, Chile, and South America.) I enjoyed the Neruda quotes enough to order a copy of Twenty Loves Poems and a Song of Despair. I will definitely be reading more Allende. And I would definitely recommend this book, especially for people who can dive into classic and heavier literature (as opposed to cheap, genre reads exclusively). It’s not really that difficult to read, but you will need to have some motivation besides escapist entertainment. Allende’s voice, her writing style, is a great place to start.

Isabel Allende has been a popular author since the 80s. She was born in Peru to Chilean parents and has been a US citizen since the 90s. She’s 81 and still writing, teaching, and doing activism related to the empowerment of women and girls. (Her foundation’s website is HERE.) That’s it in a nutshell, though there is plenty to find out about her online or elsewhere (like in her memoirs or on her websites).

Let’s list her books, in chronological order.

The House of the Sprits (family epic, Latin American, magic realism, one of her lost lauded)
Of Love and Shadows (more of the same, about two journalists)
Eva Luna (story about a storyteller, won the American Book Prize)
The Stories of Eva Luna (book of short stories as told by the fictional Eva Luna)
The Infinite Plan (not so magical, not her most popular)
Paula (first memoir, about her daughter’s long death)
Aphrodite (personal lore mixed with erotic history, not super popular in comparison)
Daughter of Fortune (Chile meets America historical fiction)
Portrait in Sepia (family saga sequel to Daughter of Fortune)
City of the Beasts (first in magical, Amazonian YA trilogy, didn’t do too well)
My Invented Country (memoir, combination her life and history of Chile)
Kingdom of the Golden Dragon (second in YA trilogy, this time Himalayan adventure)
Forest of the Pygmies (final in YA trilogy, this time Kenyan adventure)
Zorro (origin story for Zorro, again not one of her most popular)
Ines of My Soul (fake memoir of wife of Spanish conqueror of Chile, historical fiction)
The Sum of Our Days (memoir number three, more traditional)
Island Beneath the Sea (slave story related to Haiti and New Orleans, back to higher ratings)
Maya’s Notebook (present-day, epistolary, YA-ish, girl coming-of-age (the hard way))
Ripper (YA present day mystery, perhaps her lowest-rated)
Amor (compilation of excerpts from her books about love and intimacy)
The Japanese Lover (back to historical, Polish and Japanese American immigrant love story)
La Ninfa de Porcelana (coloring picture book, magic realism for kiddos)
In the Midst of Winter (another immigrant love story)
A Long Petal of the Sea (historical fiction (no magic) Chilean story about home)
The Soul of a Woman (memoir focusing on coming of age and feminism)
Violeta (story of a woman through the history of the twentieth century)
The Wind Knows My Name (dual war/immigration story, modern US and 1930s Spain)
Perla the Mighty Dog (children’s picture book out this coming May)

Note that Allende’s less-lauded works still rarely fall beneath a 3.5 on Goodreads, and I would say you could read any one and find a pretty good book. I am intrigued by all of them with only a few exceptions (Ripper, Amor, maybe Aphrodite and the City of Beasts trilogy). I am most excited about House of Spirits, Violeta, Paula, Island Beneath the Sea, Eva Luna (and her stories), The Soul of a Woman… and more.

“’Reason is on our side, but that won’t help stave off defeat. We’re on our own, Victor’” (p26).

“’Nothing, not even victory, / Can wipe away the terrible hole of blood’” (p28, from Pablo Neruda).

“Any capacity for compassion had gone: everyone looked after only themselves and their loved ones” (p51)

“He loved her theoretically, like the trabadours of olden days” (p145).

“He would never have admitted even in the deepest reaches of his heart that the main reason for abstinence was not to avoid a sin, but the fear of pregnancy” (p151).

“’Take note: / If little by little you stop loving me, / I’ll stop loving you little by little. // If suddenly you forget me / Don’t come looking for me, / I’ll already have forgotten you’” (p161, from Pablo Neruda).

“Nothing can grow in the shade of secrets, she would say, love needs light and space to flourish” (p171).

“What the poet most wanted was to write without interruption, cook for his friends, and to be left in peace, but that was impossible…” (p211).

“The spotless order of barracks and the artificial peace of fear reigned everywhere” (237).

“Victor wondered where the torturers and informers had been before, as he had never seen them. They seemed to have emerged in the space of a few hours, ready and organized as if they’d been in training for years” (p239).

“Pain is unavoidable, but suffering is optional” (p254).

“It takes heroic willpower just to keep everything in place. Those are a refugee’s forebodings, said Roser. No, they’re in the forebodings of someone in love, Victor corrected her” (p255).

“…if one lives long enough, circles close” (p266).

“…fear has no shame, as Roser liked to say” (p280).

“The woman beside him also grew old in a few minutes” (p285).

“The proximity of death made the intensity of his love as unbearable as an acid burn” (p285).

“Marriage suits men, although not women” (p289).

“…he also tried to avoid other symptoms of old age: meanness, mistrust, ill temper, resentment, and bad habits such as no longer shaving every day, repeating the same stories over and over, talking about himself, his ailments, or money” (p296).

“Everything hurt, even his hair, but thanks to one of life’s injustices, none of this was visible” (p304).