Books on Tap met on Thursday, January 4 at 7 pm to discuss Violeta by Isabel Allende. Allende became an instant literary sensation with her debut novel, The House of the Spirits. Violeta does share some similarities with The House of the Spirits; both novels deal with personal and political upheaval and span multiple decades. That said, Violeta lacks any magical realism (found to be just right in The House of the Spirits). As the conversation continued, it seemed that most readers familiar with Allende’s work put the two novels in completely different camps – one is a masterpiece, and one is just okay.
Violeta takes place over 100 years in an unnamed South American country. With such a long span of history to account for, and the opportunity to meld, mix, and match various historical events from all around South America, Allende’s work is unfortunately dry at times, as the novel veers toward overly informational and begins to feel reduced to the role of a vessel for listing historical events. Readers also found the characters to be underdeveloped, ultimately people they didn’t care enough about.
If character development is not the point of this book, thematic tension likely is. Readers found a juxtaposition between Violeta’s feminist, independent life choices and her emotional dependence while engaged in certain relationships. This tension did create heightened interest in the plot, characters, and book as a whole (even if it did not result in more likable characters). Violeta’s character also confused certain readers as her self-reflections flip-flopped to levels that at times felt unnatural – her thoughts on men and marriage, and especially children and motherhood, were at times contradictory, sometimes laughably so (one reader commented, “shouldn’t Allende’s editor have caught this?”). Of course, others noted that these pendulum swings in self-assessment were the greatest moments of Allende crafting a character who was authentically, realistically human. In parenting, who hasn’t had the rollercoaster experience of feeling like the greatest superstar one minute and the greatest failure the next?
One final theme we discussed was the cyclical nature of life, illustrated in this book by the natural disasters, romantic and family relationships, and even pandemics, that came and went and came again. We did note that this book, which was published in 2022, contains the subject heading “COVID-19 Pandemic.” This affects readers as they search library catalogs and internet search engines for books about the pandemic. This book is really not about the pandemic, but seems instead to use the pandemic as a framing device. Maybe even a marketing soundbite…?
What did you think about Violeta (the novel and the titular character), and what do you think of Allende as an author? With 22 works of fiction and 5 works of nonfiction, an induction into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and as the recipient of Chile’s National Literature Prize and the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom, Allende has been called “the world’s most widely read Spanish-language author.” Have you read any of her books? While Violeta is described as sweeping, moving, and inspiring, our readers’ reactions were a bit on the lackluster side. Maybe some of us will try The House of the Spirits next.
Other books to explore:
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez
All the Lives we Never Lived by Anuradha Roy
The Distant Marvels by Chantel Acevedo
West with the Night by Beryl Markham
Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen
Upcoming titles:
February 1: How Long ‘Til Black Future Month? by N. K. Jemisin
March 7: Florence Adler Swims Forever by Rachel Beanland
April 4: The Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey
May 2: All The Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
June 6: Solito: A Memoir by Javier Zamora