Paula. Autobiographical novel. It is an embodied memory that grabs the reader like a thriller. When Isabel Allende’s daughter , Paula, fell into a seriously ill coma, the author began to write her family’s history for her unconscious daughter. In the unfolding of history extraordinary ancestors appear, wonderful and bitter memories of childhood are known, incredible anecdotes of the young years, the most intimate secrets are heard in whispers. In Paula, Allende writes a powerful autobiography whose acceptance of the magical and spiritual worlds reminds the reader of his first book La Casa de los Espíritus .
Summary
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- 1 Plot
- 2 Characteristics of the Work
- 1 Internal structure
- 2 Language
- 3 parts
- 4 A history lesson
- 5 Sources
Argument
Paula Frías Allende was born in 1963 , in Santiago de Chile , as a result of the marriage of Isabel Allende and Miguel Frías. He spends his life in different countries of Europe and Latin America , due to the amount of travel and the family’s need for movement.
When the great Chilean author was in Spain for the presentation of The Infinite Plan , her daughter Paula fell into a coma. Next to Paula’s bed, while following the evolution of her illness with anguish, Isabel Allende began to write in a notebook the history of her family and herself with the purpose of giving it to her daughter once she had overcome the dramatic trance. However, this lasted for months and the author’s notes ended up becoming an exciting and revealing book.
Here Isabel Allende exercises her prodigious narrative talent to recover and assume her own experiences as a woman and as a writer, as well as those of her family and those of the recent history of her country.
Self-portrait of unusual emotionality as well as an exquisite recreation of the sensibilities of women of this time, Paula lingers in the reader’s mind with the intensity of an indelible experience.
Paula never came out of a coma and lived in a vegetative state for almost another year. He was 28 when he died prematurely in 1992 , at his mother’s home in California .
Characteristics of the Work
It is an autobiographical novel in which Isabel Allende was driven by the illness of her daughter, Paula, thus she unburdened herself by compiling a series of events remembered at the time. The author has had a very hard childhood, an adolescence full of passion and now she lives happily being a strong woman because of her experiences.
Internal structure
Isabel Allende
The novel is divided into different parts in which it talks about Paula’s illness ( Porphyria ), the trip to Europe , the marriage of her parents, and explains what they are like and the different characters that appear in the novel.
It is situated in a current setting. Historical time is from not too distant times and for this reason it is not difficult to understand the story in this regard. Two influential civil wars occur in history, although the most important and most narrated historical event is the civil war in Chile and the revolution of Salvador Allende .
The book is full of abrupt jumps in time and flashbacks abound with a non-linear narrative, which misleads the average attentive reader and makes the tired reader lose. The events / elapsed time ratio is very fast. The story is intended to write with an objective narrative point of view and in many cases it is achieved. In it Allende shows his feelings in great detail and therefore it is easy to deduce that he narrates all his feelings very directly, offering the reader all his anecdotes.
Language
Narration is what predominates in the story although in a second place places, sensations and thoughts are also described. It is a language with a vocabulary that is sometimes a bit complicated for a Spanish person to understand, since the author is Chilean, but with effort it is understood without any problem. The language is full of words with passion and very strong feelings towards loved ones, so it follows that the author-narrator-protagonist is a woman who knows how to love and at the same time be loved.
Parts
The work is divided into three parts:
- 1st part: December 1991 -May 1992 ,
Description of the family legend. Descendants of a Basque (Indian) sailor who landed on the coasts of Chile , who prospered and managed to integrate into the aristocracy of rich landowners. He makes special reference to his grandparents, Tata and Memé. Grandmother Memé had special powers of parasychology, telepathy and telekinesis (moving objects with the mind)
- 2nd part: May-December 1992
She talks about her mother’s marriage to Tomás Allende and her trip to Peru where she was born. The subsequent separation from his mother and the union with Ramón. It tells of life in Lebanon , where Ramón is assigned. His return to Chile. At this time Salvador Allende is elected President of Chile, and he will be the first socialist president. Transfer to Argentina , where Ramón was appointed Ambassador. Isabel marries Michel and they have two children, Paula and Nicolás. The coup of Pinochet in September 1973 . Exile of the writer to Venezuela. He publishes his main works. Consolidation as a writer. He meets his current love, Willie and his family. They settle in California . Write the stories of Eva Luna .
- Part 3: Christmas 1992
Paula’s death. Return to Chile after the Pinochet plebiscite.
A history lesson
In Paula, not only the life of a family is told, but also that of a country, Chile . Isabel refers to her father’s cousin, Salvador Allende , a nice politician who became president of the country. Talks about the coup of Pinochet and life after him. It tells how they lived in fear of being arrested, kidnapped, tortured or killed at any moment, for which they had to flee. So Paula is a real little history lesson.
