Paula

Rating:
Summary: Allende's best.
Review: I am an avid Allende fan and I think this is her absolute best. It is very poignant and soul-stirring. I read this book while commuting in my home of Belize. People on the bus must have thought I was going quite mad. This book makes you laugh out loud one moment and has you sobbing uncontrollably the next. A wonderful read for the soul.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best books that I have read in a long time
Review: Isabel Allende is truly a brave woman as she shares a very personal tragedy. The thing that is so refreshing about the book is that while the imminent death of her daughter hangs over your head, Isabel is masterful at telling not only the story of her daughter but the history of a very confusing, wonderful country. I have never laughed aloud and cried by reading words on a page, but Isabel has made me do that. She is an expert story teller. I don't know how the english version stands up, but as someone who has been to her home country and someone who is very interested in literature from Latin America, this (the spanish version for those who can read it) is a must must must read.

Rating:
Summary: A gorgeous book
Review: Isabelle Allende is one of the great writers of our time. Although she writes in Spanish, the English version of this book is excellent - the translator must also be a gifted writer to have accomplished this.

I ran to the store and bought this book after hearing Allende interviewed about it on the radio. My life curiously has touched hers - having gone to school with her daughter but never meeting her - and having a simliar tragedy in my family.

Allende's story is intriguing, especially if you have already read the House of Spirits. It tells a similar story but with a different ending. Its exploration of her life with her family, husbands and children is intertwined with the historical events that gripped Chile in the last few decades. Her reasons for originally writing the book are sweet and we grieve with her when she can't fulfill them.

A truly excellent book

Rating:
Summary: Captivating memoir
Review: What began as a family history for a comatose daughter has evolved into a family memoir written in noveliest Allende's characteristically lyrical style. Intertwined with the pain of her bedside vigil is the story of her daughter Paula's ancestors from great-grandparents forward. We learn not only of their personal journeys and supernatural encounters, but also of the changing political spectrum in Allende's beloved country of origin, Chile. - Barbara

Rating:
Summary: In the given circumstances, an absolute perfect book.
Review: I read this book with much pleasure and I came to the conclusion that Isabel Allende must be a person with special qualities. She knows how to put her heart in a pen. According to me, she perfectly knows how to write feelings down, which is, according to me, an art.`END

Rating:
Summary: catapaults you into Allende's own world
Review: Having read most of Allende's other works, I was anxious to read Paula. This work catapaulted me into the feelings, emotions, and experiances of Isabel Allende, and her eccentric family. Discovering where the ideas for most of her stories came from only made me want to read them again, and learning about the bond between mother and daughter left me with an ache in the pit of my stomach. Reading 'Paula' was an experiance that seemed to enrich my life in terms of looking at the relationships between myself and the people around me, especially my mother. I definately encourage others to read 'Paula'.

Rating:
Summary: this autobiography reads like a novel
Review: I found this book deeply moving, witty, and beautifully eloquent -- being, like Isabel Allende, also a Chilean living in the Bay Area, I was able to identify with so much in this exquisitely written autobiography... The narrative never lost me for one moment. I think it's her best book to date - in spite of how much I liked 'The House of the Spirits'

Rating:
Summary: "My" story
Review: In my real life, Paula is still alive, but Ernesto is not. This book is my story in a different way. Thank you Isabel Allende to make "my" story so beautiful. I will remember him for the rest of my life. I am looking foward for your next book! Paula

Rating:
Summary: The best book ever red
Review: I bought this book because my name is Paula. But I received much more than a nice story, actualy, I received a leason of love and life. Thank you Isabel Allende!

Rating:
Summary: Fans of Allenda will understand; others won't.
Review: I am a fan of Isabel Allende, so objectivity is out the window. Having a daughter that I dote on does not help. Allende's sadness and anguish are palpable. And it is hard for the reader to avoid being sucked into Allende's construction of context for Paula's fate. In the end, though, it doesn't work... The emerging endpoint obscures the supernatural thread, and the elegant, simple lines of storytelling so characteristic of Allende. There is a rambling aspect, that, while touching considering Allende's crisis, seems more cathartic than artistic. And the ending seems as though it belongs in another book (and I suspect that is what has happened). Isabel: My heart is with you, but..