Paula

Rating:
Summary: Very Gloomy
Review: I had enjoyed Daughter of Fortune so much, that I thought that Paula would be great. Unfortunately, I was very disappointed.
Although there are some wonderful passages looking into Isabel's past, too much of the book deals with her socialist and new age perspectives of life. Her writing depicts a very self-centered life. Unfortunately, she is never able to come to grips with her daughter's coma and eventual death. Her writing has been sadly affected by events and her personal outlook.

Rating:
Summary: A passionate and startling memoir, written with love
Review: Isabel Allende has made her name as a writer in the genre of magic realism, where fantastical events occur, often without warning. When her daughter Paula collapsed into an irreversibly coma due to a rare disease, Allende found herself desperate for a story to tell her dying daughter. This is the book that arose out of a mother's need to understand the past, the future, and the mysterious connection between the two. Allende tells of events before her birth, of Chilean politics and how it affected her famously political family, of falling in love, of becoming a writer, of motherhood, of her journey through Paula's illness - while embracing the spirituality that pervades her fiction. Surprisingly, the story of Allende's life bears remarkable resemblance, both in fact and in imagery, to her bestselling novel THE HOUSE OF SPIRITS.

While sadness frames this memoir, the core of it pulses with life and faith. Beautifully written, with moments that will make you pause with admiration, this book is startling and powerful. Every fan of Allende should read this, both for the context it provides for her writing and for the force of her storytelling.

Rating:
Summary: Sweet and painful to read
Review: For those who love the style of Ms. Allende, they will be happy to have read this book about her daughter's illness. I enjoyed the family history and only wanted more detail about the illness and the progression. It was a nicely thought out book and reminds us all that life is so very short. The relationship between mother and daughter was beautiful to experience.

Rating:
Summary: Sad, beautiful, startling
Review: This is such a beautiful book, a beautifully written story of Isabel Allende's life and the life of her family. I was not expecting the book to be what it was in this context - there are a lot of family stories and stories about her life in Chile. The book is fascinating, but is also quite sad as well. Indeed there are many passages about Allende's daughter Paula being in a coma and later in a vegetative state, and these passages, although well written are often times very emotionally difficult to read. My heart goes out to the author - it must have been an incredibly difficult book to write. I found the book easier to read a bit at a time, and as I was reading it in the original Spanish, this was not difficult. It is well worth reading. I waited too long to read this book because I thought that it was going to be nonstop depressing news of Paula in the hospital and for the most part, it really isn't, but it is sad and it probably will make you cry at the end, but go for it anyway - it's good to have feelings to know that you are alive, right?

Rating:
Summary: Latin Emotion at its Finest
Review: Isabel Allende has created a masterpiece in this story meant to capture for her ailing daughter the history of her family. What Allende does is take her grief and pain of her daughter's illness and pour it out onto the page so that we see her soul, we ache along with her, we grieve and smile and laugh as she labors through Paula's silence. She has given us a gift--she gave us Paula to know, to love, and to remember. To see inside a writer's soul like one can with this story is to know that this writer has given her all.

Rating:
Summary: A book of unconditional Love
Review: I could relate to this book as my son had been in a coma and I know how I felt. When I first started to read this book the power went off our area so I read it by flashlight (I know how good her other books are). At first all I could do was cry but I needed to get these feelings out.This is the most horrible thing that anyone can go through. Isabel has wrote this so good and yet you can feel the love coming thru. This is a must read.

Rating:
Summary: Excelente libro!!
Review: Este libro me dio la oportunidad de vivir un poco esa etapa en la vida de Isabel...y me dio mucha ganas de leer todos sus libros ella es una excelente escritore recomiendo todos sus libros mas Paula...

Rating:
Summary: Fun and fast to read!
Review: I did not expect to enjoy "Paula" when my English teacher described it as a book full of little stories about the author's life and family. Adding in the fact that it was translated from Spanish, I assumed that I had a long and unenjoyable assignment to complete. But my assumptions were wrong. The translation is wonderful - the writing is smoother that many books first written in English. And the beginning, with funny little anecdotes concerning various family members is very entertaining. Later the book shifts over to focus on Isabel's life, but I didn't mind. I enjoyed wondering what she would do next, from writing in a feminist's magazine, to enlisting superstitious cleaning rituals in order to make a failing business succeed. When I was finished, I was only dissapointed that it had to end - I hope Allende will update us in a few years! I would recommend this to anyone that wants to read about a family and life so funny and interesting it almost belongs in a novel (sometimes it doesn't seem real!) Very fun, and a quick and easy read!

Rating:
Summary: A straightforward autobiographical history
Review: Ms. Allende shares her story of growing up in Chile which is chronicalled while her daughter lies in a coma. She stays by her daughter's bedside and describes her growing up years to her, knowing in her heart that her daughter is listening. A soul-searching memoir that keeps you in suspense. You feel that this writer is embarking on a journey with her past and also with her present. Paula is her daughter and you can see that this author is trying to hold herself together by her art of storytelling during an horrendous event in her life. I couldn't put the book down. It was truly a gift.

Rating:
Summary: Powerful book of a woman's quest
Review: Paula's short life was interrupted by medical malpractice. Isabel Allende takes you through the journey of not only her daughter's life, but that of her own. A journey that intertwines a feminine perspective on the many facets of life: family, love, fears, parenting, etc. The truth that Allende used opens the door to her life, and vast experiences. This book is a moving example of a woman's dedication to her children and to herself.