A Long Petal of the Sea

I've just finished this book and I already feel that it will stay with me for a long time. The story takes you through several countries, wars, relationships, hardships and loves. George R.R. Martin said, "A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. [...]" If we take this quote literally, A Long Petal of the Sea brought me much closer to that goal.

The book also gave me a much better understanding of the past of Spain and Chile. Allende wrote a novel, but it touches on a lot of important real history. I sometimes checked what I'd just read on Wikipedia to see if it was true and to learn more about the events described. The author did her homework so well that you get a novel and a history lesson in one. The book also portrays the sadly ever-present issue of people being forced to flee their own country. It helps the reader to see other perspectives.

If you are interested in love stories, the hardships of war, people being both good and very, very bad, this book is for you. One of the criticisms I've heard about Isabel Allende is that her writing sometimes gets in the way of the story by using too many or convoluted metaphors. At least in this book, I don't agree with that. The writing was good, flowed with the story and never took center stage. The characters and environment did the telling.

Two things bothered me a little. One was the ending, it felt rushed and the book could have been finished a few pages earlier and I think it would have left a better impression. The second is that most of the time I couldn't hear the characters saying their dialog. With a few exceptions, it felt like they were mostly there to move the plot along.

All in all, I highly recommend this book and I'll probably try another one by Isabel Allende in the future.