Am I being overly harsh or is this book simply not of the
same standard as Paula? The answer is
that maybe I’ve just completely outgrown magical realism (which is sad, because
back in the day I had loved A Hundred
Years of Solitude so very much).
I honestly think that, had it not been for Clara’s extra
sensory abilities, I would have enjoyed the novel a lot more. And I would have probably
also liked it better if the characters weren’t ultimately representations of
various social and political groups (and periods) in Chilean history (the roman
à clef as a genre often gets a bit on my nerves). And the fact that Allende
also openly declares that Blanca never married Pedro Tercero because she didn’t
love him enough just stings – the guy deserved better.
But then again, most of this probably applies only to 85% of
the book, because from the moment Alba gets arrested the novel gains massively
in literary, political and moral weight (although it’s really too bad that
Allende picked the allegoric name of Alba/Dawn for the character that is meant
to symbolize hope for the future – think outside the box!)
