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| Phone: 845-679-1002 | | FAX: 845-679-1019 | | Email: | | [email protected] | | US Mail: | | PO Box 159 | | West Hurley, NY 12491 |  |
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| Paula | | by Isabel Allende | | Perennial |  | | | | List Price: | $14.00 | | Our Price: | $11.20 | | You Save: | $2.80 (20.00%) | | | Release Date: | July, 2003 | | Media: | Paperback | | ISBN: | 0060927216 | | | Availability: | Usually ships within 24 hours | | Average Review: |  Based on 93 reviews. |
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| | Description:
"Listen, Paula. I am going to tell you a story so that when you wake up you will not feel so lost." So says Chilean writer Isabel Allende (The House of the Spirits) in the opening lines of the luminous, heart-rending memoir she wrote while her 28-year-old daughter Paula lay in a coma. In its pages, she ushers an assortment of outrageous relatives into the light: her stepfather, an amiable liar and tireless debater; grandmother Meme, blessed with second sight; and delinquent uncles who exultantly torment Allende and her brothers. Irony and marvelous flights of fantasy mix with the icy reality of Paula's deathly illness as Allende sketches childhood scenes in Chile and Lebanon; her uncle Salvatore Allende's reign and ruin as Chilean president; her struggles to shake off or find love; and her metamorphosis into a writer. | |  | | Similar Products
| | | | | | Customer Reviews
| | | Average Customer Review: Based on 93 reviews. | |  Heartwrenching and magical
This book will make you cry and laugh and everything in between. The first half of the book is a letter to her daughter written in the hope that she will wake from her coma. In fear that Paula will not remember her past Isabel Allende tells her the true story of their family. The second half is a farewell to Paula. It is a story of love and loss in many aspects. Love and loss of family, of country, and of life. It is gripping to read of people who have had to live in exile and find their way without the safety of being able to go "home." It is even more beautiful to find that their home is found wherever they are. This book should be read by mothers, daughters, immigrants, and anyone decending from people who have lived through persecution, exile, or political turmoil. | | Life-Affirmation
I first read Isabel Allende when my friend's mother recommended "The House of the Spirits." Later, I told my friend's mother how much I had enjoyed the novel. On that occasion she handed me her copy of "Paula," saying, "Hear. Read this." I obliged. "Paula" is the author's autobiography, written for her daughter, as she tries to nurse her daughter through a rare illness that has left her comatose. Allende visits the events in her past as she copes with the present. "Paula" moved me on many different levels. Allende's story of her own past is captivating. Her present day struggle to heal her daughter is heartwrenching. Despite the sadnesses of the book, it is a book that affirms life. I read it whenever I feel have wallowed in self-pity for too long. It reminds me that it is I who am in charge of my destiny. After crying the many tears I cry when I read "Paula," I feel cleansed, rejuvenated, and ready to live life again. | | Gripping account of the death of the author¿s daughter
Isabel Allende's usual style of thickly descriptive, almost surreal, writing doesn't generally appeal to me. I read Eva Luna, then House of Spirits; after that, I was over it. But this book is different. Paula is the straightforward telling of Allende's colorful family history interwoven with the account of her daughter Paula's death from a rare disease. The economical writing instantly won me over, and Allende's gift for storytelling comes to the fore in the many anecdotes she shares.
While Death is the book's key element, it doesn't overwhelm with pity or sorrow. As Allende distracts herself by writing this book as a long letter to Paula, who lies in a coma for months, the author distracts us as well. Absolutely superb. |
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