Day 4 – 30 Day Reading Challenge – Violeta – Book Review

This sweeping novel from the New York Times bestselling author of A Long Petal of the Sea tells the epic story of Violeta del Valle, a woman whose life spans one hundred years and bears witness to the greatest upheavals of the twentieth century.

Violeta comes into the world on a stormy day in 1920, the first girl in a family of five boisterous sons. From the start, her life will be marked by extraordinary events, for the ripples of the Great War are still being felt, even as the Spanish flu arrives on the shores of her South American homeland almost at the moment of her birth.

Through her father’s prescience, the family will come through that crisis unscathed, only to face a new one as the Great Depression transforms the genteel city life she has known. Her family loses all and is forced to retreat to a wild and beautiful but remote part of the country. There, she will come of age, and her first suitor will come calling. . . .

She tells her story in the form of a letter to someone she loves above all others, recounting devastating heartbreak and passionate affairs, times of both poverty and wealth, terrible loss and immense joy. Her life will be shaped by some of the most important events of history: the fight for women’s rights, the rise and fall of tyrants, and, ultimately, not one but two pandemics.

Told through the eyes of a woman whose unforgettable passion, determination, and sense of humor will carry her through a lifetime of upheaval, Isabel Allende once more brings us an epic that is both fiercely inspiring and deeply emotional.

I have always enjoyed Isabel Allende’s books so I was excited to get my hands on this book. However I am having mixed feelings about this book.

This book wasn’t as great as I thought it could be. The story is more like the biography of Violeta who was born in one stormy night in 1920 and the only daughter in the family. From there, Violeta’s life is chronicled–the great times in the mid 1920’s followed by the Great Depression which made her father lose all his business and ultimately died, the World War II, the rise of socialism in Latin America…by reading this book, I felt like I was living through those times. It spanned her entire life from 1920, the time when Influenza was spreading around the world to the end of her life in 2020 when covid was starting to spread across the world.

I have to say, it took me a while to get into the book. I felt more like I am learning a lesson in history although Violeta’s life in some parts of the book were interesting to read. In my opinion, this wasn’t really her best book but it wasn’t her worst book either. This was more like a grandmother who is on her deathbed, writing a letter to her grandson, telling about her life story. I did learn one or two things about the world. I was a bit confused as to where the story was set in (which Latin American country) until I googled and realized that the story was set in Uruguay. Overall, if you like a historical fiction set in Latin America then this book is one for you–three stars.