Review: Violeta

Violeta by Isabel Allende

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

ARC received in exchange for an Honest Review
Thank you to Random House Publishing Group- Ballantine and NetGalley!

Publication date: 25 January 2022

“There’s a time to live and a time to die. In between there’s time to remember”

Violeta, by the bestselling Chilean author, Isabel Allende, is her new piece of historical fiction that follows Violeta Del Valle’s life since her birth during the Spanish Influenza outbreak until she dies during the current COVID-19 pandemic. Through Violeta’s personal letter to her grandson Camilo, Allende navigates 100 years of history and the pass of time on the people she loved. The Spanish Influenza, the Great Depression, World War II, the dictatorships in Latin America, industrialization, the hippie movement, the Condor Operation, and so many more crucial historical moments affect the story and the characters in such a personal way that they almost seem like a work of fiction and not the brutal 20th Century.

I would have loved to read Violeta in Spanish and not in translation, but I still want to point out the aspects that made me binge read this novel in one sitting even though is quite a long book.
The characters in Violeta are endearing, unforgettable, so real, and complex. Because all the narrative is focalized through Violeta’s memory, we really don’t get a lot of each character’s life but the moments they coincided with Violeta. This is natural and part of the human experience. Even with this reality, the characters are still so complex beyond the hidden parts of themselves. It is their actions that prove their true bravery and makes us wish we could know more about them. Torito, Miss Taylor, Roy Copper, José Antonio, Facunda, the Rivas, all of them will forever be in my heart. There is a mastery behind the construction of each character that is not often found in novels with so many characters, but Allende succeeds at granting them individual spotlights.

The way that the story moves clearly replicates the smoothness of conversation and shows how we revisit our own memories. Violeta at almost 100 years old starts her story like we all do, at her birth. The conditions of that birth and the wealthy conservative family she was born into, seem even more ancient when we reach the end of her life, after everything that she had accomplished and seen. Still, Violeta takes the time to carefully explain each important part and people in her life. The narrative does replicate how our mind works as she never mentions her brothers by name or goes into details about them because they simply didn’t participate in her life. Those types of omissions or moments when Violeta skips several years of sameness is what we regularly do when we think back as memory is all but perfect and objective.

Lastly, Violeta feels like a love letter to Chile and to remarkable women out there whose story has been lost. Statistically, women live longer than men. I don’t know why and I will not pretend to know, but that was the first thing that jumped to my mind when I finished crying at the end. Matriarchs tend to live longer, which means they get to see everyone else die before them. My own grandmothers buried husbands, children, and grandchildren while telling us about their childhood in the countryside taking care of animals and running wild. Latin American women are made of something different, even with machismo around, they often end up as the financial and emotional support of the families they build. The ending of Violeta turns to that reality as it advocates for women’s rights, protection from violence and abuse, and women’s organizations.

If I have to divide the novel into three main themes (which is difficult as it touches on almost every subject under the sun), I would say that the first part is about social hierarchies and the fall of the Del Valle family into their found family members, the second part is the foreign-American- political intrusion in Latin America and the devastating results, and the third part is Violeta’s renouncement of material goods for a peaceful loving life supporting women. These three parts are equally enjoyable and important, making Violeta’s life extraordinary but filled with strong emotions.

I think Violeta is a positive product of the pandemic. I felt the same way after reading Beautiful World Where are You by Sally Rooney last year. Only time will tell, but after 2 years living with the virus, the extensive life revision that once was exclusive for those about to die has been permeating our lives in seclusion. As a 24-year-old, the pandemic has made me question everything I’ve been through and everything I had planned. Such a round story of Violeta going through many crossroads in life and her explicitly pointing them out with the wisdom granted by time, makes you wonder what your own life story will look like at the end. So go ahead, read Violeta, experience her life and take her beloved in your heart, but keep going and live the most remarkable life possible.

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