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sholtie's review against another edition
slow-paced
2.0
Your grandma sits you down and tells you about every beef shes ever had and every man she ever slept with
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Suicide, Medical content, and Pregnancy
Moderate: Ableism, Child death, Death, and Domestic abuse
gracescanlon's review against another edition
It's...fine.
That's the trouble, actually. It's fine. I could only read this before bed, because it kept putting me to sleep. That is, in a small way, also a compliment - Allende's prose, its rhythm, is soothing. But the book is also boring boring boring.
I've been trying to read more diverse books. Even so, Allende in general has been on my TBR, as a renowned female South American author. However, leaving the country where the book is set unnamed was frustrating to me. I've learned since abandoning this book that it's set in Chile, but as I read it, the vagueness of the location irked me. I want to know more about other places. Leaving Violeta's setting unspecified was counterproductive to that - it just wasn't a choice I liked or appreciated. I'm quite aware that that's a personal problem, and that Allende's choice was purposeful and valid, but I don't have to like it.
The amount of people in the reviews who were at all surprised as to Camilo's identity is baffling to me. It's so blatantly obvious to me that he's her grandson, or at the very least a grandson-like person in her life. Y'all need to work on reading comprehension.
Violeta seems, to me, aimless - an odd sensation, given it's the story of a woman's life that spanned throughout tumultuous times. But even 35% through the book, Violeta has only been "involved" with contemporary world events tangentially, if at all.
Also, the older Violeta telling the story has a little personality, but her younger self has very little. Honestly, the side characters were all more interesting than she was, from Torito and the Rivases to her aunts and Miss Taylor.
So, ultimately, I didn't care, don't care, can't care. I'll be donating or selling this book.
That's the trouble, actually. It's fine. I could only read this before bed, because it kept putting me to sleep. That is, in a small way, also a compliment - Allende's prose, its rhythm, is soothing. But the book is also boring boring boring.
I've been trying to read more diverse books. Even so, Allende in general has been on my TBR, as a renowned female South American author. However, leaving the country where the book is set unnamed was frustrating to me. I've learned since abandoning this book that it's set in Chile, but as I read it, the vagueness of the location irked me. I want to know more about other places. Leaving Violeta's setting unspecified was counterproductive to that - it just wasn't a choice I liked or appreciated. I'm quite aware that that's a personal problem, and that Allende's choice was purposeful and valid, but I don't have to like it.
The amount of people in the reviews who were at all surprised as to Camilo's identity is baffling to me. It's so blatantly obvious to me that he's her grandson, or at the very least a grandson-like person in her life. Y'all need to work on reading comprehension.
Violeta seems, to me, aimless - an odd sensation, given it's the story of a woman's life that spanned throughout tumultuous times. But even 35% through the book, Violeta has only been "involved" with contemporary world events tangentially, if at all.
Also, the older Violeta telling the story has a little personality, but her younger self has very little. Honestly, the side characters were all more interesting than she was, from Torito and the Rivases to her aunts and Miss Taylor.
So, ultimately, I didn't care, don't care, can't care. I'll be donating or selling this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Suicide, Death of parent, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Child abuse, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Violence, Medical content, Abortion, Pregnancy, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Ableism, Confinement, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Grief, Murder, Alcohol, Colonisation, and War
now_booking's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I love this author’s work for her compelling description of the mundane, her ability to weave in real historical events into the lived experience of her characters, and her compassionate development of complex characters who are never heroes nor villains but just eminently human. Violeta sustains that energy being a multigenerational family saga told by the 100-year old Violeta as she looks back at her life, and produces a memoir for her grandson, Camilo.
Like many of Allende’s protagonists, Violeta is born into some privilege. This book spans Violeta’s life from her birth during the emergence of the 1920 flu pandemic, the stock market crash and the Great Depression, through the rise of Naziism, fascism, peasant uprisings, revolution and the legacy of colonialism, Western political influence and dictatorship in Latin America, to the end of her life in 2020’s coronavirus pandemic. While this work of historical fiction is not specifically about these historical events, the dramatic events of her life and her dysfunctional family are greatly influenced by these events and through her story, we get a fresh perspective of what it may have been to love through those times.
This is ultimately a book of an entire life, so there is a lot of sadness and trauma in this that linger especially when one looks back at a lifetime and has experienced the pain of regret and loss. This isn’t a maudlin read, Violeta has a good sense of self irony and is witty and humorous, and is viciously honest even with herself about her own failings, yet the overarching mood of this is sort of sad and reflective. This book addresses themes of neglect and abuse, infidelity, sexual assault, addiction, violence and genocide. If you’ve had experience living under an authoritarian regime and experienced loss through it, this might be somewhat triggering. If you haven’t, this has a lot of loss in it, so gird your loins.
That said, this book is absolutely gorgeous. The writing is fantastic… it reads authentically like an old lady wrote it as her memoir and there are so many points reading this that I stopped to reflect. There were so many points of reflection about relationships, faith, regret, wealth. The story of love and family and found family that is built through this book is so real yet so flawed and because of that compellingly human. The character development is as expected from and Allende novel, great, and even the description of the most mundane aspects of her life was compelling. This would have been a perfect 5 stars for me if not that I think it was at times a bit repetitive in parts and I think in places the story could have moved faster. I think fans of the Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo will adore this, but I found this to be more encompassing, more meaningful and just… more! I highly highly recommend this!
Like many of Allende’s protagonists, Violeta is born into some privilege. This book spans Violeta’s life from her birth during the emergence of the 1920 flu pandemic, the stock market crash and the Great Depression, through the rise of Naziism, fascism, peasant uprisings, revolution and the legacy of colonialism, Western political influence and dictatorship in Latin America, to the end of her life in 2020’s coronavirus pandemic. While this work of historical fiction is not specifically about these historical events, the dramatic events of her life and her dysfunctional family are greatly influenced by these events and through her story, we get a fresh perspective of what it may have been to love through those times.
This is ultimately a book of an entire life, so there is a lot of sadness and trauma in this that linger especially when one looks back at a lifetime and has experienced the pain of regret and loss. This isn’t a maudlin read, Violeta has a good sense of self irony and is witty and humorous, and is viciously honest even with herself about her own failings, yet the overarching mood of this is sort of sad and reflective. This book addresses themes of neglect and abuse, infidelity, sexual assault, addiction, violence and genocide. If you’ve had experience living under an authoritarian regime and experienced loss through it, this might be somewhat triggering. If you haven’t, this has a lot of loss in it, so gird your loins.
That said, this book is absolutely gorgeous. The writing is fantastic… it reads authentically like an old lady wrote it as her memoir and there are so many points reading this that I stopped to reflect. There were so many points of reflection about relationships, faith, regret, wealth. The story of love and family and found family that is built through this book is so real yet so flawed and because of that compellingly human. The character development is as expected from and Allende novel, great, and even the description of the most mundane aspects of her life was compelling. This would have been a perfect 5 stars for me if not that I think it was at times a bit repetitive in parts and I think in places the story could have moved faster. I think fans of the Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo will adore this, but I found this to be more encompassing, more meaningful and just… more! I highly highly recommend this!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Genocide, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Classism
Moderate: Ableism, Child abuse, Confinement, Infertility, Misogyny, Torture, Xenophobia, Fire/Fire injury, and War
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Chronic illness, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Incest, Abortion, and Colonisation