Reviews tagging Misogyny

Violeta, by Isabel Allende

11 reviews

now_booking's review against another edition

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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!

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xmaiixx's review against another edition

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adventurous informative medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0


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lanaxparrillaxwife's review against another edition

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I just got bored with it & got sick & tired of hearing about the politic side of the story 

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marislib's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes

5.0


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internationalreads's review against another edition

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medium-paced

2.5


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mondovertigo's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional reflective slow-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? It's complicated

3.5


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sib_reads's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


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sundayray's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional informative inspiring reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0


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hilarylouise's review against another edition

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emotional reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


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booksonadventures's review against another edition

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reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

 
Violeta follows the 100-year life of the titular woman through a letter she is writing to her grandson, Camilo. From the heels of the Spanish Flu to the beginning stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, Violeta's life spans a period of extraordinary historical events and upheaval.

There's no denying that Allende is a storyteller, and reading her work conjures the exact feeling of listening to my grandmother share her life story, down to the dry humor and matter-of-fact approach to historical events. While I can respect this style, much of this book fell flat in its execution. Overall, Violeta lacked emotional depth and left me grasping for any sort of connection to her character or her life.

Violeta dryly recounts everything from her father's death to her sexual escapades throughout the course of the novel, but never gives me a reason to care about her story. The novel struggled to grab my attention until nearly Chapter 20, when she began to outline the events leading up to the 1973 military coup and following Pinochet dictatorship. Even here, these events primarily hooked me due to my prior reading in the time period, because Allende moves quickly through details and declines the opportunity to expand on topics like Operation Condor and Colonia Dignidad (that could truthfully be entire books on their own).

Ultimately, Violeta does both too much and not enough, with a 100-year storyline that lacks the central themes and magical realism that make Allende's other works memorable. There are a few notable ways Allende has grown as a writer (with more respectful references to difference issues of class and race), but in the end, this book lacks heart. 

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