A review by gitli57
Maya's Notebook by Isabel Allende

emotional informative reflective

3.0

Allende can be very hit or miss for me. In Maya's Notebook, she managed to hit and miss in the same book. There was some genuinely moving writing about the horrors of the US backed Pinochet dictatorship in Chile (which Allende and her family experienced first hand). Allende can also bring off an Indigenous sensibility and does here. But there are larger believability issues, starting with the narrative voice. Since the novel is told in first person, this really undermines her main character. Many of the plot points wobble into TV novella territory. The line between genuine emotion and sentimentality is not as sharp and obvious as some critics like to suggest, so decide for yourself whether or not Allende crosses it.
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