Siobhan Harvey reviews Isabel Allende s new memoir, The Soul of a Woman
12 Mar, 2021 07:00 PM
3 minutes to read
Isabel Allende. Photo / Lori Barra
By: Siobhan Harvey And what is my definition of feminism? Chilean author Isabel Allende writes in her new memoir, The Soul of a Woman. It is not what we have between our legs but what we have between our ears. Laconic and astute, this quote illustrates the wider work, which is a bricolage of intimate reflections, family histories and feminist discourses. It s a powerful offering, one made more impactful by Allende s ability to condense her rich personal stories and philosophies into a very readable 140 pages.
A biopic series about Chilean author Isabel Allende might sound like an easy sell to a U.S. audience. Her 24 books have sold over 74 million copies around the world. Allende’s long list of awards includes the U.S. Presidential Medal Of Freedom she received from President Obama in 2015. Hers is the kind of life story that could have come straight out of her own novels: a woman forced into exile during Augusto Pinochet’s brutal dictatorship achieves literary stardom and finds her life falling apart due to personal tragedy.
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What many fail to realize is that Allende’s status in Latin American literary circles has always been shaky. The region appears to be involved in one of those illicit love affairs that Allende describes so well: She is scorned and ridiculed in public, but apparently adored in secret someone has to be purchasing those books, after all. It’s a shadow that hangs over Allende’s career in such a way that
senator marco rubio and admiral mike rogers. a significant incidents of unmasking. i don t know that. eric: unmasking, one issue. we go back and forth on this. how much of unmasking is legal. andrew: i want to address the issue of russian interference in the election. obama interfered in the israeli election. really interfered. he sent people there, a lot of money to defeat that in netanyahu. clinton did the same thing in the first netanyahu election. we murdered allende, the cia did, and sort of admitted to. eric: we don t russians or anyone else meddling in our