Long Petal of the Sea

A Long Petal Of The Sea is the second of two pretty epic emigration novels I have read this month. Encompassing a greater scope in time and distance travelled, Allende's novel is certainly the more ambitious but I didn't find I connected as well with the main character as I did reading Farewell, Mama Odessa by Emil Draitser. That said, I was still fascinated by Victor and Roser's lives and I learned so much about the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War. That war seems so often to be overlooked in favour of Second World War stories, but its complexities and human narratives are just as compelling. I've previously listened to Homage To Catalonia by George Orwell and felt that A Long Petal Of The Sea often shared the same feel of being a memoir rather than fiction. Allende has obviously researched her subject in great detail and the effort shows across the authenticity of her descriptions and her characters' actions.

Where I struggled somewhat with A Long Petal Of The Sea was with believing in the central relationship between Victor and Roser. I appreciate that theirs wasn't a romantic relationship in the conventional sense, but there was still meant to be a strong bond and I couldn't really feel that. Their other philanderings had sensuality and a sense of excitement, even while conducted away from the reader. Allende puts across a genuine sense of the restrictiveness of upper class Chilean society, especially in its contrast with the desperation of the Spanish exiles. Through the years of this novel we really do see all extremes of human existence as well as the lengths to which societies will go to protect their preferred ideologies. For Victor and Roser this means appearing to be on a wheel of recurring nightmare scenarios and I can't begin to imagine how devastating that must have been for the real people who inspired this story.

A Long Petal Of The Sea is only the third Isabel Allende book I have read, but after each of the previous two I promised myself to make a bigger effort to search out more of her work. I love her writing style and the way she convincingly portrays characters across a range of social classes and philosophical beliefs. It's difficult enough to get readers to understand sympathetic characters, let alone ones who who espouse opposing views. A Long Petal Of The Sea does just that whilst also depicting the changing Spanish and Chilean political landscapes over several decades. This isn't the easiest of reads, but I felt it was absolutely worth my time.

My high school Spanish teacher in the mid 70s was from Madrid, so I knew a little about what had happened there in the 30s, though he never talked about it. When I was in college in the late 70s I knew a student named Roberto who was from Chile. He talked about what was going on there then, of having friends who had been disappeared, which means murdered by the government. Knowing little about South America, I just assumed that was typical of all those countries, which many Americans referred to then and now as "banana republics" (and now South Americans are saying, "Look who's talking"). Roberto educated me on that, explaining that Chile had a long history of being a stable democracy.
I mention this because I've been trying to figure out why I liked [a:Isabel Allende|2238|Isabel Allende|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1341879973p2/2238.jpg]'s [b:A Long Petal of the Sea|46042377|A Long Petal of the Sea|Isabel Allende|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1565211383l/46042377.SY75.jpg|69307454] as much as I did. It tells the history of both wonderfully. Whether you know lots about Spain and Chile and other events of the world from 1936 to 1994 or not, you'll like this book.
This describes what happened to the Spanish defeated by Franco as they were in a French concentration camp after fleeing Spain in 1939.

As the months went by, overcrowding in the camp gradually diminished. The old and infirm died off and were buried in a cemetery adjacent to the camp. The luckiest among the prisoners obtained sponsors and visas to emigrate to Mexico and South America. Many of the soldiers joined the French Foreign Legion, despite its brutal discipline and its reputation for harboring criminals, since anything was better than remaining in the camp. Those with suitable qualifications were recruited for the Foreign Workers Companies created to replace the French workforce called up in preparation for the coming war. Later on, others were to go to the Soviet Union to fight with the Red Army or join the French Resistance, and thousands of them died in Nazi death camps or Stalin's gulags.