Book Review: A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende

The early 20th century, more particularly World War II, has always interested me. The culture and events that happened during this time, so inspiring for such a hardships of this period. No wonder the generation is considered the Greatest Generation. Perhaps growing up during the chaos we see today, the older generation are a group we should try to learn from in how we navigate these times. A Long Petal of the Sea is a historical fiction by Chilean writer Isabel Allende and follows a pregnant woman in war-torn Spain who has to marry her deceased lover’s paramedic brother in order to escape to Chile. With my interests in the early 20th century as well as science/medicine and the latin/hispanic culture, this book was right up my alley.

The Negatives:

Unfortunately there were a number of things I wasn’t the biggest fan of. First, the characters. I thought that Allende possibly covered too many characters within one telling. There was an inability to observe quality character development because the storylines kept changing between the characters, time periods and events. Maybe this should have been separated into smaller books to allow for growth and understanding? It was hard to follow. Which leads into writing style and the constant jumping and covering too many topics. Great potential but got lost with all the branches.

The Positives:

The atmosphere and setting was greatly detailed, where one was able to imagine the struggles people of this time experienced. Despite the complex plot and light touching of each story line, it still was interesting seeing how the relationships developed, even with a plot twist at the end of the book.

Overall I did appreciate the book and give it a three star score.

FINAL RATING:

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