It was very difficult to start and continue reading this book because it didn't go anywhere like it was stuck. The first part of the book was like a thesis statement that didn't catch the reader's attention or have any relevance whatsoever. I see myself relating to that because I always have trouble writing especially when I have to start with a "bang" either good or bad in order to keep the readers interested. Isabel Allende did and still does not know how to connect to her daughter Paula who is in a coma; therefore it was/is hard for her to start writing this book/letter to Paula.
Isabel Allende wants her daughter Paula to remember her past because she believes memories are what makes a person. However, Allende is only writing about her own memories, which are important but I feel they are unnecessary and not relevant to Paula. Allende writes in great detail, but sometimes I get lost in all those details because it just turns into a list of things. As Allende is writing this letter to Paula, I don't think she is processing and organizing what she wants to write about. Her thoughts and feelings are just flowing out onto the papers in front of her. I got this sense because one memory would lead to another memory, or a memory would go right into the present, all in one paragraph. Because of that, I would get confused as to what was happening, but I have gotten used to how Allende writes and I don't even recognize the structure of it. I guess she wrote like that because that's how we think and speak. Our words are usually not completely processed and put together as we spill them out onto paper or through our mouths... to me at least.
Even though this memoir is titled Paula, the character that stands out most is the author herself. I don't feel like I know Paula at all. All I know is that she is in a coma and that she was a very generous, giving person. Isabel Allende had experienced a lot as a child and growing up. Because she wrote about so many of those experiences in just the first fourth of the book, I couldn't believe that some of them were even true. I now read Paula as though it is a fictitious book, unlike when I started.
Even though this memoir is titled Paula, the character that stands out most is the author herself. I don't feel like I know Paula at all. All I know is that she is in a coma and that she was a very generous, giving person. Isabel Allende had experienced a lot as a child and growing up. Because she wrote about so many of those experiences in just the first fourth of the book, I couldn't believe that some of them were even true. I now read Paula as though it is a fictitious book, unlike when I started.
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