Isabel Allende; trans. Nick Caistor and Amanda Hopkinson
A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende, translated from the Spanish by Nick Caistor and Amanda Hopkinson, is a family saga that begins in Spain just before the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War and concludes decades later in Chile. The narrative focuses on two families, the Dalmaus and the Del Solars. Their lives intersect in unexpected ways with the full consequences becoming evident decades later.
When General Franco comes to power in Spain, the brutal bloodbath and killings begin, forcing thousands to make the difficult trek over the mountains to escape to France. Victor Dalmau, an army doctor, arranges for his mother and Roser, his pregnant sister-in-law, to escape while he stays behind to help the wounded and dying on the battlefield. Eventually, Victor escapes to France, and with the help of the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, he and Roser sail on the Winnipeg with other refugees to establish themselves in Chile. While in Chile, Victor has a brief affair with Ofelia Del Solar, the daughter of a prominent family.
Establishing themselves in Chile, Roser and Victor become contributing members of society. She is a prominent musician and Victor is a well-respected physician. But their lives are uprooted again after the military coup that establishes Pinochet as the iron-fisted ruler of Chile. They move to Venezuela with their son until it is safe for them to return to Chile. Spanning several decades, the novel concludes with Roser’s death and Victor, now in his eighties, reconnecting with events from his past.
Allende weaves the story of Franco under Spain and Chile under Pinochet throughout the narrative. Although these political events were initially treated as the backdrop, they assume greater prominence as the novel progresses. And that is when the novel begins to suffer from an excess of exposition—a mechanical telling of events in the form of “this happened, then this, then this.” The focus of the novel shifts from the characters to a narrative of the political upheavals in Spain and Chile. The characters recede into the background; the language becomes passive and prosaic; the pace slows considerably; the dialogue becomes stilted and perfunctory; and the story bogs down in a recounting of the political situation.
Allende discloses in the Acknowledgements she has a personal connection to the events and to the characters. She was inspired to tell their story and admits, “This book wrote itself, as if it had been dictated to me.” While Allende’s desire to tell the political events that impacted her friends and family deserves respect, the preponderance she allocated to the political situation in the narrative may have been better suited to a work of non-fiction. Her efforts to weave it in with the fictional narrative were not entirely successful and did not do justice to either of the narrative threads.
Recommended with reservations.