2012 book 35

Isabel Allende's Maya's Notebook
This book starts off really strong--it's about a 19-year-old girl who's been exiled to a small town in Chile, and she's describing her life there, interspersed with the story of her childhood with her beloved grandparents, and the events that led to her leaving America. But the thing is, the events that led to her exile are so mind-bogglingly ridiculous that I grew to hate the character for her idiocy, and even to hate Allende for throwing such stupid melodrama into what had been a really nice and interesting book till that point. I mean, seriously, EVERYTHING that happens in Las Vegas is completely unbelievable. I kept reading, hoping it would get good again, but it mostly stays an overwrought and predictable soap opera with an unlikable protagonist (though, at least while in Chile, a realistic one). And while I appreciated Allende's efforts to address some of the more horrible aspects of recent Chilean history, every mention of her cousin Salvador Allende (who was overthrown in the coup that led to Pinochet's dictatorship) took me out of things a little bit. I think this might still be a popular book, but I didn't find it to be very enjoyable. C.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in April.