Book Review: "Violeta" by Isabel Allende

I was only around eighteen years' old when I first read Isabel Allende's The House of the Spirits and I was stunned from start to finish. To this day, I cannot forget the terrifying, electric and often heartbreaking events of that novel from the death of Rosa the Beautiful all the way to the impassioned ending. Esteban's house lingers over me like a dark cloud, that book is one of the few that has changed my life. Violeta is another one of Allende's novels that has sought to do the same thing. It has changed me in a way I never expected to be changed. It has hardened me against trust (if I wasn't hardened against it enough) and made me realise that caution against love is not just a good habit - it is absolutely necessary for the survival of women everywhere. Violeta is a ruthless novel filled with horrifying truths that we either have to shield ourselves from or force ourselves to encounter.

Violeta is a novel narrated by an epoynmous protagonist in a lengthy letter to her grandson, Camilo. As the protagonist approaches 100 years' old, she recounts her life back from the year she was born in 1920 and the enemies her father made in business whilst the world was leading up to the Great Depression. A horrifyingly true encounter of what it meant to live through such an era that was rocked by unpredictability, eviction notices and suicides, Violeta struggles with the fact that in reality - her father was nothing more than a coward and a fraud. As we revisit episodes in her life, his shadow becomes less and less powerful.

Jose Antonio is her brother and he takes over looking after the family with a resilience that gains Violeta's utmost respect. As she grows into a young woman, she encounters the dangers of men who, like her father, are brutes and cowards, fraudsters and criminals. She must find her way on this winding journey without getting too caught up in love or else she risks all her freedoms that the world once offered to her and was threatening to take away again.

She has stints as a teacher, she works with her brother on housing projects, she encounters death first-hand and sees exactly what regret means when she attempts to help her daughter out of a dire situation that would be a mother's worst nightmare. As we travel along with Violeta, we get to know more about the grandson she writes to, Camilo. We initially do not know anything about him and, if you read on, you will be able to piece together some facts that she mentions about the once young and troublesome boy who grew up to be something she never expected.

Isabel Allende strips away all the romanticism from Latin America and leaves us with a people who have actually been through a lot. From the threats of dictatorship to the Great Depression to the threat of communism taking route in the country and people having to flee from being blacklisted by the state. This entire text is told against a backdrop of political uncertainty in a style that befits Isabel Allende's The House of the Spirits in so many ways.

There are so many characters to get to know in the novel including Violeta's Irish Governess, Josephine Taylor. Josephine is just as memorable as all of the Latin American cast in her political drive, her incredible independence, her life lessons to Violeta and her passionate drive to be whoever she wants - even if it means breaking the rules and morals given to a woman from her dress sense to her sexuality. Characters come and go, but it is really up to the reader to decide which characters have had the most positive impact on the life of Violeta. Is it Josephine? Is it Abel? Is it Torito, or Violeta's mother? Is is Jose Antonio? Each person in this book pieces a piece of the jigsaw that is Violeta into being and makes her who she is - even the characters like Julian, who do her wrong.

A brilliant testament to her incredible writing and storytelling ability, Isabel Allende tells us 100 years of history through the eyes of a woman who could not possibly be stopped no matter how hard anyone tried. It is both an amazing text and a provocative history written by one of the greatest writers of the modern age.