Paula by Isabel Allende

Well - it took me almost a week to get half-way, right there it should tell you that I didn't really like the book. I finally gave up last night and skimmed the rest of the book so I could get an idea of what happened. I probably wouldn't have even done that but this is for my f2f bookclub - so I felt like I had to finish it.

I don't even know if it was really the story I had problems with or the way it was written. She tended not to use chapters, paragraphs were often over a page long, and it seemed like she was all over the place. By this I mean that she could be telling a story about when she was 8, then in the next paragraph it is present time, then she is 20 yrs old, then she is a child again, etc. I just don't think it flowed very well. She would then also give updates on what is going with Paula and her feelings through this towards the end of some of the paragraphs. Chris says this is because she is writing it exactly as she is thinking it and our minds tend to wonder around, that makes sense for the type of story it was, but I still didn't like it.

This is Isabele's Memoir - written while her oldest child, Paula, is in a coma. This is a story written for Paula, it is her mother's life. Isabele writes about what it was like for her to grow up and what she did with her life. I think Isabele had a very interesting life and if the book was written in a different format I belive I would have enjoyed it.