Followers

LITERATURE: 'Maya's Notebook' by Isabel Allende

Maya's Notebook
by Isabel Allende [Fourth Estate paperback, London, 2014]
Isabel Allende

Besides African and Japanese literature, I also like discovering South American literature. I have just finished reading 'Maya's Notebook' by the Chilean female writer Isabel Allende.
The first fiction I read by Isabel Allende was 'City of the Beasts' 1(La Ciudad de las Bestias, 2002), a fabulous adventure novel set in the Amazone rainforest.
***
Reading through 'Maya's Notebook'2 (El Cuaderno de Maya, 2011) has been
another fascinating experience. Guided by the hand of a Californian teenage girl, this is a more realistic modern fiction stepping away from a tale-like narrative. It remains a contemporary adventure in the mood of a real thriller involving alcoholism, rehabilitation centers, drug-addiction, the FBI, the mafia and Interpol. The story switches constantly from the girl's home in Berkeley or the dark sides of Las Vegas to the island of Chiloé, where she is hiding.
As Chile is on my bucket's list of countries to visit, I first thought that Chiloé might simply be a fictive name. Actually, this is an archipelago in southern Chile having Chiloé3 as its main island. Maya, the main character, often mentions that potatoes are its main staple food. As a matter of fact most of the potatoes we eat are indigenous to the island. Manuel Arias, « the neurotic gentleman » [p.292] she lives with on the island studies the local
Chiloé islands
folklore and mythology inherited by the Mapuche4 people.
In the second half of 'Maya's Notebook', the plot starts slowly to unveil. It remains a thriller till the end but there are frequent interferences with magic, witches and ghosts, making the story even more fascinating.
There are also some background descriptions of Chile. « The cypresses of Chiloé can live for more than three thousand years, and are among the longest-lived trees in the world, after the baobabs of Africa and the sequoias of California »[p.23]. The 'Guaitecas cypress5' was 'once abundant in the region and is now very rare' [sic]. Isabel Allende has omitted to say that the Douglas fir6, the second-tallest conifer in the world, growing on the northwestern coast of America from Oregon to Vancouver Island can live from 500 up to 1,000 years. Maya says that 'the Chilotes' are 'master boatbuilders who can make anything out of wood. The structures are created by an ingenious assembly system without using a single nail, and the vaulted ceilings are upside-down boats' [p.15]. The capital is also briefly mentioned. « Santiago has six million inhabitants and keeps growing upward in a delirium of high-rises under construction. The city is surrounded by hills and high, snow-capped mountains. It's clean, prosperous, and busy, with well-maintained parks » [p.324]. Comparing Santiago with Chiloé, Maya says : « In Santiago I felt stifled
by the pollution, the trafic, and the impersonal way people treated each other. In Chiloé, you can tell if someone is an outsider because they don't say hello in the street ; in Santiago someone who says anything to strangers is suspicious » [p.325].
Being a distant cousin to Salvador Allende, Chilean politics are often hinted in the background, particularly the dark years of the Pinochet régime, which are entwined in the lives of Manuel Arias and of Nidia Vidal, Maya's emblematic grandmother she calls her Nini. « When the military coup happened, on Tuesday, September 11, 1973, the country was divided into two irreconcilable halves ; no one could remain neutral » [p.326]. She adds that 'that violence was so unimaginable in Chile, proud of its democratic institutions and civil society' [p.327].
This section holds a particular echo for me. A few days after the Chilean coup, I was on an Italian ship out of Panama, on my way back to Europe. The ship came from Valparaiso, Chile. On board, there were many Italian refugees who were escaping Pinochet's military regime.
Allende, Pinochet and also Michelle Bachelet are mentioned. Talking of President Michelle Bachelet, Maya says that « no other Chilean president has been so beloved. […] Before the elections, nobody thought she'd win, because it was assumed that Chileans would not vote for a woman, let alone a socialist, agnostic single mother, but she won the presidency as well as everyone's respect » [p.318].
The story ends unexpectedly with a rather humoristic turn, having kept the avid reader on alert to know what would come next.
***
Isabel Allende7 was born in 1942 in Lima, Peru as her father, Tomás Allende was a diplomat at the Chilean Embassy. Her father was President Salvador Allende's first cousin. In her younger years, Isabel moved to different countries in Lebanon, in Bolivia or Argentina. She became a journalist and escaped to Venezuela during the Pinochet's years. In 1988, she met her second husband, a Californian attorney, Willie Gordon. She still lives in San Rafael, California.
As a journalist in Chile, she was once asked to make an interview of Pablo Neruda8(1904-1973), the world-famous Chilean poet, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971. He told her 'she had too much imagination to be a journalist' and that 'she should be a novelist instead'. Learning about the death of her 99-year old grandfather, while in Caracas in 1981, she started her first book 'The House of the Spirits' (La Casa de los Esperitus, 1982).
She has often been compared to the Columbian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez9(1927-2014), who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982, due to her style known as 'magical realism'. This term is used to the literary style that includes magical or unreal elements sometimes mixed with an otherwise realistic atmosphere.

Christian Sorand,
Bangkok, April 2015

No comments:

Post a Comment