Isabel and the Family Saga

I was sad that I missed Isabel Allende being interviewed on the BBC's Hardtalk by Sarah Montegue the other day about her new memoir The Sum Of Our Days. It isn't possible to watch the programmes on the BBC website anymore now that they are changing to a new system (the BBC i-Player) which we can't subscribe to here (yet?). But some kind soul put a fair chunk of the interview on YouTube (Part 1, Part 2).

Allende talks about how she draws on her family for inspiration, how this is the second memoir written to Paula, her daughter who died, and also about how she writes.

What you may not know - she starts every new book on January 8th, and before that doesn't even know what the first sentence will be, let alone the plot!

Best quote from the interview :

If I had to chose between a relative and a good story, I'd chose the story.

There's more about the book on the Harper Collins website.

When Journalism Fails ...

You must be the worst journalist in the country. You're incapable of being objective, you put yourself at the centre of everything. I suspect that you lie a lot, and when there is no news, you invent it. Wouldn't it be better to turn to writing novels? In literature, these defects are virtues.

Pablo Neruda advising Isabel Allende

Magical Realism and String Hoppers

Our book club met last night at Muntaj's house to consider The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende. I hadn't felt like rereading the novel and my recollection of it was somewhat hazy.

(What remains with you after you read a book? An atmosphere, a vague impression, a memory of how you felt, a web of associations to do with where you were, and who you were with, and the room you sat in when you were reading it? Meanwhile, the story itself quietly slips further and further away ...)

But it was such a pleasure to see the reactions of most of the others, meeting both the novel and Allende's writing for the first time.

There was much laughter over favourite episodes, some had found it 'spooky' in parts since the dead walk around quite comfortably with the living, and Clara emerged as the favourite character. Comparisons were drawn with One Hundred Years of Solitude which we read last year, and overall the Marquez was preferred. 'Magical realism' has taken up residence in everyone's vocabulary now.

My own feelings about this novel are now very much coloured by having read Paula, Allende's extended letter to her daughter lying in a coma. This book revisits much of the same family history, but also tells Allende's own story. And goodness, this lady has certainly lived a life. You feel so much for this mother, grieving her daughter's slow death in a Spanish hospital, and coping with that pain by telling stories.

Sandra did a great job of leading the discussion and had put a lot of effort into her research, and Muntaj had cooked some delicious curries to go with string hoppers for supper. Many thanks!

Related Posts

On Allende:

Where Do little Stories Come From, Mummy? (23/7/05)

On Our Book Club:

Fiction & Friends (9/11/04)
What Book Lovers Look Like (16/2/05)
From Clouds to Kofta and Kulfi (2/3/05)
Time Travelling (31/5/05)
The Harmony Silk Factory Tour of Perak (21/6/05)
The Buzz on the Bee Book (29/8/05)
Kunzru Makes an Impression (17/10/05)
Ouch! Let Me Go! (17/11/05)
Malgudi Revisited (6/12/05)

Where Do Little Stories Come From, Mummy?

Where do stories come from? Could it be possible that they were there all along and all we had to do was open our eyes and ears to them? In Paula Isabel Allende writes:

"... it is possible that stories are creatures with their own lives and that they exist in the shadows of some mysterious dimesnsion; in that case it will be either a question of opening so they may enter, sink into me, and grow until they are ready to emerge transfored into language."

Short story writer James Salter, interviewed by salon.com says:

Short stories, sometimes you tear them out of the beak of life, so to speak. And sometimes they simply are lying there on the ground to pick up. You may have a certain idea for a story you have to tell, but the story didn't exist before because it wasn't lived by somebody else -- you constructed it yourself. Some stories come completely assembled and ready to go. Otherwise it may be like one of those nightmare Christmas toys where they say "everything is included but the battery and assembly required." You may spend hours and hours feverishly trying to make something of it.

And he talks about one magical occasion when he just sat down to write and a complete short story simply poured out onto his page:

There is one such story in this present book that was written in the morning. And that is "Bangkok." I had a start. I had two lines that someone had told me over the telephone -- "Weren't you going to call me back?" "Of course not." I began with those two lines and just knew the rest of it. I knew the people. I was able to write the story.

You don't have to "think up" anything. The stories are there waiting for you.

And if you feel inspired to write this weekend, why not pick up those two lines of Salter's and run with them?