Read Full Review >Īllende sees that to embellish the violence of war is to create distance from it, which can be useful in the immediate aftermath of irreparable trauma but would feel oddly escapist after nearly eight decades of reflection. A Long Petal of the Sea is a draft of the book it could have been if the corporations profiting from its publication had invested in a rigorous editorial process to support Allende’s noblesse oblige. Though she shared their thoughts constantly, their interiority felt forced, falsified into caricature sketches meant to add emotional heft to scenes quickly overwhelmed by summary. I like that Allende pays attention to the lives of women, but I didn’t, at any point, forget that these characters were fictional. The attributions are laden with unnecessary and burdensome adjectives.
Less interested in scene than in sweep, Allende nonetheless describes her characters’ emotions with great detail, writing in third person with an omniscience that drains any wonder from their choices and interactions. no amount of summary - pages and pages of historical and political background in which every conclusion feels foregone - is enough to save the dialogue that follows from exposition.
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