Book Review: “Eva Luna” by Isabel Allende
Modern South American “One Thousand and One Nights”
Title: Eva Luna. First Published: 1987. Genre: Magical Realism/Historical Fiction. Publisher: Atria Books. Pages: 369.
Isabel Allende is a renowned South American writer. The scale of her life, personality, and stories is so wide that it is simply unfair to reduce her geography to one country. It is a pleasure and an adventure on its own to read about the events of her life, but the stories that she tells are simply magical. Eva Luna is one of them, one of the first, one that shows the whole storytelling talent of remarkable Allende. If you are in for an emotional, historical, and a bit magical roller coaster, grab this book and get lost in it.
The novel follows Eva Luna, a young girl who never had anything in her life but stories that she made up and shared with people. It is set in a country that is clearly a part of South America, but Allende never says what exact country this is. The time of the story is more specific since now and then Allende places in her narrative historical events, like a big war on the European continent. All these events don’t really bother Eva Luna; she has to deal with her own problems, and there are plenty of them.
First, she never has money. Eva Luna always has to do the hardest job to make a living. Sometimes she meets someone who is kind to her, but life will always take them away, this way or another. Second, she can never rely on anyone but herself. Thirdly, this is a big and cruel world, and it is impossible to stay out of trouble no matter how hard you try. Yes, Eva Luna has almost nothing, but what she does have is her imagination. She makes up stories, lives through them, and tells them to those who need to hear them at this exact time.
Clearly, the novel was inspired by the famous epic collection of stories “One Thousand and One Nights,” in which Scheherazade, a young woman destined to marry a cruel king who beheads all his wives the next morning after the wedding day, tells the king the fairy tale each night but never finishes it in the morning, postponing her execution. No one is trying to kill Eva Luna, at least not explicitly, but her life is always in danger, and the stories are the only body arm she has.
Allende also places two male characters in the narrative. Their paths will intersect now and then with each other’s and Eva’s. Even though most of the time these three paths will go almost parallel, in crucial moments they will come together, affecting each other, saving each other, and ruining each other only to separate again.
Eva Luna is a Scheherazade’s fairy tale in itself, since you will forget everything around you and dive into the story. The mild humor, the intriguing side characters, and the hints on some real events and people will make you want to read one more page and one more and one more. Overall, this is the book that will replace all other recreational activities for a while because you will have to finish it first and find out what will happen to this wonderful world that Isabel Allende created.
