A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende!

Posted On January 14, 2022

Hi Readers! I have finished reading the fourth book of the month/year. Where are you all in your reading? How many books did you read so far & liked them? Are you using the Reading Challenges I made for you? And, are you also using the templates I made for you? Let me know here in the comments or on Instagram or on Twitter or Goodreads! I always love hearing from you all!

So, as I was saying, I read 4 books so far. After reading 3 great books, this one was a bit of a tough read. I always had this feeling that I will love Isabel Allende’s books, but I didn’t enjoy the first one I picked. Probably should have started with her most popular works. But, anyway, it was not a good reading experience for me, which you all know means that this is a critical review. If you have read this book & liked it, tell me why you liked it. Maybe I missed something. But, as for my review, here you go!

~~GOODREADS DESCRIPTION~~

From the author of The House of the Spirits, this epic novel spanning decades and crossing continents follows two young people as they flee the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War in search of a place to call home.

In the late 1930s, civil war grips Spain. When General Franco and his Fascists succeed in overthrowing the government, hundreds of thousands are forced to flee in a treacherous journey over the mountains to the French border. Among them is Roser, a pregnant young widow, who finds her life intertwined with that of Victor Dalmau, an army doctor and the brother of her deceased love. In order to survive, the two must unite in a marriage neither of them desires.

Together with two thousand other refugees, they embark on the SS Winnipeg, a ship chartered by the poet Pablo Neruda, to Chile: “the long petal of sea and wine and snow.” As unlikely partners, they embrace exile as the rest of Europe erupts in world war. Starting over on a new continent, their trials are just beginning, and over the course of their lives, they will face trial after trial. But they will also find joy as they patiently await the day when they will be exiles no more. Through it all, their hope of returning to Spain keeps them going. Destined to witness the battle between freedom and repression as it plays out across the world, Roser and Victor will find that home might have been closer than they thought all along.

A masterful work of historical fiction about hope, exile, and belonging, A Long Petal of the Sea shows Isabel Allende at the height of her powers.

~~NARRATION & WRITING STYLE~~

From the Goodreads blurb, anyone would be impressed. As was I. But, I feel like the blurb is written better than the book itself. I don’t know if it was the translation or just the way it was written originally, but the writing style has one tone throughout. It simply states events one after the other. It’s like reading from a newspaper. The writing completely lacks sentiment & emotion. The irony of it all is this is inspired from the real life of Victor Pey, which is why it should have been all the more touching, poignant & wonderful. But, it’s completely opposite. Because of the on-the-surface writing, it comes off as entirely underwhelming. I have read plenty of wartime historical fiction novels which made me cry, so I had high hopes of crying from an actual wartime historical fiction novel who had famous people as characters. Not once in the entire story could I connect to the characters or empathize for them or even felt like this was inspired from a real story because it sounds made up. No offence to the real people out there on which this is written. But, honestly, can you blame the readers?

Need tickets for The Winnipeg to Retreat from a country wounded with war? Let Victor marry Roser so they have a proper family.

Need a job for Roser because of the poor financial situation? Why not, yes please. We are in dire need of pianists amid a war.

Want to continue medical education in Chile? Sure! Pay me back in chess games.

Want to make it more unrealistic? Throw in a daughter he never knew he had!

It feels like a musical, which in my opinion, are entirely ridiculous & goody goody. How can one imagine a simple musical-like life in the middle of a war? It’s so entirely pointless. Even though I read this book pretty quickly, I did not enjoy reading it. This was my first Allende book, which is why I’m devastated to not have liked it.

~~STORY LINE~~

I have already mentioned a bit about the story above, but here’s some more insight into it. The book is divided into 3 parts. The first 2 parts are unnecessarily long & then the third part is too small with unbelievable amounts of time lapse throughout. With a bit more sentiment in the writing, an additional 200 pages of well-written story & more connection with the characters, this book would have been one of my favourites. But, it lacked on all those areas by a big gap. The story always felt unreal, poorly made up & bizarre. There were elements of other genres that were mixed up in this which only spoiled it. Whatever shocking parts this book had were all too predictable. There wasn’t one thing which I truly enjoyed reading, not one character for whom I rooted. I was simply indifferent, which is the last thing a reader should be.

~~NO CONNECTION WITH THE CHARACTERS~~

We have many characters in A Long Petal of the Sea. We have the Dalmou family consisting of Prof. Marcel, his wife Carme, their children Victor & Guillem. Guillem’s girlfriend who later becomes Victor’s wife Roser & (her & Guillem’s) son Marcel. Then there’s a second family of del Solars; Isidro del Solar, his wife Laura del Solar, and their 6 children, of whom Felipe & Ofelia are most involved in the story. They also have a housekeeper named Juana. With this multitude of characters, you would think that you will bond with at least one of them, but no. I couldn’t bond or relate or feel anything for any of them. And, this happens rarely with me, because I always become super involved in the characters & their fictional world. This was another reason why I was disappointed.

These days I am not as brutal in rating a book as I was earlier. I saw that this book was rated at 4/5 stars on Goodreads. Throughout reading, I was either at 2 or 3 stars, but finally rated it at 3 stars. But, after pouring my thoughts out & organising them here, I wonder if 2 stars is apt. I am definitely in the minority with this one. This book became the most popular in Spain during 2019 & 2020. I truly wish I could have loved it the way most people did. Here’s to hoping I love the rest of Allende’s books! I will end this review by rating A Long Petal of the Sea at 2/5 stars!

Until next time,