Status
Available
Genres
Publication
HarperCollins Español (2004), 224 pages
Description
Isabel Allende evokes the magnificent landscapes of her country; a charming, idiosyncratic Chilean people with a violent history and an indomitable spirit; and the politics, religion, myth, and magic of her homeland that she carries with her even today.The book circles around two life-changing moments. The assassination of her uncle Salvador Allende Gossens on September 11, 1973, sent her into exile and transformed her into a literary writer. And the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, on her adopted homeland, the United States, brought forth an overdue acknowledgment that Allende had indeed left home. My Invented Country, mimicking the workings of memory itself, ranges back and forth across that distance between past and present lives. It speaks compellingly to immigrants and to all of us who try to retain a coherent inner life in a world full of contradictions.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member riofriotex
This memoir was published seven years after Allende's first memoir, Paula. The latter is a better and more thorough memoir; but My Invented Country (subtitled A Nostalgic Journey Through Chile) still has something to say. The descriptions of Chile's landscape are thorough, but those of some of the
As with Paula, there is information in this book that provides background for Allende's novels and other books. I liked her distinctions between exiles and immigrants, and her discussion of memory, nostalgia, and imagination, and the parts they play in writing and life.
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customs and beliefs of Chileans came across a little too much as generalizations or stereotypes. As with Paula, there is information in this book that provides background for Allende's novels and other books. I liked her distinctions between exiles and immigrants, and her discussion of memory, nostalgia, and imagination, and the parts they play in writing and life.
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LibraryThing member polutropos
Having listened to Allende's Portrait in Sepia with some enjoyment, I picked up this memoir. "Boring" is the ultimate verdict. I felt no urge to return to it after a pause in reading. Filled with generalizations about Chile and human character, few interesting particulars about anything. Very
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disappointing. Show Less
LibraryThing member piefuchs
Ratherquick read. Allende has the highly annoying habit of reducing her experience to that of all Chile. Rather than state "In my family we..." she states "in Chile..." which is simply not true. Interesting, but not great.
LibraryThing member Alliebadger
A very interesting read. You DEFINITELY need to be in the right mood for this memoir. It's a little ramble-y at times, but Allende is such a good writer that I enjoyed being taken on her paths of memory. It also helps if you're an Allende fan and can understand how her life has influenced her
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writing, and thus this book. Show Less
LibraryThing member stillbeing
I'm not too sure what to make of this one. I didn't know a thing about Chile, it's history, geography or politics before, so it was an interesting read in that sense. However, I wouldn't judge the country on a book in which the author clearly states that her recollections are quite subjective, and
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at times I found it all a bit sentimental and personal (which might just be a question of taste). Show Less
LibraryThing member June6Bug
A slightly rambling, dryly witty reminiscence of childhood and family life in Chile--warm, funny, engaging, insightful, and delightful to read. I feel like I know some of Allende's relatives and would recognize them if I met them on the street. I can't wait to read more of her work.
LibraryThing member Sr_Moreno
I had hoped for an account of life in Chile prior to the military junta and her life as an exile, but was disappointed. The book is actually a fairly rambling account of her childhood, filled with strange and oddly inaccurate generalisations about Chileans. Maybe I've just misunderstood it, though.
LibraryThing member Cailin
I love the description of Chile and it's people. Isabel Allende does an excellent job of descripting the feelings and experience of an exile. Great book - very timely with the rescue of the Chilean miners.
LibraryThing member gbelik
Since Isabel Allende has spent less than half of her life (and not even the majority of her childhood) in her native country of Chile, her sense of it is created not only out of reality, but partly her imagination of her country. She is a wonderful storyteller and a fluid writer and I thoroughly
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enjoyed this small book. Show Less
LibraryThing member isabelx
Two recent events have triggered this avalanche of memories. The first was a casual observation by my grandson Alejandro, who surprised me at the mirror scrutinizing the map of my wrinkles and said, with compassionate commiseration, "Don’t worry, Grandmother, you’re going to live at least three
By the time I got to the end of the introduction, I was already loving this book. Margaret Sayers Peden did a really good job, as the great writing shines through from the very first page.
Allende describes the character of Chile and its people, and the idiosyncrasies of her own family, through the eyes of an exile. Her family of eccentrics has provided material for her novels since the beginning, when The House of the Spirits began life as a letter to her dying grandfather and based on anecdotes he had told her about his family.
I grew up surrounded by secrets, mysteries, whispers, prohibitions, matters that must never be mentioned. I owe a debt of gratitude to the countless skeletons hidden in our armoire because they planted the seeds of literature in my life. In every story I write I try to exorcise one of them.
Luckily Alejandro was wrong in giving his grandmother 3 years to live, as this book was published over a decade ago, and according to a recent Ted talk, Isabel Allende continues to live a passionate life.
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more years." I decided right then and there that the time had come to take another look at my life, in order to know how I wanted to live those three years that had been so generously granted.By the time I got to the end of the introduction, I was already loving this book. Margaret Sayers Peden did a really good job, as the great writing shines through from the very first page.
Allende describes the character of Chile and its people, and the idiosyncrasies of her own family, through the eyes of an exile. Her family of eccentrics has provided material for her novels since the beginning, when The House of the Spirits began life as a letter to her dying grandfather and based on anecdotes he had told her about his family.
I grew up surrounded by secrets, mysteries, whispers, prohibitions, matters that must never be mentioned. I owe a debt of gratitude to the countless skeletons hidden in our armoire because they planted the seeds of literature in my life. In every story I write I try to exorcise one of them.
Luckily Alejandro was wrong in giving his grandmother 3 years to live, as this book was published over a decade ago, and according to a recent Ted talk, Isabel Allende continues to live a passionate life.
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LibraryThing member Calavari
My Invented Country is a different kind of memoir. Allende's personal memoir was Paula, but as it says in the title, this one is about Chile. Don't confuse it with a history of Chile either. This is written in a memoir style and is simply Allende's experience of her country. It's the way she
My favorite thing about the book was Allende's tone. The book was tinged with nostalgia and it made her way of writing feel almost playful most of the time. I particularly loved when she talked about being a feminist because it was so on the nose to the way that I have felt before. My favorite was this line:
I realized that to wait to be respected for being a feminist was like expecting the bull not to charge because you’re a vegetarian.
Her experience of machismo and patriarchy in Chile was very similar to what I grew up around in Miami. Also that she shared that moment that so many of us feminists have when we learn about the history of patriarchal treatment beyond our own experiences:
When I look back at the past, I realize that my mother was dealt a difficult destiny and in fact confronted it with great bravery, but at the time I judged her as being weak because she was dependent on the men around her, like her father and her brother Pablo, who controlled the money and gave the orders.
When we look at the whole picture, no single generation could really have gotten it's gains without the generation before it which promptly takes those gains for granted while not properly appreciating what the women before them went through. Or, at least, that's how it always looks to me.
Allende talks a bit about the US interfering in Latin American politics, which was and is unacceptable and I hope we never do again except I can't escape the feeling that we could be doing it somewhere at this very moment. We may be learning from our mistakes to not interfere in these kinds of affairs of others (specifically supporting the overthrow of elected governments because we are definitely interfering in other things) but I'm not as optimistic. Sorry if that sounds a bit harsh but we, as a country, can't seem to get it together on when it is or isn't a good time. We kept out of two world wars for too long, only to be told that was a bad policy and then interfered in every conflict since then and that isn't working out for us or the other countries either. But, alas, that's not what this book is about and I apologize for the tangent.
Eventually, Allende had to leave Chile for understandable reasons, much like some of the other women I've read about who fled their own countries. I also understand what her dissenters mean when they say those who fled should have stayed and fought for the improvement of the country. I can't imagine being put into such a situation but there will always be people who do both and I imagine that will consistently breed resentment as well.
Mostly, I loved that this was a memoir about Allende's lived experience in relation to her country, whether in it or in exile. She wrote about her country as she experienced it in her youth and continues to experience it on visits back home. She wrote about her experience in exile from Chile as it relates to being Chilean. All of that just makes me love the title all the more because if I wrote about my experience in the US and what living here is like for me, there would be tons of people coming out to tell me how that's not the real US. I imagine there is at least some similarity to the way other Chileans experience this book, but everyone's experience of their country and their town is different from even the others who live in their homes. At that it all seems that no two siblings ever seem to have grown up in the same house with the same parents either. Calling it her "invented" country simply reminds us not to judge that this is just one experience of Chile.
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remembers things and the way she remembers feeling things. There is history here, but written in a way that reminds the reader that history is experienced by those who live it.My favorite thing about the book was Allende's tone. The book was tinged with nostalgia and it made her way of writing feel almost playful most of the time. I particularly loved when she talked about being a feminist because it was so on the nose to the way that I have felt before. My favorite was this line:
I realized that to wait to be respected for being a feminist was like expecting the bull not to charge because you’re a vegetarian.
Her experience of machismo and patriarchy in Chile was very similar to what I grew up around in Miami. Also that she shared that moment that so many of us feminists have when we learn about the history of patriarchal treatment beyond our own experiences:
When I look back at the past, I realize that my mother was dealt a difficult destiny and in fact confronted it with great bravery, but at the time I judged her as being weak because she was dependent on the men around her, like her father and her brother Pablo, who controlled the money and gave the orders.
When we look at the whole picture, no single generation could really have gotten it's gains without the generation before it which promptly takes those gains for granted while not properly appreciating what the women before them went through. Or, at least, that's how it always looks to me.
Allende talks a bit about the US interfering in Latin American politics, which was and is unacceptable and I hope we never do again except I can't escape the feeling that we could be doing it somewhere at this very moment. We may be learning from our mistakes to not interfere in these kinds of affairs of others (specifically supporting the overthrow of elected governments because we are definitely interfering in other things) but I'm not as optimistic. Sorry if that sounds a bit harsh but we, as a country, can't seem to get it together on when it is or isn't a good time. We kept out of two world wars for too long, only to be told that was a bad policy and then interfered in every conflict since then and that isn't working out for us or the other countries either. But, alas, that's not what this book is about and I apologize for the tangent.
Eventually, Allende had to leave Chile for understandable reasons, much like some of the other women I've read about who fled their own countries. I also understand what her dissenters mean when they say those who fled should have stayed and fought for the improvement of the country. I can't imagine being put into such a situation but there will always be people who do both and I imagine that will consistently breed resentment as well.
Mostly, I loved that this was a memoir about Allende's lived experience in relation to her country, whether in it or in exile. She wrote about her country as she experienced it in her youth and continues to experience it on visits back home. She wrote about her experience in exile from Chile as it relates to being Chilean. All of that just makes me love the title all the more because if I wrote about my experience in the US and what living here is like for me, there would be tons of people coming out to tell me how that's not the real US. I imagine there is at least some similarity to the way other Chileans experience this book, but everyone's experience of their country and their town is different from even the others who live in their homes. At that it all seems that no two siblings ever seem to have grown up in the same house with the same parents either. Calling it her "invented" country simply reminds us not to judge that this is just one experience of Chile.
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LibraryThing member siri51
Lots about Chile and the Chilean people - while I have not met anyone from Chile, when I do, I will know they are typically serious, spiritual and don't dance much. Stopped reading towards the end with the complicated political history of Chile - sorry Isabel.
LibraryThing member Jessika.C
As a (formerly) huge fan of Jane the Virgin it did not escape my awareness that Jane's favorite author was Ms Allende. The House of the Spirits was on my tbr for a million years until I decided to give it the boot because ghost stories are just not my thing. I've noticed magical realism isn't my
Best book I read all month. Everyone has some level of pride in their culture or heritage. Allende just got the chance to write about it. With a nostalgic flare present in every page she recalls her memories of her home country of Chile. It was so detailed and charming that the country was almost added to my dream destinations (I'm also Latin American but with a North American immune system and by the description of how sick her ex-husband got when they visited the place I don't think I would fend much better).
I can't describe her writing but there's something very wordy and long yet she chooses simple images so that it doesn't feel like a chore to get through the crazy long paragraphs she writes. I imagine that's how her normal fictional books go as well but as I've stated before I doubt I'll get to one unless it's not one with magical realism.
There were some passages that I absolutely loved and shared with friends and family. I couldn't get enough of this book even if I am not Chilean myself.
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thing in general but whatever. I still wanted to read Ms Allende's work so I picked up a memoir which happened to be this one.Best book I read all month. Everyone has some level of pride in their culture or heritage. Allende just got the chance to write about it. With a nostalgic flare present in every page she recalls her memories of her home country of Chile. It was so detailed and charming that the country was almost added to my dream destinations (I'm also Latin American but with a North American immune system and by the description of how sick her ex-husband got when they visited the place I don't think I would fend much better).
I can't describe her writing but there's something very wordy and long yet she chooses simple images so that it doesn't feel like a chore to get through the crazy long paragraphs she writes. I imagine that's how her normal fictional books go as well but as I've stated before I doubt I'll get to one unless it's not one with magical realism.
There were some passages that I absolutely loved and shared with friends and family. I couldn't get enough of this book even if I am not Chilean myself.
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LibraryThing member Jayeless
When a work is beautiful even in translation, it can do nothing but inspire awe... and so with this. At only 200 pages, it's a briskly-paced outline of the Chile of Isabel Allende's imagination, full of exaggeration and lyricism, and deeply absorbing. There's reminiscing about eccentric relatives,
No seriously though, there's a lot interesting in this book, and I found it so engrossing due to the way it's written. Also, it makes me really want to travel to Chile...
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the excitement of the short-lived Unidad Popular government, the regime of fear that was Pinochet's... another element that I found interesting was the reflections on the patriarchal nature of Chilean society. In some ways it reminded me of Simone de Beauvoir, as these reflections too were coming from the perspective of a relatively upper-class woman, except that this book is better written! Ha ha.No seriously though, there's a lot interesting in this book, and I found it so engrossing due to the way it's written. Also, it makes me really want to travel to Chile...
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LibraryThing member BookConcierge
Audiobook narrated by Blair Brown
3.5***
In this memoir, Allende looks at her own family history as well as the history of her native country, Chile. She explores the social conventions, politics, natural terrain, geographical difficulties and advantages of this unique land. It’s a story full of
Blair Brown does a fine job of narrating this memoir. I’ve listened to her narrate a couple of Allende’s books and this is a good partnership.
3.5***
In this memoir, Allende looks at her own family history as well as the history of her native country, Chile. She explores the social conventions, politics, natural terrain, geographical difficulties and advantages of this unique land. It’s a story full of
Show More
mythology – from national legends, to her own family’s stories. Here are the roots of her ability to seamlessly weave elements of magical realism into her novels. Her own family history is rife with examples: a grandmother who could move furniture with her thoughts, ghosts and hauntings, and larger-than-life ancestors. Blair Brown does a fine job of narrating this memoir. I’ve listened to her narrate a couple of Allende’s books and this is a good partnership.
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LibraryThing member zasmine
A story about exile and nostalgia was definitely going to attract my attention. But this one is really even more special because its written by Isabel Allende, someone who's writing I already love.
I am surprised she didnt write as much about Gabriela Mistral...
I am surprised she didnt write as much about Gabriela Mistral...
Subjects
Awards
Audie Award (Finalist — Biography/Memoir — 2004)
Language
Original language
Spanish
Original publication date
2003
Physical description
224 p.; 5.31 inches
ISBN
0060545682 / 9780060545680
Local notes
espanol