Status
Available
Call number
Publication
Bantam Books
Pages
367
Description
An intoxicating collection of short fiction by one of the most beloved writers of our time. Eva Luna is a young woman whose powers as a storyteller bring her friendship and love. Lying in bed with her European lover, refugee and journalist Rolf Carl�, Eva answers his request for a story "you have never told anyone before" with these twenty-three samples of her vibrant artistry. Interweaving the real and the magical, she explores love, vengeance, compassion, and the strengths of women, creating a world that is at once poignantly familiar and intriguingly new. Rendered in her sumptuously imagined, uniquely magical style, The Stories of Eva Luna is the cornerstone of Allende's work. This treasure trove of brilliantly crafted stories is a superb example of a writer working at the height of her powers.… (more)
Description
The eponymous heroine of Eva Luna returns as the narrator of 23 tales, sumptuous marriages of Chilean writer Allende's earthy characters and her celestial version of magical realism. Although other figures from that novel also reappear (for example, Eva Luna spins her stories at the request of her lover Rolf Carle), this collection is in no sense a sequel: indeed, each piece here can stand alone. Allende's people are warm-blooded, original, memorable. A simple lyricism evokes European emigres to South America; social climbers; outlaws; schoolteachers; Indians; a nearly indefatigable imagination explores the critical moments in these figures' lives. Many of the stories build on the intricate attachments of unlikely lovers, such as a dictator and the foreign woman he abducts or a criminal and a judge's wife. Allende's inventiveness justifies her own comparisons of her literary creation to Scheherazade, and throughout all these short works whispers the mysticism of Eva Luna herself--her well-placed faith in a world of spirits and in the immortality of human love.
Collection
Language
Original language
Spanish
Original publication date
1989
Physical description
367 p.; 7 inches
ISBN
0553550039 / 9780553550030
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User reviews
LibraryThing member missmath144
I didn't finish it. I just don't like these short stories like I liked her novels.
LibraryThing member donp
This is only the second collection of short stories that I've ever read in order, cover to cover, if that tells you anything.
LibraryThing member judithann
Some really good stories about life in South-America, mostly in the past. It's a book to dip into, not to try and read in one go, because there are too many very different stories. Some are OK, some are brilliant.
LibraryThing member bkinetic
These richly entertaining stories have many passionate full-blooded heroines and lots of interesting twists. If you like short stories where nothing much happens overtly and the action is subtle, perhaps even barely perceptible, these are not the stories for you. So many of the stories are the
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literary equivalents of full body slams that it would be difficult to read them in quick succession. You at least have to stop and catch your breath before moving on the the next one. Show Less
LibraryThing member fist
Is this the "50 Shades of Grey" of the early '90s? Great scene setting in a romantic South America in everyone of these short stories. Halfway through, I started to find the themes repetitive and a bit disturbing: beautiful women are invariably coupled with much older, more powerful men, and true
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love and passion blossom after a first violent intercourse, ie rape. Maybe female readers will have an other opinion; it felt a lot like this collection of short stories was intended for them. Show Less
LibraryThing member ehys0212
This book is in my top ten list for all time favorites.
LibraryThing member JBarringer
I really liked this collection of stories. They remind me of The Bridge of San Luis Rey (Thornton Wilder), but with less connection between the various characters. I liked that there still are connections between some of the characters so that they are all in the same fictional space, even if their
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stories don't all intersect. Show Less
Call number
FIC C All