Read Around the World: Chile

Olá!

Welcome to Chile in the 1840s. Isabelle Allende’s Daughter of Fortune has the honour of representing Chile in my efforts to read around the world.

Plot Summary: Daughter of Fortune is set in Chile and San Francisco in the 1840s. Eliza is born in Chile where she is raised and meets a lover who leaves for the gold rush in California. Discovering she is pregnant, Eliza stows aboard a ship in an attempt to follow him. She finds herself in a foreign land discovering who she truly is in a time where there aren’t many options for single, independent women.

It is said that Allende (who has lived in both Chile and the US) took seven years to research this novel and it shows in the details that stay with the reader year after year, even after the rest of the story fades.

My progress:

Read Around the World: Columbia

Olá!

Welcome to Columbia where it is hot, the supernatural is a normal part of life, and everyone male is named Aureliano or Arcadio. Okay, maybe not everyone. Just 24 Aurelianos and 5 Arcadios.

The book: One Hundred Years of Solitude written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Plot Summary: This story rambles through time like a story passed down from generation to generation, covering the Buendia family over 100 years in the small, isolated town of Macondo.

While the story rambles with babies suddenly appearing, women living 120 years, and many people sharing the same name and the same traits, there are aspects of the story that sing, leading it to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1982. And although there are parts of the story that will cause you to pull your hair out, if you sit down and read this book in a short period of time and allow the story to wrap its way around you, it will dazzle you with its kind and gentle repetitions. The character traits that set the family apart as Buendias will make you smile and the ending will simply be the most perfect completion to a tale you will ever read. (Not to pin too high of hopes on it or anything.)

Tips: Do make notes on who is who. It gets confusing. Also realize that the style is such that if you don’t let yourself go, the story will frustrate and bore you. You also might want to be careful about saying things like, “I’ll turn off the light when I finish this paragraph.” or “I’ll turn off the oven when I’m done this paragraph.” as they are known to regularly go on for approximately 2 1/2 pages. In fact, there is one sentence that goes on for 70 lines! The beauty of it was, I didn’t even notice until I was about half way through. Oh, and if the book focuses on a character for more than a paragraph… they are probably going to die.

My progress:

Read Around the World: Saudi Arabia

Marhaba! Welcome to Saudi Arabia where the weather is hot and the women are ruled by the men in their lives.

Rajaa Alsanea, a woman, receives the honour of representing Saudi Arabia and, specifically, their women with her novel The Girls of Riyadh.

Plot Summary: One brave Saudi girl sends out emails using a list serve, revealing the lives of four of her friends as they struggle to find love while remaining within the confines of their religion and culture.

My progress:

Read Around the World: Portugal

Olá!
It’s time for a dip over to Europe with a stop in Portugal. Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist will be representing Portugal in the United Nations of books.

Plot Summary: A young shepard in Spain (See? I’m breaking that live and write about the same country rule again.) dreams that he must follow omens to find his treasure near the pyramids.

My progress around the world:

Read Around the World: USA

Next up: The United States of America.

I’d say that about 80% of what I read is American. So, who gets to represent the USA? I’m going to choose John Steinbeck and his novel East of Eden even though it has been awhile since I’ve read him. In 1962 Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature and I think he’s worthy of representing the USA.

Every time I read Steinbeck, he pleasantly surprises me and this novel was no exception.

A very brief plot summary: Basically, the story follows several families in the Californian Salinas Valley in the time before world war II. The Hamiltons have a large family and are trying to survive on infertile land and everyone struggles to find their place in the world and ‘make it’ in their own way.

Read Around the World Progress: