How to Order the Universe

How to Order the Universe by María José Ferrada trans. Elizabeth Bryer, 170 pages.

Seven-year-old M wants nothing more than to join her father on the road as a traveling salesman, a wish he is (perhaps irresponsibly) happy to indulge. While her mother thinks she is at school, she is instead using this unique upbringing to construct a worldview all her own.

M's unique voice guides some profound insights about humanity. I found the story simple, engaging, and very quick to read. I also thought it was fascinating how the Pinochet dictatorship managed to saturate the whole story, despite never being explicitly named. I think this is a story with very wide appeal. It is a very quick read that I do believe I will be thinking about for much longer than it took me to read.

How to Order the Universe

How to Order the Universe by Maria Jose Ferrada, 175 pages

In 1970s Chile, M is a young girl who idolizes her salesman father, D, doing whatever she can to spend time with him on sales calls. As they grow closer, M starts skipping school to help out her dad, as he's found that a cute kid can really help move the product and she loves meeting the people he interacts with. One of those people, E, is a mysterious photographer, whose involvement in their lives threatens to upend a lifestyle that M has come to love.

What a quirky, haunting, and ultimately unsettling novella. With a tip of a hat to Paper Moon, Ferrada's sparse writing and characterization of M is pitch perfect. Well worth the short while it will take to read.

A Long Petal of the Sea

A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende, 318 pages

While his gregarious and rebellious brother Guillem enthusiastically charged into battle, Victor was a bit more reluctant to join the Republican side of the Spanish Civil War, serving as a medic on the front lines. Guillem's girlfriend, Roser, is a piano prodigy who lives with Victor and Guillem's parents in Barcelona, and is pregnant when Guillem is killed in action. Thus begins a decades-long story of Victor and Roser fleeing the fascist country, spending time in concentration camps at the Spanish border with France, eventually escaping to Chile, and after settling there, once again becoming swept up in politics against their will. This is a straightforward tale of these two intertwined lives and the global political situations that affected them. While I sometimes wished for a bit more dialogue to break up the walls of text, Allende created an engaging and sympathetic story that truly made me care about these two very realistic people.

A Long Petal of the Sea

A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende  353 pp.

Allende is one of my favorite authors so when her new book came out I quickly read it. This is the story of the Spanish who, after fighting the Civil War in Spain on the Republican side, were forced to leave their country. With the help of poet Pablo Neruda, Victor Dalmau, a medic in the war, marries Roser, his late brother's pregnant widow, to gain a place on board the ship leaving for Chile. There they, along with other exiles, make a new life for themselves. Their lives become entwined with established Chilean families as Victor becomes a respected doctor and Roser makes a career of her music. Years later the CIA led coup that unseated and murdered Victor's friend, President Salvador Allende, Victor and Roser once again find themselves in exile, this time in Argentina. Eventually they return to the adopted land they came to love. This epic tale covers nearly six decades of the lives and loves of Victor, Roser, and the rest of their family. In a fairly short novel, Allende packs a lot of detail without overdoing it.

Seeing Red

Seeing Red by Lina Meruane, translated by Megan McDowell, 157 pages

In this autobiographical novel, Meruane details how complications from a chronic illness left her essentially blind, able to see only the dark red blood from burst veins in her eyes. Told in a deliberately disorienting style, Meruane details the initial panic of not seeing, the awkward visits to doctors, the trip home to Chile to visit her family, the incessant fumbling through life to figure out how to be blind. It's illuminating, and made this reader infinitely grateful that my eyes work just fine.

Deep Down Dark: The Untold Stories of 33 Men Buried in a Chilean Min and the Miracle That Set Them Free

Deep Down Dark: The Untold Stories of 33 Men Buried in a Chilean Mine and the Miracle That Set Them Free by Hector Tobar, 309 pages.
In August, 2010, the San Jose mine collapsed. Located in the Atacama Desert, outside of Copiapo, Chile, the San Juan was a copper mine with a history of safety problems. Tobar, author of the 2011 novel The Barbarian Nurseries, tells the story of the 33 men trapped when a diorite "mega-block,"a piece of the mountain as big as a forty-five story building, falls through layers of the mine, trapping the men under thousands of feet of rock and earth. From August 5 through August 22 the miners dealt with the dwindling hope
that they could even be located by rescuers. Those trying to reach them from the surface had no idea that there were survivors. Once the men were located and hope surged, the nation of Chile, and rescuers from around the world scrambled to try and keep them alive and bring the 33 back to the surface. A great read.

Paula

Paula by Isabel Allende  368 pp.

In 1991 Isabel Allende's daughter, Paula, went into a coma from complications from Porphyria. Allende began writing what was to be a letter to her daughter for her to read when she woke up. The plan was to let her know what went on while she was comatose. What resulted was a tale of Paula's illness, memoirs of Isabel's life including a cast of interesting family members. And tales of how the family coped with the CIA backed coup that caused the death of her cousin and Chilean President Salvador Allende and the exile of her diplomat father. Allende did her best to hold on to the hope that Paula would once again regain consciousness until the point where she had to accept the inevitable. Paula died in December of 1992.

Maya's Notebook

Maya's Notebook by Isabel Allende 387 pp.

This is another good novel by one of my favorite authors. It doesn't surpass my favorite (Portrait in Sepia) but it ranks with her better books. Troubled nineteen year old Maya Vidal is given the task of keeping a journal. She prefers to call it a notebook. In it she recounts the events in her life that led up to her living on the Chilean island of Chiloe, hiding out from the police and criminals who are searching for her. Maya was raised in Berkeley by her unconventional grandparents, Nini and Popo. After the death of her beloved Popo Maya's life goes off the rails. Eventually she is homeless, drug addicted and on the run from the members of an international counterfeit ring in Las Vegas. Her gritty life on the street contrasts with her life in the small island village her grandmother sends her to after rehab. Allende doesn't pull any punches in describing the seamier side of Maya's life and the parts that take place in Chile are reminiscent of her earlier novels.

The Dreamer

The Dreamer by Pam Muñoz Ryan  372 pp.

This beautifully written juvenile book is the fictionalized story of Chilean born Neftali Reyes, better known as the poet Pablo Neruda. Neftali's father was virulent in his opposition to any artistic pursuits. When Neftali's older brother showed promise as a singer, his father denied him permission to study music and forced him into the business world. Neftali was always getting in trouble for daydreaming, collecting rocks, feathers, pine cones, and other things that struck his fancy. He was a gentle soul whose work hardened father did not understand and was embarassed by him even when others applauded his writing. His father's attempts to "make a man of him" cause him much pain and anguish. Things come to a head when an article he has written is published in the university magazine which reveals that Neftali plans to study poetry. His father takes all the notebooks and papers of his writings and burns them. It is then that he makes the decision to write under a pseudonym so his father will not know he is still writing. He choses the name Neruda from Czech poet Jan Neruda.

Illustrator Peter Sis uses his artwork to illustrate the fanciful thoughts and daydreams of young Neftali. They help to set the gentle, thoughtful tone of the book. Excerpts of Neruda's poetry are included at the end.