4/5 I read my first Isabel Allende book between undergraduate and grad school. Allende’s style appealed to me — the great storytelling with the spice of magical realism — to the point in which I continued checking out her books from my local library. In fact, I even read In the Midst of Winter twice now. Originally, I read In the Midst of Winter in 2017, discovering both its relevant story and lighter dashes of magical realism. More recently, I read this Allende work again for my monthly book club.
“New York Times and worldwide bestselling “dazzling storyteller” (Associated Press) Isabel Allende returns with a sweeping novel about three very different people who are brought together in a mesmerizing story that journeys from present-day Brooklyn to Guatemala in the recent past to 1970s Chile and Brazil… In the Midst of Winter begins with a minor traffic accident—which becomes the catalyst for an unexpected and moving love story between two people who thought they were deep into the winter of their lives. Richard Bowmaster—a 60-year-old human rights scholar—hits the car of Evelyn Ortega—a young, undocumented immigrant from Guatemala—in the middle of a snowstorm in Brooklyn. What at first seems just a small inconvenience takes an unforeseen and far more serious turn when Evelyn turns up at the professor’s house seeking help. At a loss, the professor asks his tenant Lucia Maraz—a 62-year-old lecturer from Chile—for her advice. These three very different people are brought together in a mesmerizing story that moves from present-day Brooklyn to Guatemala in the recent past to 1970s Chile and Brazil, sparking the beginning of a long overdue love story between Richard and Lucia.”
I appreciated In the Midst of Winter both times I read it. During that nearly five year gap between my two readings of In the Midst of Winter, I read other stories about plights similar to Evelyn’s. While reading In the Midst of Winter back in 2017, I wondered if Allende was trying her hand at writing a mystery as well as a memoir. Still and all, she worked her enchantment in this book. Evelyn and Lucia won my sympathy early on but I came around to rooting for (shipping even) Lucia and Richard. While well written and clear to read, some of the subject matter greatly troubled me. Readers seeking magical realism might want to give Allende’s earliest works a try. Yet, I recommend at least one reading of In the Midst of Winter to anyone who seeks to understand contemporary critical issues.
Quotes come from book flaps/cover and are featured on color blocks.
Starry Night Elf 