A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende
This review was published in the San Francisco Examiner on January 31, 2020
https://www.sfexaminer.com/entertainment/allende-masterfully-illuminates-refugee-experience/
Isabel Allende’s new novel could not be timelier. With refugees dominating the news, ‘
A Long Petal of the Sea’
poignantly reminds us of a lesson we can’t seem to learn. People typically leave home, not because they want to, but because they have to.
This book brings to life the plight of one refugee family shattered by Spain’s Civil War in the 1930s. The story follows them as they escape Spain in an odyssey first to a refugee camp in France and then to Chile. Allende’s writing is lush and lyrical. As in many of her novels, she gives us an engaging way to understand how historical forces shape the lives of ordinary people. Here the historical event is the July 1936 military uprising led by General Francisco Franco. His reactionary forces overthrow Spain’s democratically elected government, causing a civil war that leads to immense loss of life.
We get to know Allende’s characters in the ensuing maelstrom. Two brothers, Victor and Guillem Dalmau, take up the fight against Franco. Victor is a medic, Guillem, a soldier. Before the war, the young brothers had lived peaceful lives with their parents and a young woman named Roser, whom their parents had adopted and Guillem had grown to love. Guillem dies in battle, never knowing that Roser is pregnant with their child.
No one in the Dalmau family wants to leave their beloved Barcelona. But in January of 1939, when it becomes clear the vindictive pro-Franco forces will prevail, the family flees. They hike over the Pyrenees in freezing temperatures with little food and no possessions, only to arrive at a French internment camp where thousands of refugees are being held.
In August of 1939, the Chilean poet-diplomat Pablo Neruda charters a freight boat, the Winnipeg, to transport Spanish immigrants from France to Chile, which he calls “a long petal of sea and wine and snow.” Families receive priority, so Victor makes a dramatic choice. He marries Roser and affirms that baby Marcel is his son. Victor, Roser and Marcel board the boat and leave for Chile.
After suffering through persistent hunger, lack of sleep and poor sanitation, they feel relieved to leave France but fearful about Chile. They had heard Chileans “considered them to be a mob of Reds, atheists, and possibly criminals.” By luck, they meet Felipe del Solar, son of a wealthy, conservative and Catholic Chilean family. While Felipe’s father opposes the resettlement of the Spanish refugees, Felipe feels empathetic. He invites Roser and Victor to live with him until they find jobs.
Victor and Roser still hope to return to Spain. But they start their life as spouses while stopping short of a romantic relationship. Victor enrolls at the School of Medicine and Roser teaches music and performs piano. They both adore Marcel. This novel beautifully explores Victor and Roser’s evolving and deepening love. Over time, their complicated feelings about Victor’s brother ease and their love for one another intensifies into a real marriage.
But history repeats. In 1973, General Augusto Pinochet leads a right-wing military coup, which results in the murder of Chile’s democratically elected President Salvador Allende (Isabel’s father’s first cousin). Having known Allende socially, Victor is imprisoned and tortured. When Victor finally gets paroled, the family must make another difficult decision: stay in Chile or escape again.
Allende’s powerful novel shows how war and conflict crush families, forcing them to flee their homes to survive. Currently, millions of refugees have fled from Syria, Guatemala and Mexico as a result of conflict and economic desperation. ‘
A Long Petal of the Sea’
helps us to imagine the human stories behind the headlines. Allende has written an epic saga about one family’s experience of unwanted exile. Her admiration and empathy for the resilience of refugees find expression in this heartbreaking yet inspiring story.