Review by New York Times Review
A WORK of historical fiction couldn't ask for better bones than the adventures of a real-life conquistadora. The heroine of Isabel Allende's latest book, a 16th-century Spanish woman who sailed to Peru and trekked south with the expedition that claimed vast lands for Charles V, faces the same perils as the soldiers around her - along with a few extras, like unwanted sexual advances. Not that Inés Suárez rejects them all: Pedro de Valdivia, the leader of the expedition, is her lover and partner in the founding of Santiago de la Nueva Extremadura, the first Spanish stronghold in Chile. This conquistador, whose wife initially remained in Spain, regularly seeks his lover's counsel. "I did not have enough hours to do everything," Inés, the ultimate multitasker, complains: "taking care of my house and the colony, looking after the sick, the plantings and the animal pens, along with my reading lessons." In Margaret Sayers Peden's translation of "Inés of My Soul," Allende's reach is broad, scooping up politics, history, romance and the supernatural. "This novel is a work of intuition, but any similarity to events and persons relating to the conquest of Chile is not coincidental," she writes in an author's note. This is a neat twist on a familiar phrase, but it hints at a problem. Too often Allende's book reads as if she is assembling a plot around places, dates and historical figures. Slow to start, the narrative acquires an events-driven tunnel vision that can get in the way of character development. At a time when the strong arm of the Spanish Inquisition reached clear to the southern tip of the New World, Valdivia's mission was to find riches in Chile while conquering and converting the indigenous population. In Allende's rendering, Inés has a sensitive view of the local people: "They are my enemies," she notes of the Mapuche Indians, "but I admire them because I know that if I were in their place, I would die fighting for my land, as they are doing." Despite this, Inés is a crucial actor in the brutality of the Spanish conquest, at one point decapitating prisoners and throwing their heads outside the walls of the fledgling colony. Not terribly conflicted by the part she must play, she seems beyond reproach, as effective and inscrutable in battle as she is as a gobernadora. As if that weren't enough, she has two almost impossibly valuable attributes: she's been born with the gift of dousing, which means she can find water anywhere, and she never becomes pregnant. Allende uses the backdrop of constant violence to weigh in on the politics of domination and intimidation. Is it just a coincidence that the date given for the biggest, bloodiest battle in Santiago is Sept. 11? Or that, on the very same day in 1973, Salvador Allende (the author's uncle, then the president of Chile) was assassinated and his government overthrown in a military coup? "I fear that these pages already contain more cruelty than a Christian soul can tolerate," Inés notes. "In the New World, no one has scruples when the moment calls for violence. But what am I saying? Violence ... exists everywhere, and has throughout the ages. Nothing changes; we humans repeat the same sins over and over, eternally." What stays with the reader, after the treks and battles and politics fade, aren't Allende's political musings or even her characters. Instead it's her vivid descriptions of daily life in 16th-century South America: the meager soups that starving settlers season with mice, lizards, crickets and worms; the marriage rituals of the Mapuche, in which a man "steals the girl he desires"; an attack in which the right hands and noses of Mapuche prisoners are removed with hatchets and knives. In "Inés of My Soul," Allende succeeds in resurrecting a woman from history and endowing her with the gravitas of a hero. But as a work of fiction, her portrait of Inés is hit-and-miss. Maggie Galehouse is a reporter for The Houston Chronicle.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [June 30, 2019]
Review by Booklist Review
Fiction about the conquistador experience in the New World (although a long list does not immediately come to mind) nevertheless can't possibly get better than Allende's treatment of the subject in her latest novel, which is based on the life of a real historical character. Ines Suarez was born in golden-age Spain; she traveled to that glittering country's South American empire in search of her husband, who previously had pulled up stakes and booked passage there in search of riches. In the novel's real time, Ines is 70 years old in the year 1580, and she puts stiffly held pen to paper to compose her memoirs, recording for posterity the events of quite an extraordinary life. Once in the New World, after learning her husband had died, Ines, with her innate smarts and fortitude, takes up with a man (one of Francisco Pizarro's former officers) who not only knocks her socks off (or whatever the equivalent of such an article of clothing was back in those days) but who also, together with her, proceeds to build the city of Santiago and forge the nation of Chile. Allende's novel broadens and deepens into a richly drawn depiction of the harshness of New World colonial life. She is an exquisite handler of historical detail, always conscious of keeping her story line above sinking beneath the particulars. --Brad Hooper Copyright 2006 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Only months after the inauguration of Chile's first female president, Allende recounts in her usual sweeping style the grand tale of Do?a In?s Su rez (1507- 1580), arguably the country's founding mother. Writing in the year of her death, In?s tells of her modest girlhood in Spain and traveling to the New World as a young wife to find her missing husband, Juan. Upon learning of Juan's humiliating death in battle, In?s determines to stay in the fledgling colony of Peru, where she falls fervently in love with Don Pedro de Valdivia, loyal field marshal of Francisco Pizarro. The two lovers aim to found a new society based on Christian and egalitarian principles that Valdivia later finds hard to reconcile with his personal desire for glory. In?s proves herself not only a capable helpmate and a worthy cofounder of a nation, but also a ferocious fighter who both captivates and frightens her fellow settlers. In?s narrates with a clear eye and a sensitivity to native peoples that rarely lapses into anachronistic political correctness. Basing the tale on documented events of her heroine's life, Allende crafts a swift, thrilling epic, packed with fierce battles and passionate romance. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Allende (The House of the Spirits) once again features a strong woman in her new novel, which is based on the life of In?s Suarez, who came to the Americas around 1537 in search of a wayward husband. After learning of his death, she joins Pedro de Valdivia, the conqueror of Chile, as his mistress and fellow conquistador in the defense of Santiago against the Native Americans. This fictionalized account of one of Chile's national heroines is meticulously researched and offers a detailed account of a little-known time period in history, as an older In?s recounts her life story. Unfortunately, this passive retelling of hardships, battles, and love affairs becomes dry, tedious, and repetitive. Seldom are readers allowed to experience the story as it happens. Instead of eagerly anticipating each part of an unfolding drama, they may have to force themselves to pick the book up again and soldier onward, much as In?s and her comrades did as they marched through the deserts of South America. Recommended for Allende's popularity. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 7/06.] Kellie Gillespie, City of Mesa Lib., AZ (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Chilean author Allende (Zorro, 2005, etc.) recounts the life of a national heroine in this historical novel. Inés Suárez was born in a small Spanish village in 1507. By the time she died, in 1580, she had journeyed to the New World, become the lover of the first governor of Chile and defended the city of Santiago when it was attacked by natives. The conquistadora's life was full of daring, intrigue and passionate romance, but much of the excitement of this extraordinary woman's adventure is lost in Allende's version. In a bibliographical note, the author explains that she spent several years doing research for this novel. It shows, unfortunately, as she frequently assumes a voice more suited to an encyclopedia: "The isthmus of Panamá is a narrow strip of land that separates our European ocean from the South Sea, which is now called the Pacific." Such information ultimately overwhelms the story. Character development happens in dry, rushed bursts of exposition, and Allende frequently chooses clich over real description: "My relationship with Pedro de Valdivia turned my life upside down. . . . One day without seeing him and I was feverish. One night without being in his arms was torment." The narrative device that Allende has chosen--the novel is a letter from Suárez to her adopted daughter--is boring and distracting. Suárez frequently includes information that her adopted daughter surely would have known; she manages to transcribe whole conversations to which she was not privy; and many of the historical details--casualty statistics from the sacking of Rome in 1527, for example--seem much more like something the author found in a reference work than anything her protagonist was likely to have been privy to. Turgid and detached--homework masquerading as epic. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
