Praticamente il diario di una tossica

Se avessi saputo che era il diario di una tossica, me lo sarei proprio risparmiato. Per tre quarti del libro non fa che parlare di alcolizzati, eroinomani, delinquenza e degrado, e anche quando salta al presente non è che migliori, tra spostati per varia e altra natura e noia totale.
Il quarto e ultimo capitolo ha tirato su un po' il voto, facendomi ritrovare uno sprazzo della Allende che amo, ma onestamente è il primo titolo suo che non mi piace. Perché, al contrario di altri personaggi, a cui la Allende ti fa appassionare e vuoi continuare a leggere cosa succede loro, di Maya non vedresti l'ora di liberarti, ma sai che non succederà essendo l'io narrante del libro.

I am a great fan of Isabel Allende and have followed her work since the 1980's. This book reached the high marks of her others. At first, I thought I would be uninterested in a coming-of-age story; however, the writer spinned a tale of anguish, love, and suspense. The narrative and character development were excellent. The author never disappointed with her multi-faceted characters, no matter their age or circumstances. Ms. Allende utilized her knowledge of Chile's recent history to lend increased interest and depth to the story. Her research was evident in her description of the drug and crime culture in 21st century urban America. The exactitude she used in illustrating the barren, yet beautiful islands off the coast of Chile was stunning. I felt as if I was in Chiloe, on a foggy bluff, looking out at the southern Pacific Ocean. I could feel the damp cold, as well as the warmth of the islanders. Isabel Allende must be an animal lover, since the dogs, cats, and a sea lion developed lovely bonds with their humans.

No me importa en absoluto lo que va o no va a pasar a Maya.

I don't think 20000 characters comprise a space sufficient for me to explain why I am so utterly disappointed with this book. And yet, I feel like I almost cannot attack it, because Isabel Allende is my utmost favourite female author and I adore her books, her writing style and I respect her immensely. But this book was nothing like I thought it would be, like it could have been. Maybe because I simply cannot read "coming of age" young adult lit, I don't know. Maybe because I despise the cliche of the pathetic American teenager who fucks up because mummy and daddy are distant, or because they are having it much too easy to appreciate life. Anyway....here is my sad review, which I write with a broken heart.

The novel started out quite well. I very much enjoyed the family of the main character, their dynamics (albeit exaggerated), the past of Nidia, and how she met Popo and fell in love. All that was awesome. The problem (from the first page to the last) was Maya. Oh, how I hated this lame, pathetic excuse for a woman. Maya is everything I despise in so-called teenagers (I firmly believe that still going through physical, emotional and mental development is not an excuse to be an idiot). She is whiny and weak, incapable of appreciating all that she has and so utterly clingy, that it gets annoying. I was very close to my grandfather, I really was. I can understand how one's life can be completely turned upside down when an important member of one's family dies. But I see family love as a bit less clingy and intimate as it appears in Maya's childhood. I cannot understand the sleeping in the same bed or room as one's relatives after the age of 6. To me, that kind of love is tiring and it leads to extreme trauma because the child loses all adaptability or chance to mature. But despite all this, the beginning of the story was great. The part about Chiloe was amazing up to Daniel's appearance, but I will get to that later. Basically, as is written on the cover regarding to Maya's life, the novel becomes lame after Popo's death. At that point, if you thought that Maya was quirky and cute and passable as a protagonist, all hopes die because she becomes nothing more than a typical "rebellious" teenager who intentionally fucks herself up just because. Losing someone beloved is not an excuse to destroy all the other members of the family and one's self. This is an omnipresent concept in crappy American films, but it is not realistic and it does not birth compassion.

I went through her girl gang days rapidly, without much interest. Everything is so overdone and so typical. I know there is abuse in the world, and horrible families and painful lives. But all of these horrendous elements were brought together and piled over the other just to torture Maya and make her a victim. It was artificial and that is the only word I can find to describe the rest of Maya's struggles without using profanity. Was it bad? Yes. Did she deserve most of it? Yes. Did I care? Not a bit. Maya starts her down-spiralling journey of destruction, rape, violence, drugs, prostitution and crime, but in my eyes it was just a string of random events which she could have run from AT ANY TIME. The horrible rape (which is the only event for which no one can blame her) would have been more than enough for any normal human being to return home, crying, broken, hurt, but still alive, still sane. But is is Maya herself who, having been offered the chance to call her Nini, announces that Las Vegas seems cool and exciting. Really? This is a realistic reaction from someone who had just been brutally raped in a motel by a disgusting excuse of a human being? From that point on, when she so stupidly follows Brandon Leeman, all her pain becomes her fault. Who agrees to have a summer job for a drug trafficker when they have escaped from a rehab facility? Who agrees to live in a disgusting dump simply because they receive enough money to go to a gym and a spa and do nothing all day long except get drunk and get high? Someone without willpower, someone who inspires nothing but disgust in the end. And let's say that maybe this is passable, considering her age and the fact that she has the mental development of a 10 year old. But when the shit hits the fan, not even her basic instinct of survival manages to surface from beneath the sea of addiction, dependency and weakness. She is less than an animal. She constantly needs to be saved, pushed around, helped, directed.

While the book is written in an interesting way (a combination of her recovery in Chiloe and her fall in Vegas), the novel also suffers from this, mostly because there is no climax in this story. Even when she reaches her very worst, you know she won't die (although this would have been realistic). You know she will be saved (like every pathetic lead in YA literature) and you can see that she does have a soul and she does have some personality, albeit extremely frail and artificial. So basically, what is the point of all the abuse? Don't do drugs? Don't be stupid and cowardly? Not worth so many pages of whining.

After she is saved, the parts about Chiloe become boring as well. Without the contrast with the Vegas parts, one realizes that nothing of relevance happens in this book. It is all just a string of events that are meant to draw out the main idea that family is ever-lasting, that there are people who will stay with you and love you despite everything. Too bad that Maya does not inspire in me any kind of positive feeling so ultimately, I cannot help but believe that her "tribe" is wasted on her.

I will not go into her "love" with Daniel, because it was trite, boring, cliched and it lacked a soul. And, sadly, it did not even achieve anything. Perhaps it was meant to be her final real passing into womanhood. But, instead of getting over their pathetic breakup, she became addicted to the concept of love just like it would have been any other kind of drug. She cried and yelled and broke things like a self-described brat. She is not worthy of spending time with the witches at the ruca, one of the nicest female interaction scenes in this book.

The ending was as anti-climactic as the entire novel. She didn't even DO anything. She just fell off a cliff, together with the saddest excuse of a villain possible. Two random boys and her dog did more than the main protagonist. Sad.

What I did manage to like (elements which the story should have been more focused on): Chiloe, Manuel, Blanca, the ruca witches, Fahkeen, Nidia and Popo's relationship, the explanation of what happened to the tortured victims during the dictatorship.

What ruined it all: Maya and her nonsensical story. The lack of villains and a climax. The excuses and cliches. The weird comedic effect in situation that to me were anything but funny. The ease with which seemingly dramatic events were simply swept under the rug. Maya as the saddest excuse of a female character when I have come to expect only greatness from the author.

I will still read anything Isabel Allende writes. The language in this novel is awesome, the descriptions, everything that is related to the quality of writing. But the story is disappointing. But as opposed to other books that have disappointed me and left me angry, this one just leaves me sad.

çokça beğenilen "ruhlar evi" kitabından önce, o kitapla ilgili beklentimi çok yüksek tutmayayım diye, daha az oy aldığı için "yazara giriş 101" nevinden okumaya başladığım bir kitaptı. genel olarak anlatımı akıcı, sıkmayan ve sanki sonsuza kadar sürebilecek gibi; kitabı okurken kafamda beliren imgelerden biri kitabın yazılış serüveni oldu hikâyenin kendisinden ziyade, ne yalan söyleyeyim. yazar, şili'nin popüler olmayan bir bölgesine birkaç aylığına kapanmış da, daha önceden kurguladığı başka bir hikayeye şimdiki zamanı da katarak o coğrafyada kitabın kahramanının ağzından yazmış gibi. hikaye bir yerlere gidiyor ama sanki ona da gerek yokmuş gibi, tam da betimlediği o zamansız coğrafyada beklenebileceği türden. kahramanın başından bir takım şeyler geçiyor ama hiç telaşlanmıyorsunuz; kahraman "şimdi"de sağ ve salim, başına bir şeyler gelebilecek gibi ama yok ya, ne olabilir ki? dertsiz tasasız okudum kitabı, tam bir eğlencelik oldu benim için. kitap bitmek bilmeyen kış akşamları için yazılmış sanki, 1001 gece masalları gibi; yormayan, kaşındırmayan ve sonsuza kadar devam etse yine elinizden bırakmayacağınız türden -yazın okusaydım bu şekilde düşünür müydüm bilemiyorum yalnız.

A very powerful book. Sometimes I got confused because I was listening to it and the switching from the present to the past could be difficult to determine. There were times that the story made me cringe, but I think it was supposed to. Maya was a strong character who came through a lot with a strength that I don't think she knew she had. It's hard to say that I enjoyed this book, but I did like it. I liked it a lot.

Allende' books are beautifully written, but wow does she know how to bury not just the lead, but the whole plot. Poignant prose and a sweetly haunting narrator made this audiobook worth finishing, but I wish I had just skipped it entirely.

Maya's story alternated between horrible shock factor moments, exacerbated teen drama, and idyllic scenes on a lonely island in Chile. Likely that stark disparity was intentional, but it made it a bizarre reading experience, as I could never quite remember which reading experience I was returning to.

Having visited Peru this summer, I loved listening to this audio book which takes place in Chile. The two countries are very similar and it added an extra element to the story for me. This is a great book about a young girl named Maya Vidal who's whole life spins out of control after the death of her grandfather. She becomes a shell of herself living on the streets of Las Vegas until she meets Brandon Lehman. Brandon's brother is one of the best producers of counterfeit currency in the US and soon she gets in way over her head. Her grandmother sends her to Chiloe, an island off of Chile, and she begins to become her self again...but her past is still haunting her and just might catch up to her even on this remote island.