The Soul of a Woman: Rebel Girls, Impatient Love, and Long Life

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From the New York Times bestselling author of A Long Petal of the Sea comes a passionate and inspiring meditation on what it means to be a woman.

Allende] executes this epistolary memoir with the same authenticity and poetry that grace her fiction. . . . Allende is a survivor worth reading and emulating.” — The Dallas Morning News

Isabel Allende

In this beautiful book, Isabel Allende tells us all what it means to be a woman as she grapples the reality of her life as contrasted to that of her mother. I too, have often pondered that dilemma as I saw as a small child that I had more advantages than my mother did, while at the same time I didn't appreciate the depth of her struggle and as Isabel Allende says so eloquently, "Many of us daughters have had to live the lives our mothers could not." sex, money, discriminatory laws, drugs, virginity, menopause, contraception, alcoholism, abortion, prostitution, jealousy... to name a few”. The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Allende, Isabel. The Soul of a Woman. Ballantine Books, English language translation by Isabel Allende, 2021. I feel like the voices of older women are so often silenced and so this was great to read in that sense.

Years ago, a successful woman would have hidden behind a male pseudonym (e.g. Mary Ann Evans wrote as George Eliot) and even today females often hide their gender by using only their initials (e.g. J.K. Rowling) making them non-gender specific in the hope that they will appeal to a wider audience.As a young female journalist in the 1960's when feminism brought the strength of woman together, she felt comfortable in her own skin fighting for woman's issues and confirming how rising together can push boundaries towards change. With frankness she speaks of each of her marriages, briefly on the loss of a child, her ambitions to succeed as a female author, the value of her close friendships, her views on violence against woman, sexuality and gender equality. Feminism, of course, is always at the forefront! Isabel also explores ideas that cover literacy, child brides and females solid as a commodity for men.

Being born into a culture that caters to men and where woman have no voice, Isabel witnesses this unfairness firsthand. She watches as her mother struggles with three young children after her husband abandons them, only to become dependent on other men. This becomes the driving force behind Isabel's determination to fight for the kind of life her mother never had and it branches out to her strong beliefs in feminism.

Reviews

As a young woman coming of age in the late 1960s, she rode the first wave of feminism. Among a tribe of like-minded female journalists, she for the first time felt comfortable in her own skin, as they wrote "with a knife between their teeth" about women's issues. The book is inspiring and full of hope, as well as full of power. Her mother Panchita was abandoned by her husband in Peru with two toddlers and newborn (Isabel), forcing her to return to her family in Chile. It is this circumstance she ascribes her rebellion against male authority to. A fear and darkness in childhood, a pre-verbal trauma and conscious frustration as she aged, that ensured she would do everything in her power not to inhabit that vulnerable space women so easily fall into. The wise, warm, defiant new book from literary legend Isabel Allende – a meditation on power, feminism and what it means to be a woman The couple were living in Peru with three children when Panchita’s husband abandoned her. Divorce was illegal at the time, so they decided to annul the marriage. The husband only agreed to do so on the condition that he would never have to take care of his children again. One of those children was Isabel.

From the New York Times bestselling author of A Long Petal of the Sea comes “a bold exploration of womanhood, feminism, parenting, aging, love and more” (Associated Press).Women also have to learn to step up, get a good education, learn about life and stay clear of men who are the enemy. There are many but at the same time in the U.S., can't speak about the rest of the world since I'm a U.S citizen, men have come a long ways in recognizing behaviors that are wrong, hurtful and disrespectful of women. That's not to say there aren't plenty that still do and take advantage if they can. However, Allende is also often straight-talking, perhaps in a way that may prove surprising to those who view her as a writer of melodrama. She describes feminism as “the most important revolution of the 20th century”. She puts paid to the fallacy that “strong” women mean a society is matriarchal, when men continue to “control political and economic power”. She argues that human rights are in fact only men’s rights: “If a man is beaten and deprived of his freedom, it’s called torture. When a woman endures the same, it’s called domestic violence and is still considered a private matter in most of the world.” Allende provides statistics about child brides, rapes and war crimes, honour killings and female slavery. In her advanced years, she has married Roger. He is her third husband and she says that she is happy. I am glad she is happy because she deserves to be. She has spent her life writing beautiful books that portray strong and courageous women. She also has established a foundation to help women - I didn't know that - and invests much of her income towards it. Year-End Chart – Billboard 200". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. Archived from the original on January 2, 2017 . Retrieved June 8, 2018. {{ cite magazine}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown ( link)