Critical Essay | Critical Review by Gabriella De Ferrari

SOURCE: "Letters to a Dying Daughter," in Book World—The Washington Post, April 30, 1995, p. 10.

De Ferrari is a Peruvian-born art curator and novelist. In the following review of Paula, she discusses Allende's portrayal of her life and family.

Isabel Allende's new book, Paula, is more than a memoir. It is a tender, moving and vivid record of a mother's agony at the bedside of her daughter—a 27-year-old who succumbed to a hereditary disease called porphyria and, because of a doctor's misdiagnosis, lay in a coma for a year before dying. The book moves through dark territories from desperation to a heartbreaking ace: an acceptance of that most searing of losses, the premature death of a child.

An Excerpt from the Stories of Eva Luna

María was born to be a great lady; this was what the other women deduced from her aristocratic manner of speaking and her unique behavior, and, if any doubt remained, it was...
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