Largo Pétalo de Mar

SYNOPSIS:

En plena Guerra Civil española, el joven médico Víctor Dalmau, junto a su amiga pianista Roser Bruguera, se ven obligados a abandonar Barcelona, exiliarse y cruzar los Pirineos rumbo a Francia. A bordo del Winnipeg, un navío fletado por el poeta Pablo Neruda que llevó a más de dos mil españoles rumbo a Valparaíso, embarcarán en busca de la paz y la libertad que no tuvieron en su país.

REVIEW

(3.5 STARS):

This book was such a rollercoaster! At first, I was really enjoying it (I'm a historian so reading about the Spanish Civil War was incredible, especially because Allende did her research) and the fact that the chapters were split into years and moments wasn't bothering me much. However, it soon became really hard to keep up with the timeline, since we were jumping back and forth between characters, settings and periods (within the same year). It became a bit irritating and unpredictable.

It also led us to be introduced to characters that were less interesting in the middle of a vital point in the main plot line, which broke the mood and our connection with the story and the important characters. My buddy-read companion (Kahel) said something that might help you understand what to expect: "the book seldom has scenes in it, it's more like a continuous story with occasional cuts to specific scenes".

Despite describing a lot of war crimes and atrocities, it also felt far-fetched the way our main characters were also meeting helpful and kind-hearted people. Of course, they were suffering, but it felt "unreal". Kahel also said something interesting - "because those who survive are the lucky ones, it overshadows the ones that suffered", which can also serve to justify this unrealistic scenery.

Despite all that, I thoroughly enjoyed Allende's writing - I read this book in Spanish (the original language) and I loved how the author portrayed the emotions and feelings without having to use expressions such as "he felt sad"/ "(x) was frustrated". You could understand the characters' emotions because of the setting or the way they behaved. She also managed to portray a beautiful relationship between Victor and Roser - a relationship that changes with time and with life. It was inspiring because it shows that above everything, you have to be a good friend to your beloved. A good companion. Love is just a wave that you surf throughout your life: sometimes it's big and thrilling, other times scary and overwhelming or small and almost non-existing.