Chile Today

Here's my latest book review from the Oregonian, printed Sunday, November 19.



Conquistadora conquers blood, sweat and Chile
Sunday, November 19, 2006
MIRIAM WOLF
L et the minimalist writers have their barren plots, their juiceless narratives. I'd rather read an Isabel Allende novel. Her books teem with richness, complexity and vivacity.

Her newest book, "Ines of My Soul," is a bold historical novel that is a great marriage of subject and style. For Allende, the novelist whose uncle was the Chilean president until he was overthrown in a violent coup, the story of Ines Suarez, a conquistadora and one of the original Spanish colonizers of Chile, must have seemed like a perfect fit. The women of Allende's novels are strong, sensual and self-reliant -- Ines Suarez is no different. Her passion, strength and absolute disdain for the fear of death have made her a legendary figure.

Ines was born in a small Spanish town. As a young woman she learns to cook, sew and dowse for water -- skills that will serve her well in the New World. She marries young, a passionate ne'er do well who departs for Peru to get his hands on some of the gold that has made its way back to Spain from the colonies. Ines, stifled by a rigid society, decides to follow him. She finds not her husband, who has already been killed because of a venal politician, but an awakening of her senses:

"In this New World the air is warm, propitious to the flowers, with their seductive fragrances, and the fruit, warm and fleshy, provoke lust . . . I questioned the principles that had guided me in Spain. My youth was passing me by, my life was being wasted. Who cared about my virtue?"

She also finds the great Pedro de Valdivia, the Spanish captain who thirsts for the kind of fame that requires founding a whole nation. Passionately in love, Ines and Pedro set south from Peru.

Allende excels at immersing her readers in the sights, sounds, smells and even flavors of an era; she brings to life the hardships of crossing a seemingly endless desert, the terror of confronting the fierce Chilean Indians, and the beauty of that strip of South American land. Allende is a voluptuously visceral novelist, and "Ines of My Soul" is filled with blood, guts, sex and sweat.

And there is plenty of blood, for you can't have conquest without a people to conquer. In "Ines of My Soul," Allende doesn't shy away from the atrocities the Spanish perpetrated in the name of their God and their king:

". . . They descended like demons on defenseless villages, chaining the men, raping and kidnapping the women, killing or leaving the children behind; after they stole all the food and domestic animals, they burned the huts and maize. They made the Indians carry more than was humanly possible. They even strapped newborn foals onto their backs. . . ."

But the Indians do fight back, and Allende chronicles the clashes that accompanied the birth of the city of Santiago, including a legendary battle in which the Spanish only prevailed because Ines ordered the decapitated heads of prisoners to be flung onto the battle to frighten the Chilean Indians.

She fought alongside men, then dressed their wounds. She fed her famous empanadas to the poor of her city every day. Her intuition and network of friends helped her uncover several plots against de Valdivia. She founded hospitals, churches, convents and sanctuaries. Ines Suarez was a woman of great power, and Isabel Allende has honored her with an equally powerful novel.

Miriam Wolf is a Portland journalist who writes about books and food.