PALABRAS: Award-Winning Author Isabel Allende Discusses Relationships, Journalism and the Realities of Magical Realism

This article is part of Palabras, the Latin Post Latino Author Series.

Whether she's shaping content about the life of a 100-year-old dying grandfather ("The House of the Spirits"), the early departure of an only daughter ("Paula") or the fictional crime world of 1960's San Francisco ("Ripper"), Peruvian-born Chilean-American author Isabel Allende writes with rigorous passion, unmoving thoughtfulness and penetrating creative ability.

Naturally, it seems that Allende was raised amid writers, and trained to compose stories since her first attempt at walking, but that wasn't the case. According to the world's most widely read Spanish-language author, nothing in her early life prepared her to be a writer -- as no one else in her family was a writer.

However, one could imagine that it was her father's sudden disappearance, her abrupt relocation to Chile, or her short residence in Bolivia and Beirut that contributed to a need to write, to artificially plant roots through the art of storytelling.

"My father disappeared when I was 3 years old...he just left and never came back, and I never saw him again. My mother was very young and had two babies, and had to return to live in her mother's house. So, I grew up in the house of my grandparents in Santiago, Chile. Two of my bachelor uncles lived in that house, and one of them was into books," Allende said to Latin Post in an interview in late November, just after it was announced that President Barack Obama awarded her the 2014 Presidential Medal of Freedom.

"So, I grew up reading, it was the only thing I could do. There was no television at that time in Chile or anywhere really, so I read a lot, and maybe that compelled me in some ways. And much later, I became a journalist ...and then I learned to segue into other writing. But, it was magazine writing, I think, that was the best possible training; journalism was great training for literature."

By the mid-70s, Allende was regarded as a well-known television personality and a journalist for numerous magazines. For one of the outlets, she avidly sought an interview with acclaimed Chilean poet-diplomat Pablo Neruda, who told her that she had too much imagination to be a journalist, and instead she should a novelist.

"I lied all the time, according to him, so as a journalist, I was lousy," Allende said with humor. "But, the training [as a journalist] is good; you learn to manage language in an efficient way, to reach your readers. You work with a deadline, you move in a hurry, you learn to research, which is really great, and most incredibly, you learn to conduct an interview. All that is good later for literature."

Most of Allende's stories are about relationships, about people, usually strong women who are not sheltered with a big umbrella of the establishment. In one way or another, they are marginally portrayed, but they don't accept that role as depicted. They overcome obstacles that are in their way, and they eventually become the unsung heroes that we find in our lives.

"In a way, all the stories are deeply related to something I care very deeply for...something that's personally related to me," said Allende. "My readers are really kind, and often they send me their life stories and they want me to write them, and I can't. I have to write only the stories that connect to me."

In 1993, "The House of Spirits," Allende's debut novel was adopted into a film, starring Meryl Streep, Glenn Close, Winona Ryder, Antonio Banderas and Vanessa Redgrave. Millions of non-readers and those unfamiliar with Allende and her work were suddenly acquainted with writing, which had its advantages and disadvantages. "The House of the Spirits" was taken and made into an accessible film; but with a movie, effectively turning 250 or 500 hundred pages into an hour and a half film is difficult.
"In the case of "The House of the Spirit," it's a very complex story, the book tells it better. But, there are stories that have been perfectly adopted from an author. But, a long book made short does not work," said Allende.

In addition to preferring a book in its original form, she also believes that books are best enjoyed in their original language. Novelists' and memoirists' trouble and time goes into utilizing the right adjectives, and creating the right atmosphere, the right tension and the right rhythm of the language. And even when the translation is done well, the irony can be lost.

"Something that might be ironic in Spanish might not be in English words. So, if a book was written in Spanish, read it in Spanish. That said, my English translations tend to be very good," the author said with immodest wit.

When asked about being honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Allende said that she initially thought that it was a prank and it wasn't until the second phone call that she was convinced. She communicated that she didn't know what made her more deserving of the award than others, and continued on to say that the award was not just for her, but "the efforts of all the Latinos in this country ...the people who deserve it just as much or so much more."

The subject of magical realism was also broached during the conversation, and Allende stated that people only call it "magical realism" when it takes place in Latin America. According to the author, magical realism is simply the idea that there are mysteries in the world or things that we cannot explain. But, magical realism didn't originate in Latin America, but in Germany in the hand of surrealists. In the realm of art, surrealists put two things together that didn't naturally fit, but in Latin America, Allende explains, "you don't have to put things those together, they are already together."

"Why I'm inspired by magic is because I come from that culture; I come from a place where everything is possible. We understand the way the world is," Allende said matter-of-factly.

Her latest publication, the crime novel "Ripper," has no Latin characters and is a very American novel. However, the book is written by her, so it has some magic and Latin flavor.

"The inspiration for the book was not mine. My agent came up with the idea that I write a novel with my husband [William C. Gordon], who is a writer of crime novels. My agent said 'Why don't you two write a book together?'" said Allende. "I thought it was a great idea and we really tried...for a few weeks. Then, we were fighting like crazy. It was not going to work. He writes in English, I write in Spanish, and etcetera."

She researched the genre and attended a mystery writer's conference in California, where she was educated on key skills and was connected to important resources: police detectives, forensic doctors, experts in guns and even a psychologist who worked with killers. Her husband, on the other hand, didn't do research.

"We're always fighting about that. So, he'll write something, and I'll say, 'Wait, did you check that before you wrote 1963?' And he'll say, 'Yeah, it's the 60s'....and I'll say 'The 60s is like, 10 years. Did it happen in 62, 63 or 64?' And he'll say it really doesn't matter. Of course it matters!" stated Allende. "But, his novels are great. He was a lawyer for a very long time and he's studied forensics forever. It comes natural to him. I have to work. I have to research. And then I have to clean up the book so that the research doesn't show. But in his case, it's just comes naturally to him."

The final thing that Allende discussed with Latin Post was her mother, who she would soon be visiting in Chile. Allende revealed that she has a closet full of letters from her mother, which she has kept over the years.

"Just imagine," said Allende. "When my mother dies, I'll be able to read a letter from her every day for the rest of my life. It's like keeping a diary, keeping track of my own life by writing to her. But, I know her so intimately; I've witnessed her life for decades. She's my oldest and dearest friend."