The Sum of Our Days

I recently read The Sum of Our Days  by Isabel Allende. This was a very emotional rollercoaster of a book. I felt Isabel did a wonderful job at allowing you to see the cultural belief differences between herself and her husband Willie. I felt I learned a little more about the people of Peru and Chile by some of the things she would say or think in the book. Like how she thought ill of Willie because he was not as close to his family as she was. She was used to large families and staying very close knit. You get a sense of strong family bonding. Willie is American and our cultural views for a lot of families is one of "the bird leaves the nest and goes off to his new life". She seemed to be disgusted by that and even seemed to act as though she was better than him because her kids did not have a lot of the problems his did. Jennifer was a drug addict who lost all her beauty and ends up dying. it was sad to see her slow progression to death and her constant deteriation and not wish there was something you could do about it. I found it hard for me to identify with Isabel at times because I felt she was selfish in a lot of ways. I was not sure if that was just because of the cultural differences between us; however I could not give a whole lot of weight to it since she has lived in Califorina for so much time of her life. The longer you live somewhere the more you adapt to their way of life. I think some key things will always stay but for the most part your views do change some. I don't always think she was selfish. I loved the circle of friends she kept and could easily see how anyone could value a group of friends like that. I just don't know if I could deal with it every day. 

             Celia was a very intersting person in this book. She was Isabelle's niece and found her to be very tolerable to some of Celia's views. Over time Celia views started to change. Celia seemed to be a bit homophobic and racist at times. Celia's peronal views changed over time. She was at first a little homophobic and a little racist too. When she met the ladies that would raise Sabrina she would make sly remarks to Isabel about gays in general. After a while you noticed she softened up on some of those old views. It seems her Sisters of Disorder and all the different view points of the ladies seemed to really humble a lot of the ladies in some sense. I know it had to be hard for her to write about her daughters death. That I would find to take an extrodinary person who can be able to share the most devistating experiences of their lives with everyone. I must say I found the Life at a Glance about Isabel very intersting. After reading this I felt I could understand some of her ways of thinking a little better.  By some of her were better than you attitude could very well be due to the fact she comes from the fact she was the niece of a Venezuelan President and had to flea Chile after his assassination. What I liked about his book is how true to life it really is. Life is not full of fairytales where there is no death, addiction, pain and hate. She shows how they dealt with so many tramatic events. You could not help but feel strength from how Isabel carries herself throughout all her families suffering.

- Cassa Arnold