A Long Petal

 A review for A Long Petal Of The Sea.

In A Long Petal Of The Sea, Isabel Ellende could portray the suffering of ordinary people during wars, exiles, and coups. These people are usually forgotten when we tell the stories of history. Following the lives of the Dalmau family, she tells the story of a family that was destroyed by the civil war between the Republicans and the Nationalists in Spain. After living through the horrors of Spanish civil war, they had to flee the tyranny of Franco, the leader of the nationalist military. They sought asylum in Chile just to witness another horrific historical event. This time a coup in Chile and to flee once again, but to Venezuela this time.

Victor Dalmau, the main character in the novel, was working as a doctor on the front lines of the civil war witnessing the death of teen soldiers whom he couldn't save either because they were hurt badly or because he didn't have sufficient drugs, tools, or training. Although he was only a third-year medical student, he had done his best to treat and save wounded soldiers. He could even bring a soldier back from the dead, a story he would always remember throughout his life, as an evidence of the power of the will to live. During that time, we follow the path of Victor and his brother's pregnant girlfriend Rosera Bruguera who will later be his wife. Victor was forced to flee Spain after the defeat of his comrades, the Republicans, the left wing fighters, to France where he faced his first exile. Then, he managed to secure a visa to take refuge in Chile,Pablo Neruda's long petal of the sea, where he built a career and a family conquering the hardships of starting his life all-over again. There, he met the Delsolar family, and fell in love with their daughter Ophelia. The thing that would shape most of his coming years.

After around 30 years, The Dalmaus would have to face the same horrible experience once again. Caught amidst a military coup against the Chilean president, Allende, Victor experienced the prison in concentration camps once again, and had to flee to Venezuela. It would take them nearly two decades to return to Chile where they decided to settle down for the rest of their lives.

Love is the background music in the life of Vector, starting with Elizabeth, the elegant war nurse whom he fell in love with, during the Spanishwar, to realize later that she was not interested in him or any other man for that matter. Then, as troubled as he was after the war, he fell in love once again with Ophelia Delsolar, the spoiled daughter of a wealthy Chilean family, whose brother hosted the Dalmaus in his house. Only to be faced with insurmountable economic and social obstacles that ended this love affair. Finally, he found that the love of his life was just under his nose for a long time. He fell in love with Rosera Brugera, after being married to her for 20 years. He married her in France after his brother died in war and left her pregnant. He did so only to secure her future and to immigrate with her and his nephew, Marcel, as one family to Chile. However, they agreed to only be friends, not a husband and a wife. They held this agreement for 20 years before finding their way to each other's arms and to remain in love for the rest of their life.

Celebrating Pablo Neruda in this novel, Isabel skilfully portrayed the beauty of Chile, Neruda's beloved country, and the suffering of Chileans during the bloody years of General Pinochet's rule. Her description of the Spanish civil war is lively, smooth, and written in a way that hooks the reader and makes him feel related to the story characters, despite the darkness of that period. Furthermore, as a refugee herself, Isabel drew a realistic and painful picture of a family suffering exile for almost a century. As the world adopted a troubled approach to the refugee crisis, this novel is of utmost importance to reflect back on the near past when the people who many of them, now, refuse to help refugees were refugees once. This would help us to put things in perspective, and make more humane decisions to help other fellow humans who escape death and famine from all the areas of conflict around the globe. This was my first time to read any of Isabel's works, but it definitely won't be my last. I have already become one of her superfans.