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Paula (novel)
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Wikipedia article
'Paula' is a 1994 memoir by Isabel Allende. She intended to write a straightforward narrative about the darkest experience of her own life. But the book is a tribute to her deceased daughter Paula Fras Allende, who fell into a porphyria-induced coma in 1991 and never recovered.
Plot summary
Isabel Allende wrote 'Paula' while tending to her daughter, Paula Fras Allende, who was in a coma arising from complications of porphyria. Allende started the book as a letter to Paula, explaining what she was missing so she would not be confused when she recovered. The novel includes accounts both of Paula's treatment and of Allende's life, sometimes overlapping with the content of Allende's first novel, 'The House of the Spirits'. Paula died on December 6, 1992. She was survived by her husband, Ernesto Diaz, and other family members.
Characters
*Paula Fras Allende
*Isabel Allende Llona
*Allende family
Themes and issues
*In her agonized self-questioning after she finally concedes defeat and surrenders her daughter to death, Isabel strips to her core in the presence of her brother Juan, who has become a priest:
*In the letter Paula wrote her family on her honeymoon, with the proviso that it was not to be read until after her death, she appears to have foreseen her coma, and her mother's refusal to let her die:
References
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20100715193212/http://clubcultura.com/clubliteratura/clubescritores/allende/ Allende, Isabel - Pagina oficial]
*[http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/12.14.95/allende-9550.html Metroactive Arts | Isabel Allende]
*[http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/apr/03/life-and-loss-after-paula/ Life and loss after 'Paula' : Books : The Rocky Mountain News]
*[http://www.harpercollins.com.au/author/authorExtra.aspx?authorID=159&isbn13=9780006548560&displayType=readingGuide Reading Guide on Paula from harpercollins Publishers]
*[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22370859-paula 'Paula' by Isabel Allende]
*[http://www.librarything.com/work/2781 'Paula' by Isabel Allende | librarything]
*[http://www.enotes.com/paula Paula Summary and Study Guide - Isabel Allende]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20100710065708/http://www.clubcultura.com/clubliteratura/clubescritores/allende/homeallende/paula.htm sabel Allende en clubcultura.com]
Category:Autobiographical novels
Category:1994 novels
Category:Novels by Isabel Allende
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