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Venezuela, Once Rich and Generous
Short introduction to the current woes of what once was a wealthy and stable country.
“Venezuela, rica y generosa..”.
That phrase is what I remember best from reading Isabel Allende’s "In the Midst of Winter” “(Más allá del invierno).”
“Venezuela, rica y generosa..Venezuela, rich and generous…”
The characters in Allende’s 2017 book were not very memorable. To write this Medium post, I had to look up their names. Evelyn was the Guatemalan who lacked legal status in the United States. Lucia was the Chilean intellectual who earlier in her life had to flee her country. As the book opens, she’s teaching at NYU’s Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies.
These characters were not in the class of those from Allende’s 1982 novel, “The House of Spirits” (“La casa de los espiritus”).
That was the kind of book that stays with you for many years, likely a lifetime.
It’s been at least a decade since I’ve looked at this book. But I still remember it opening with the arrival of a crazy family dog — “Barrabas came to us by sea, noted the child Clara in her delicate handwriting /Barrabás llegó a la familia por vía marítima, anotó la niña Clara con su delicada caligrafía.”
