The Wind Knows My Name | Isabel Allende

Isabel Allende | 2023 | Book 

This book was phenomenal!!!

Allende's writing somewhat reminded me of Jodi Piccoult, in that there were numerous story lines and perspectives that interchangeably weaved throughout the entirety of the story. However, I felt Allende was much more poignant in her themes.

I was shocked at the mention of COVID and the depths in which it affected society. It was a clear reminder that we are severely ignorant to lives outside our own. Not once did I think about migrant children during that period - or how children in need of specialized services would survive without access.

But the use of Samuel provided me with hope - that no matter when, there's always a chance to devote your life to the betterment of someone else's. There's always an opportunity. Don't wait Ravey.

Allende Words I Loved...

The Adlers - Vienna, November 1938

• "... for centuries his people had been discriminated against, persecuted, and expelled from many lands, which was why they valued education over material wealth.... They could be robbed of their belongings.., but no one could take away their intellectual assets." (7)

• "All the young men belonged to the movement; it was practically obligatory." (9)

• "She didn't want to turn ont he radio. The news was always terrible." (13)

• "It takes selective blindness to think that we Jews will ever be able to live here with anything resembling normalcy. Violence is inevitable." (14)

• "What else can they take from us? Only our lives. We have nothing else left." (14)

• "... he ordered with the voice of a man who knew how to lead." (16)

• "... his faith in his country, which in the end was nothing more than idea and a flag." (18)

• "... to his horror, that the crowd's raw, savage energy was contagious and even exhilirating. He had to reject the impulse to transform into a monster, to destroy, burn, and shout till he had no air left in his lungs." (20)

The Violinist - Vienna, November - December 1938

• "... some who spit and insulted the lines of detainees, either out of racist hate or in order to ingratiate themselves with the Nazis." (27)

• "... she could find a way to get whatever she wanted... was prepared to pay whatever price the man demanded." (31)

Leticia - El Mozote & Berkeley 1981-2000

• "... with the end of the civil war the truth finally came to light" (63)

• "He wasn't sick or old, but the life simply left his body, a peaceful transition" (64)

• "But eventually her friends and neighbors returned to their own lives and she felt the tremendous weigh of loneliness" (66)

• "She couldn't afford the luxury of crying forever." (66)

Selena - San Francisco & Nogales 2019

• "He'd heard terrible stories in his years as a lawyer, but nothing compared to the institutionalized cruelty that Selena was recounting" (86)

• "It was no surprise to her that refugees would choose to risk being separated from their children here over watching them die at home." (89)

• "It is, actually, because the American government is at least somewhat responsible for the mess these countries are in." (89)

• "the girl was very mature for her age, possibly because of everything she'd experienced on her journey and the trauma of being separated from her mother" (91)

Samuel - New Orleans, London, Berkeley 1958-1970

• "... weaving was a beautiful metaphor for his wife's personality. She went through life collecting and weaving together stories and people, just as she collected and weaved the threads of many colors of her tapestries" (111)

• "... would've liked to share a love of that caliber...but neither of them possessed the capacity for it" (117)

Selena - Los Angeles & El Salvador - February 2020

• "Like almost all the migrants who worked the land to put food on other people's tables, she went hungry. "(123)

Anita - Tucson - March 2020

• "But no crying. We have to be good. No, we're not lost. The wind knows my name. And yours too. Everyone knows where we are. I'm here with you and I know where you are and you know where I am. See? There's nothing to be scared about." (164)

Leticia - Berkeley - March - June 2020

• "... she didn't care about politics one way or the other; no matter who was in charge at the top, nothing would change for people like her, struggling to earn a living at the bottom." (167)

Anita - Tucson - April - June 2020

• "I knew it was going to happen, I could feel it right here, in my tummy, like a thought that was stuck there. That's how I felt whenever he was around ... and wanted to touch me." (197)

Mr. Bogart - Berkeley - June - September 2020

• "He had grown up waiting. Nostalgia and anguish were the most overarching emotions of these years. He lived a fragmented childhood, divided between the harsh present that he wished to scape and the nebulous fantasy of a family and home, which nourished his ever-fading memories of a mythic past." (212)

• "... he accepted the fact that he would never be bale to fully exorcise his demons' he would have to learn to live with them." (213)

Selena and Samuel - Berkely & San Salvador - September 2020

• "... the innocent girl he'd fallen in love with was in fact quite resistance to domesticity" (226)

• "Here only white children are considered sacred." (229)

• "Selena exuded a powerful attraction, like a gravitational force." (229)

• "But over the years I got used to it and stopped asking her for something she as incapable of giving. She was absorbed in her own life, she didn't need me or anyone else" (231)

• "You have given me a purpose for this last stage of my life. I now have a fundamental responsibility and I can begin to repent for my sin of indifference" (233)

Epilogue - Berkeley - January 2022

• "... a place she escaped to when she felt alone and frightened... It's a mysterious realm of imagination, a place you can only see with the heart" (252)

• X Y 2023 | Brooklyn, NYC •