selki | *In the Midst of Winter* by Isabel Allende

*In the Midst of Winter*: tonal whiplash from middle-aged romance in NYC and upstate NY mixed with the violent last ~50 years of Chile and Guatemala. Is this a *rich* book? Yes. Is it a good reminder of our US-backed brutality? Yes. Did I like the two women protagonists? Kind of. Did I think mixing them with the icky male protagonist and far too many backstories of many other characters worked well? It's a loooong book, or feels that way, anyway. Readers of some other Allende books (like me) may be surprised that unlike her older books, this one doesn't have much surrealism. I don't mind, just noting that her writing has changed in some ways.

Both this book and Cat Sebastian's *After Hours at Dooryard Books* I mentioned recently could have had tonal whiplash, since they both mix romance with grim reality. But I loved Sebastian's book. The Allende will be good discussion fodder, but I'm *really* glad my library group liked the last book so much, and the next one is the relatively lighthearted *Major Pettigrew's Last Stand*.

Discussion prompts

Was there anything you liked about the book you'd like to sum up? (Sarah: wanted to like it because of the older romance)
The author intertwines the current lives of the three main characters (Richard, Lucia, Evelyn) with their long backstories and backstories of many other characters. Did you wish the book had centered on one of them more and the others less?
Richard takes little green pills for anxiety. Do you think these were the same little green pills from *The Queen's Gambit* that some of us read last year?
Richard blames his wife's family for taking her away from him. Did you have any sympathy for his viewpoint?
Was anyone else reminded of other novels when reading about Richard? (Sarah: The Accidental Tourist, in both cases the first wife falls in love with the quiet guy, projecting a sense of mystery onto him)
What did you think of Lucia's relationship with her mother Lena, compared to her relationship with her daughter Danielle?
Lena decides to move on by starving herself to death, since by her religion and laws of her country, she couldn't take more immediate means. Did the book take a position on her choice?
Lucia's husband Carlos warns his daughter that "free love" won't work when she comes out as polyamorous and gender fluid ... shortly before he abandons his wife Lucia when she gets cancer, despite their long marriage. There are also negative views on marriage and men expressed by women in this book. Do you think the author shares these views?
Earlier Allende books famously had surrealistic aspects (e.g. The House of the Spirits). Did you think Lena's statements about talking with her dead son while she was dying were surrealistic? What about the jaguar (or puma) Evelyn sees later?
Evelyn's story has a lot of pain and brutality. Did you think she was genuinely happy while caring for Frankie?
The backstory of the characters takes up the majority of the book. What did you think of the pacing? What did you think of the contemporary plot and the characters' decisions in the "current" part of the book?
What did you think of the ending of the book? Did you agree with Lucia about Cheryl's actions? Do you think Evelyn and Frankie will get married? Will Richard and Lucia stay together? Will they help more immigrants?
Has anyone read other Allende stories? How did they compare?

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