This five-page undergraduate essay is a book review of Paula by Isabel Allende (Harper Collins 1994). The author proposes that Allende's earnest 'letter' to her comatose daughter, Paula, is a highly textured memoir, which explores the links between memory and the search for identity. The book documents Allende's recovery of the memories of her life and thereby the creation of an identity for herself and her daughter. The novel is engaging both as a highly personal record of a mother's struggle for hope for her lifeless daughter, and as a political statement against the subjugation of immigrant women. Drawing on her background as a journalist, Allende maintains a sober and factual tone to reveal the difficulties faced by a woman often displaced in foreign cultures. 5 pgs. Bibliography lists 1 source.
