Maya's Notebook by Isabel Allende

"As my Popo used to say, life is a tapestry we weave day by day with threads of different colors, some heavy and dark, others thin and bright, all the threads having their uses. The stupid things I did are already in the tapestry, indelible, but I'm not going to be weighed down by them till I die. What's done is done; I have to look ahead."
                                 -from the novel

I read Island Beneath the Sea by this author quite some time ago. I don't remember it well but I recalled that I liked it so this one jumped off the library shelf into my hand. I enjoyed Maya's Notebook and will rate it a solid 4.

The setting of the story jumps around a bit from Berkeley, California, to Las Vegas to a remote island of Chile, where the main character, Maya, attempts to restart her life, after having been thrown into chaos by the death of her beloved Popo. Most of the novel involves about a year in Maya's life which she narrates. One of the aspects that made the novel a page-turner for me was the mystery of why Maya had been sent from California to this remote location to hide out. What had she done? The reader does not find out for some time.

The author does an amazing job of fleshing out characters. Two of my favorites are Manuel who is providing a home to Maya as a favor to her grandmother who raised her, and Olympia Pettiford who plays a much smaller but crucial role in the story. Other characters are easy to hate---like Brandon Leeman and Roy Fedgewick, or quite loveable like Blanca and Freddy, along with the two I mentioned. Nini, the grandmother, is painted as something of a control freak, illustrated by this passage: "My Nini....assured me....the next swine who dared to insult me was going to have to deal with the Chilean mafia. This mafia was composed of her alone, but Mike O'Kelly and I were so afraid of her that we called my Nini Don Corleone." So, yes, there's some humor in the book also.

I learned a good bit about the culture of the island of Chiloe. Apparently there was sexism, widespread use of natural remedies, hospitality and the "law of reciprocity," in which one good turn deserves another. Allende should really know these things since she was raised in Chile.

Maya's Notebook is very well-written and I will definitely read another by this author.