Eva Luna is based on the life of the protagonist of the novel, Eva Luna. The
story begins with the tale of how Eva Luna was concieved by her mother trying to
save the life of a snake bitten indian. It takes place in an unnamed South
American country because the characters speak Spanish. Eva’s mother dies when
she is only 7 years old and is forced to work as a servant in different houses.
One thing she inheirited from her mother was the gift of story telling. Wherever
she would go everyone loved to hear her improvised stories. At the age of 17 she
worked in the house of a Turkish immigrant named Riad Halabi whom she falls in
love with but he is twice her age. She is then forced to move to the city were
she is reunited with her transexual friend, Mimi. At first Eva works at a
military warehouse but Mimi insists that Eva make a living from her stories.
After an attempted suduction by one of the military generals, Eva decides to
quit her job at the warehouse and write stories for a living. Her and Mimi live
successful lives without the help of men. Mimi is a well known soap opera
actress and Eva writes the plots for them. Along with the story of Eva Luna is
the story of the European immigrant Rolf Carle. He comes from a broken family
and migrates to the South American country and lives with his aunt and uncle in
the countryside. As he gets older he decides he wants to become a journalist and
soon enough he is known as one of the most prominant journalists in the country.
Rolf and Eva meet and thier separate stories become one. The important theme in
this book is feminism. None of the females in this story are dependent on any
man and they all seem fine without them. Some men are mentioned and come and go
but the women still move on without them and live thier lives. The only sign of
dependency is Zulema. Zulema becomes dependent on a man she falls in love with
but she undergoes depression and commits suicide. This shows how week it is to
be anti-feminist and how strong and successful it is to be independent. I think
this book is mainly aimed towards the adult and mature teen audience. I would
definitely recommend this book. However, I enjoyed Allende’s House of the
Spirits more than this novel. Eva Luna is faster reading than House of the
Spirits and the plot is not as extended.
