Picking up the thread

Q&A | Chilean author Isabel Allende is back with a new memoir, 'The Sum of Our Days'

Isabel Allende has written many great works of fiction, but it was Paula, her heart-rending 1994 memoir written for her dying daughter, that struck a chord across a broad spectrum of readers. The raw and honest memoir, written to Paula while she was in a coma, recounts the Allende family's story, from her childhood in Chile through the years in exile after Augusto Pinochet military coup.

Now in The Sum of Our Days, Allende picks up the narrative of her life after Paula's death and invites the reader into her private world by offering an intimate glimpse into the drama-filled lives of her colorful family and friends.

Allende, 65, breezed through town recently to talk about her career, her new book and the things that keep her a free spirit.

Q. How does writing a memoir compare to writing fiction?

A. I'd much rather write fiction because I don't have to ask permission from anybody and I'm not betraying anybody's secrets. I feel free when I write fiction, but on the other hand it seems to me very important that I have written these two memoirs, because in a way it's like the memory of the family.

Q. You've been a letter writer your whole life.

A. Yes, it's something of a lost art. It is important to me because the letters keep me connected to my mother; we write to each other every day. But even more important, letters record everything that happens, and I think if I don't write it down, tomorrow it will be forgotten. And if I have forgotten, it's as if it didn't happen.

Q. How did the letters inform the memoir?

A. I remember the events, the divorce and all that, but I didn't remember exactly the emotions of the day, or the nuances that may have been lost. When my family and friends read the manuscript, they confronted me with their versions, and I realized how the story changes over time. We all do that, but I do it more than anybody because I am a storyteller.

Q. Does writing a memoir, basically reliving your life, affect you emotionally?

A. Yes, but very few of these moments are very tragic. Of course, there is a lot of melodrama, but there is also fun.

Q. Have you followed the controversy over fake or enhanced memoirs?

A. Yes, I'm conscious of that, but in this case there were too many people checking. They're all alive and there's no way I could get away with anything [laughs].

Q. Why are dreams important to you?

A. I have a little notepad on my night table because if I have an important dream, I need to write down a few sentences to remember it. I can find out a lot of things about myself in my dreams that I would never be conscious of when I'm awake. Everybody has good dreams; they just don't remember them.

Q. Why is January 8 a special day for you?

A. I was living as a refugee in Venezuela when I got a phone call from Chile on Jan. 8, 1981, that my grandfather was dying. I started a letter to him; somehow I knew it wasn't a normal letter. He never got the chance to read it, but I kept on writing, and at the end of the year I had 500 pages; it was my first novel, The House of the Spirits. Ever since then, I try to start something new on that day. The days leading up to Jan. 8 can be very stressful as I try to get my soul into the mood.

Q. In the memoir, you talk a lot about rejecting organized religions.

A. I was very young around 15 when I left the Catholic Church. I became a feminist very young and I realized that everything the church represented went against my struggle as a woman. I wanted to move away from all patriarchal authority, and there is nothing more patriarchal than religion. Now I practice meditation with a small circle of women. We call ourselves the Sisters of Perpetual Disorder. You can summarize our philosophy as: Try to do good as often as possible and never to harm.

Q. Paula's ashes were spread in a woods. Do you visit there often?

A. Yes, very often. It's a beautiful place; every time you go there it's changed a little bit. There is one particular place with a pond surrounded by huge trees that form a sort of dome. That's my church.