The Infinite Plan - Isabel Allende

...in America.

The plot: it isn't about plot, it is instead the intertwining narratives of several people's lives, and like lie there is a mixture of weird coincidence, total randomness, things that never tie up neatly and things that never quite happen.

The characters - Gregory Reeves begins life on the road, his father is preaching his vision of 'the infinite plan' and the family are nomadic. When the father falls ill, ...
...to find his place in the world. We follow him through jobs, education, Vietnam, marriages and children.

Carmen/Tamar - Gregory's childhood friend and lifelong confidant. Early sexual experimentation leaves Carmen with a pregnancy she cannot handle and an abortion gone wrong. She adopts her brother's half Vietnamese orphan son, and through hard work manages some amazing things.

There are some wonderful other characters ... more

For those of you who have read other novels by Isabel Allende, 'The Infinite Plan' is going to be something of a surprise. Allende normally favours tales about young women of south American extraction. 'The Infinite plan' is about a white man growing up in America.

The plot: it isn't about plot, it is instead the intertwining narratives of several people's lives, and like lie there is a mixture of weird coincidence, total randomness, things that never tie up neatly and things that never quite happen.

The characters - Gregory Reeves begins life on the road, his father is preaching his vision of 'the infinite plan' and the family are nomadic. When the father falls ill, they finaly settle down, living in a barrio full of latinos. Gregory grows up a misfit, bright but unable to find his place in the world. We follow him through jobs, education, Vietnam, marriages and children.

Carmen/Tamar - Gregory's childhood friend and lifelong confidant. Early sexual experimentation leaves Carmen with a pregnancy she cannot handle and an abortion gone wrong. She adopts her brother's half Vietnamese orphan son, and through hard work manages some amazing things.

There are some wonderful other characters - Judy, Gregory's enormous sister who takes to parenting, Olga, magician, midwife and wise woman, King, a man who has forgotten most of his life, and a horde of self obsessed dysfunctional tragedies of self destruction - Tim, Shannon, Samantha, Margaret. Flawed, human, isolated and confused, these are real people who you start to feel that you know personally.

Writing style - this for me is what makes Allende's books such a pelasure to read. She has a way with words, she draws you in so you smell the cooking, and see the people. An amazingly vivid writer, she can conjure up scenes with a handful of words, and take you right inside people' heads. The book is written partly in first person as Gregory recounts his imrpessions of his life. The recollections of Vietnam are mind blowing, frightening and evocative. The rest is in third person, as Alende dots around taking very telling snapshots of people's lives.

This book isn't about plot, but it is full of the stories of people's lives and aspirations. It is about living, about getting on with the life you have rather than living in false hopes and chasing impossibly unrealistic dreams. Its about standing by what you believe, about loneliness and the quest for love that occupies so many people. A very rich, dense book rioting with life, impressions, tragedies and hopes. Allende really makes you caer for her charcaters, you watch over them, fear for them, hope that they will find their way out of the dark places they stumble into. There is a lot in this book about race relations and social injustice - it is political without being preachy.

'The Infinite Plan' is set largely in America, with occasional forrays into other parts of the world. It begins during the second world war when Gregory is a young child. We see him at Berkely in the height of the hippy era, then plunged into the horrors of the Vietnam war. As the Anerican culture grows more amterialistic, so does Gregory on his ruthless pursuit of wealth and status. Finally he starts looking for something more in his life and dealing with the gaps in his person. It is a compelling tale that mixes twentieth century history with human growth.

I loved this book, I felt it had taken me on a journey, it gave me long hours of pleasure and a good deal to think about. it won't appeal to the 'high octane drama' junkies, but for those who like something a tad more cerebral, it is a must. 

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