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Ellen Isaacs | |
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Daughter of Fortune is the story of a young woman, Eliza Sommers, who grows up in Chile, adopted at birth by a wealthy English spinster and her brother living in Valparaiso during the mid-1800s. She grows up sheltered and naive, and soon her adopted mother devotes herself to finding her an appropriate husband, even though she herself finds marriage too confining. But Eliza has different plans in mind. When her illicit lover takes off to California during the frenetic gold rush days, Eliza runs after him by stowing away in a ship, aided by a young Chinese doctor, Tao Chi'en. Upon arriving in California, she disguises herself as a boy so that she may move about freely as she searches for her lover, and yet all the while she is developing a bond with Tao. Through these adventures, the book tells not only Eliza's story, but the stories of Tao growing up in China and of Eliza's adopted mother, who left England because of her own illicit love affair. It also describes to a lesser extent the lives of several other colorful characters, in Chile and California. I enjoyed this book on many levels. The diverse range of characters were interesting and believable. Through their adventures, Allende brings to life the culture and daily life of Chile, China, and California during the Gold Rush. In the background, the book conveys the constraints imposed on women and foreigners during that time, and how those constraints varied in the different countries described. It showed how much of English social conventions were adopted by the Chileans, which surprised me. Through Tao, the book discusses the differences between Eastern and Western medicine at the time and how distrustful each was of the other's approach (just as they are now). I saw more vividly how extraordinary the California Gold Rush was, not only because of the quick riches (for some), but because it allowed people constrained by class in their homelands to reinvent themselves in ways unimagineable in their own cultures. And yet even in the class-agnostic society of California, still there was a racial pecking order among the immigrants. The book depicted how, after the initial frenzy, those who found ways to provide needed services benefited more than those who struggled to mine what gold was left. While enjoying the rich story line, I also appreciated how perceptive Allende was about people's motivations and the dynamics of relationships. I was especially impressed by one insightful section describing the dynamic between Eliza and her lover, which rang true to me about some quickly-formed passionate relationships: "Nourished by Miss Rose's novels and the romantic poets, whose verses she knew by heart, the girl lost herself in the intoxicating delight of feeling adored like a goddess, failing to see the discrepancy between those inflamed declarations and the real person of Joaquin Andieta. In his letters he was transformed into the perfect lover, able to describe his passion with such angelic spirit that guilt and fear disappeared to give rise to the absolute exaltation of his emotions. No one had loved like that before; they had been chosen among mortals for a passion like no other, Joaquin told her in his letters, and she believed him. Nevertheless, he made love hurriedly, like a starving man, without savoring it, like someone succumbing to a vice, tormented by guilt. He did not take the time to know her body or reveal his to her; he was overcome by the urgency of desire, and their secret. He always felt as if they never had enough time, though Eliza calmed him, explaining that no one came to that room at night, that the Sommers were both drugged, that Mama Fresia was asleep in her hut at the back of the patio, and that the rest of the sevants' rooms were in the attic. Instinct provoked the girl's boldness, driving her to discover the mulitple possibilities of pleasure, but soon she learned to hold back. Her initatives in the game of love put Joaquin on the defensive; he felt criticized, wounded, his virility threatened. He was tormented by the worst suspicions, because he could not imagine such natural sensuality in a sixteen-year-old girl whose horizons were the walls of her home. Fear of pregnancy made things worse, because neither of them knew how to avoid it. Joaquin vaguely understood the mechanics of fertilization and assumed that if he withdrew in time they were safe, but he did not always achieve that. He was aware of Eliza's frustration, but he did not know how to comfort her, and instead of trying, he took immediate refuge in his role as her intellectual mentor, where he felt secure. When she longed to be stroked, or at least to rest her head on her lover's shoulder, he pulled away, quickly dressed, and wasted the precious time they had left laying out new arguments for the same political theories he had repeated a hundred times. Eliza felt restless after those embraces, but she did not dare admit it, not even in the deepest part of her being, because that would be questioning the quality of their love. Then she fell into the trap of feeling sorry for her lover, making excuses for him, thinking that if they had more time, a safe place, everything would be fine. Much better than their rolling about were the hours aferward inventing things that hadn't happened and the nights dreaming of what might happen the next time in the room with the armoires." In all, this book was a pleasure to read.
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