Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende

 A book that drives you forwards is a book worth pointing out and recommending. Daughter of fortune is a book written by a woman and that drives a woman to go forward.

As I started reading it was clear to be a historical piece, one focus solely in one small girl that we as the reader will follow. The small girl is someone we see as malleable, she bends quickly to the will of the grownups surrounding her. We only start seeing her as her own person when she "falls in love" with Joaquin. However before I analyse the idea of Joaquin in the book I want to point out the other characters that care for Emilia. Her supposed guardians. The women offer a variety of skills that will be very useful further in the story. She learns not only the idea of what a woman represents but what one can do behind closed doors. Her caretaker she teaches her the art of cooking and that is one of the factors that will allow her survival amongst her own adventure. The man that care for her adore her as the child she represents, her innocence is one to be treasured.

Joaquin is the character that breaks that innocence. He creates the desire of companionship in Emilia, this is a threat to the caretakers of Emilia because they know she is still too young for such a wild feeling. But nevertheless Emilia steps every stone in a relationship till the point where they share a nest for love-making. However this is a historical romance and it relates to the time period where man from many different places came looking for the gold that could be found by simply walking and tripping on it. Unfortunately for Emilia, her lover believed this to be truth and takes a chance at going to America.

Emilia starts her own adventure when she realises that although Joaquin had erased his presence from the city he had left Emilia with a weight. Emilia had asked for one of her caretakers for help and although this was with good intentions, Emilia did not follow her instructions. She decides to go after her lover, and with the assistance of her new partner in her travels she not only manages to survive but also becomes the woman we get by the end.

Through her travels Emilia becomes more mature. She goes from a lost child with an unknown beginning to a woman hidden behind the false idea of a small man but with all the good traits of one. She is braver then toughest of man when she needs to make an amputee of an injured man, she is stronger than any other when she jumps into a building on fire to safe a helpless boy who slept during the chaos. She is not afraid of work and of behaving as the threat that she truly is behind her facade.

Women back then were the hidden brain. One wrote book upon book that was sold without never seeing an end, another had an idea of carrying fresh produce to America using ice from the coldest of points in the world, and another started a business of pleasure but never letting her girls be harmed or even submitted to embarrassment. Women in this book make the reader want to drive forward.

When I finished this book not only did I need to see how their stories continued but I also wanted to make something for myself. Although Emilia's adventure started of from a mere desire she then made something for herself and she created her own wants for her own future.