Author Isabel Allende, at the Orpheum 11/20

Trying to define achievement can often be like trying to catch smoke in one’s hands. Measuring someone’s success can prove difficult, especially when everyone’s definition of what that means is radically different. Sometimes though, an individual is so resoundingly accomplished that his or her achievement is undeniable. This is the case with Isabel Allende. Allende is a legendary Chilean-American author, whose prolific body of work has been translated into more than 35 languages and sold more than 65 million copies worldwide. If that wasn’t enough, she received a U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2014.

To promote her appearance at the Orpheum Theatre on Friday, Nov.  20th,  Allende took time to talk to The Republic about her amazing career, eventful life, modern culture and what makes her happy.

Q: What does being able to interact with your readership at events like this give you as an author?

A: You know, the hard thing is getting there — traveling. But once I am with an audience and with my readers, it’s wonderful! Because I get to have a feeling for what people take out of the books, which is usually very different depending on the place. I was just on a book tour in Europe, and I went to several different countries where the book has already been published, and the questions are completely different in each country. For example, in Italy it was all about love, in Spain it was all about aging and death. So different themes of the book seem to be more interesting for different audiences – so I don’t know how it’s going to be in Phoenix!

Q: Your books have sold so well all around the world. Aside from your quality of writing, what do you think it says about the human desire for a good story? 

A: I think the human story is universal. I can tell a story that is set in a village and it can resonate on the other side of the planet, because we as humans all have more or less the same stories. There are a few great themes: love, death, revenge, greed and the like, that authors all over the world have explored in innumerable ways. They are always present in our lives, so those themes become universal. I don’t know how the translations of my books are because I cannot check them, but the fact that people connect to the stories means that we all feel more or less the same. We all want more or less the same things. There are cultural differences, but basically we are very similar.

Q: In both of your TED Talks you talk about passion. Do you think the past influences what our current passions are as humans?

A: Probably. It’s a combination though. Part of it is character as well. We are born one way or another. Some people are born with a depressive character and some are very hyper; there are all kinds of temperaments. But our life experience often guides our understanding of life and our choices. I have had a very eventful life, to say the least, so I have gone through a lot of stuff. Therefore, my understanding of life is very vivid, very alive. I am a person who is willing to take all kinds of risks, but that is because in my life I learned that I can take the risk, and that I’m strong enough to overcome the obstacles. But I only learned that because I had those experiences. If we would have talked when I was 25, I was scared of everything. Now I’m not scared of anything, because throughout all these years I have seen that even the worse circumstances can be overcome.

Q: When you think back on life and your own story, do any memories stick out as especially formative? You have talked about the military coup involving your cousin Salvador Allende in Chile causing you to feel as though you were never safe in life. Then also about the death of your daughter in later years being an immensely difficult circumstance to overcome. Are there other things you regard as equally or even more influential on your life?

A: I would say the first thing that determined my character in life was the fact that my father abandoned our family when I was 3. So I grew up in my grandfather’s house without a father. I think that determined much of my life in my youth, as well as much of my feminism and character. In my books you will not find a loving and present father. Fathers are always absent in my books. They are either dead or so remote that it is as if they are not there. There are father substitutes, but not fathers. There are strong women because I have been working for women and with women all my life, and I have a foundation that deals with the empowerment of women, so I see strong women all around me. I can’t even begin to imagine a character that is a weak woman. It would be very hard for me.

But of course things like the military coup and the death of my daughter and the fact that I came as an immigrant to the United States have determined what kind of person I am today. I wouldn’t be a writer without the military coup. It forced me to get out of my country. My first book ("The House of the Spirits") is an exercise in nostalgia to try and discover the world that I had lost. If I had not had to leave my country and everything behind, I don’t think I would have had the need to write that book.

Q: You can tell reading your first book and then reading your most recent work ("The Japanese Lover") that life has taken you through a lot as you mentioned, yet you have maintained a great sense of youthful energy. What do you think is the biggest misconception about the older generation?

A: We live in a culture that values productivity, youth, beauty and success. All that belongs to the young. However, we live in a world where there is a growing older population. People are aging, but people live to be much older than before. Before you would retire at 65 and by 70 you would be dead. Now you retire at 65 and you can be expected to live 30 more years. What happens in those 30 more years? A culture that is oriented toward youth thinks of older people as a nuisance and a burden to society. But those people are going to live three decades more, so how are they going to live? Also, it is not the same being 70 and being 90. My stepfather is 100, and I’m an older person, but I’m not in the same stage that he is! Dependency determines which stage of life you are, but there are many people in their 80s and some in their 90s that still have a youthful spirit and a curiosity. They are alive, profoundly alive! I feel very alive myself. When I think of me, I think of me at 50, not at the age I am now. Of course my body has changed, but not my energy or my capacity to write or to have a life. To fall in love for example! Passionately in love.

Q: Do you think that love has changed these days with the emergence of technology?

A: I do think that the idea of love has changed, but we should separate sex and love. Sex is available to everybody, in all its forms and shapes. You have an app on the phone, you press a key, and you can get in touch with whichever person might compliment you or satisfy you, or whomever you are curious about. That is very easy and available to everybody, but love is not so available. It has become a collector’s item almost.

First of all, people are not willing to fall in love and take risks like they were before. They are having fun! Sex is available, partying is available, and people don’t settle down until they are 35 or 40. They don’t want to take any risks, they don’t want to suffer, they want to make sure this is absolutely the right person — but you cannot have that in a romantic relationship. In a romantic relationship, you are at risk. You will suffer probably. That’s the way it is. When I talk to my grandchildren, it worries me that they want to be so safe. They are having fun, they are having sex, but they are not having romantic relationships.

Q: And then the question is if they aren’t having romantic relationships, what kind of sex are they having?

A: I suppose it’s like sports. They are really great, but without the commitment, the intensity of love, I think for me it would be really boring. The mechanics of sex don’t appeal to me at all. What I like is intimacy, and intimacy you have with someone that you really care for. You need time and trust, and you need to surrender to the relationship and for that you need trust. You need to feel like you aren’t going to be hurt too much.

Q: What advice would you give to younger people about love these days?

A: I would say just plunge into it and take the risk. Whatever happens, happens, but you will never experience it fully if you are not willing to risk it and potentially suffer.

Q: It seems obvious that love is very present in your life since it is in all of your books, and you are in a committed relationship.

A: Well actually, I just separated from my husband.

Q: Oh goodness, my apologies. Should have looked into that more aggressively!

A: (laughs) Well it’s very recent, you wouldn’t know. But yes, after 27 years together we have separated, and I had a very bad year. It was very sad for me to let go of the fantasy that I could "fix the marriage." But now that we are separated — and we are still friends, and still like each other — I am finally coming out of that sadness. I feel free, and happy, and full of energy. So let’s see what life has to offer! At my age it’s hard to have a romantic relationship, because first of all, men my age — god, you don’t want them. (laughs) They have bad things, prostate cancer and the like — give me a break!

Q: So after all of that, what is it in life that brings you the most joy these days?

A: Still today, what brings me the most joy is love in its many forms. The love of my dog, the love of my son, of my friends, of my family, but also the love of life! I love writing. I love food. I love nature. There is so much to enjoy. More than ever, because I am aware that time passes very fast, and that I am aging. I’m aware of the good things that I can still enjoy and I’m very grateful for that. And I am absolutely sure, that I will have another love in my life.

Isabel Allende

What: The author discusses "The Japanese Lover" with Alberto Rios. 

When: 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 20th  

Where: Orpheum Theatre, 203 West Adams Street, Phoenix.

Admission: $35 for book and one admission ticket; $40 for book and two admission tickets. Must be purchased through Changing Hands Bookstore.  

Details: 602-274-0067 changinghands.com.