The Japanese Lover

Content Warning: This section discusses racism and warfare.

Isabel Allende, whose full name is Isabel Angelica Allende Llona, is a well-known author in the magical realism genre. She is Chilean American, and her works are usually written and published in Spanish and then translated into English, as was the case with The Japanese Lover. She often writes historical fiction that elevates female characters, using magical realism as a narrative tool to further flesh out and build the worlds in which her narratives take place. Allende lived in Chile, Lebanon, Bolivia, various European countries, and Venezuela before moving to California. She is related to Salvador Allende, the president of Chile between 1970 and 1973 when Allende’s government was dismantled by a coup led by Augusto Pinochet, which forced Isabel Allende to live in Venezuela for 13 years to avoid death threats as a member of the Allende family. During her exile, Allende wrote her first novel, The House of the Spirits, which has since become a bestseller and a foundational example of the magical realism genre.

Magical realism is a genre that incorporates specific supernatural or fantastical elements into otherwise realistic contemporary or historical settings. Unlike fantasy, magical realism uses unrealistic devices to enhance or emphasize the realism of other elements in a narrative. Though magical realism is largely associated with Latin American art and literature, it is becoming more common across other cultures, especially in postcolonial contexts such as Indian literature and former Soviet bloc countries’ literature. In The Japanese Lover, Allende’s use of magical realism adds an otherworldly dimension to the love shared between Alma and Ichimei, elevating them to superhuman qualities and concluding the novel with an appearance by Ichimei’s spirit. Such elements add to the sense that the story of the novel could really happen while maintaining a degree of fantasy that allows for extraordinary events and characters.