Structure

“The Soul of a Woman” is a short memoir of 171 pages, captioned “On Impatient Love, Long life, and Good Witches.” This whimsical caption accurately captures the spirit of Allende’s writing while announcing that one should not try too hard to categorize it. Her book is not divided into chapters but into unnumbered sections differentiated only by a space with a large dash. There are 33 of those sections and though they vary in length, most are two to three pages long. Allende’s memoir does not aim to present her entire life in chronological order. It is a collection of observations based on personal experiences, memories, and readings over the course of the author’s life, organized in themes all centered around the concept of feminism. This loose structure allows Allende to easily skip from topic to topic without the constraints of time or setting, and to...