In the Midst of Winter

by Isabel Allende

This is the second book I have read by this author.  I have to say that I enjoyed the first one, The Japanse Lover, more than this one.

The book is the story of three people, who have had devastating lives, come together.
It starts telling uus about a Chilean woman, Lucia, who is in New York working as a sessional lecture at a University.  She is living in the basement suite of Richard, a colleague who recommended her for the job.  Lucia lived in Chile at the time of the revolution, one of her brothers disappeared during the time of the revolution.  She escaped to the states to get an education but later returns to Chile to document the revolution and all the disappearances.  She later marries an older man and they have a strange unaffectionte marriage.  When she gets breast cancer her husband basically abandons her as he says he can't deal with her illness.

Richard is a very closed up individual. He seems to have a compuslive disorder.  He doesn't heat his house enough so Lucia is often cold.  His only companions are four cats.  He rebuffs Lucia's efforts at friendship.  One day one of his cats drinks some antifreeze.  Despite the fact there is a terrible blizzard he drives to a vet to get the cat treated.  On the way home he rear ends a car.  The driver is a young Latino woman who is hysterical.  Richard tells her it is his fault and not to worry as his insurance will pay to fix the car.  He can't calm her but gives her his card and tells her to get in touch with him.

A few days later the young woman knocks on his door.  She is still upset.  Her English isn't good so he asks Lucia to come to speak to her in Spanish.  They find out that the young woman, Evelyn, is an illegal alien working as a caregiver for a boy with cerebral palsy.  Evelyn had borrowed her boss's car to go get diapers for the boy.  When she goes to put the diapers in the trunk she finds a dead woman rolled up in a carpet in the trunk.  This is why she is so upset.

They eventually learn that she has come from terrifying conditions in Guatemala.  Her mother is in the US but she and her brother lived with their Grandmother.   One of her brothers got involved with a gang and is eventually murdered by them for something he did wrong.  He is found hanging from a bridge as a warning to others.  Eventually gang members come to Evelyn's home, they murder her other brother and rape her.  The Grandmother pays a "coyote" to get Eveylyn "safe" passage to the United States.  She makes it to the U.S. but her mother, who has a new life doesn't really want her around so she is sent to New York to find work.

We learn that Richard lived for a time in Brazil and married a Brazilian woman.  Their marriage was plagued.  Their second child, a boy, dies of SIDS, his wife becomes very depressed.  Then Richard accidentally kills their daughter, driving over her in their driveway.  His wife really spirls into depression then.  Richard decides to take his wife back to the U.S.  While he tries to get her to seek psychiatic care she refuses.  She is in a country where she has no family to support her, doesn't speak the language.  She won't leave the house.  Richard doesn't seem to be very supportive or caring.  One weekend he decides to go on a camping weekend with a friend and his wife commits suicide.  Now we realize why he is so repressed.  He has so much guilt weighing on him.

Despite his fear of change, etc. Richard and Lucia decide to help Lucia get rid of the body and the car.  At first they are going to dump the body but then they realize that they don't want her to be another disappeared person so they take her to a place she will evenutall be found.  It turns out this woman was a person who worked for the same family as Evelyn as a physical therapist for the boy.  This woman was having an affair with the boy's father. They assume Evelyn's boss murdered the woman.  We find out the man is a successful business man who is actually involved with people smuggling.

They dispose of the car, and the body, and get Evelyn to Florida to start a new life.  Lucia and Richard discover they love each other.  Eventually they find out that Evelyn's boss is arrested for the murder of the woman (he actually didn't kill her, his wife did).  This gives the authorities the chance to get a search warrant to investigate his smuggling activities.

He escapes to Mexico where is eventually found and murdered in a police raid.

One day Lucia goes to see the boss's wife because Evelyn would like to see the boy.  The woman suspects she is there to blackmail her about the murder.  Lucia insures her they aren't.  Richard and Lucia decide not to report the woman to the police.  They feel she suffered enough from her abusive husband.  They call it 'natural justice".

While the story of the lives and the various tragedies are interesting I just don't understand why Richard and Lucia would do what they did to help Evelyn.  They could have just left the car with the body somewhere to be found.  As Evelyn disappeared at the same time as the car it is possible she might have been sought for the murder but they could have made arrangements to get her out of New York like they did at the end of the book.  Plus Lucia tells Richard that he is forgiven of his mistakes but I don't feel he owned up to his maltreatment of his wife.  His child's death was an accident but he really did nothing to try to help and support his wife. And, I think it was very cruel to leave her alone and go off with the friend.  I think some repentance on his part is needed.