HFVBT Review: Evita... My Argentina by Helen R Davis

Title: Evita... My Argentina
Author: Helen R Davis
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Self-published
Publish Date: February 10, 2017
Source: HF Virtual Book Tours

What's the Story?:

From Goodreads.com: "EVITA ... My Argentina Evita Peron tells her own spectacular story. Tracing her life back to her humble beginnings, when she is abandoned by her father, Evita takes the reader on her journey to become an actress and later, to the pivotal moment when she meets Colonel Juan Peron. Never content to stay in her husband's shadow, Evita reveals how she shares his belief that Peronism will help the working class. Eventually she begins doing work on her own as the president of the Society of Benevolence, helping the poor and winning the peoples' trust. As the times change and women get the vote, Evita becomes even more powerful, running the Ministries of Labor and Health, starting a foundation, and organizing the first female party, The Female Peronist Party. A larger-than-life story, told in her own fictional words, the powerful novel is as educational as it is entertaining."

My Two Cents:

"Evita... My Argentina" is the story of Eva Peron, a woman who went from a poor girl without a father to an actress to the wife of General Juan Peron, who became the President of Argentina. She was a larger-than-life legend whose legacy has been both elevated and tarnished by different groups of people. Often controversial and often beloved, she is a fascinating figure and it's no wonder that she made for a fascinating book subject.

Evita tells us her story herself, which was super effective. She is the major focus of the book and although we get to know her very well, many of the secondary characters are so secondary that they factor very little into the book. This book is mostly Evita's personal thoughts and feelings on things. Because she is telling it herself, the book is very one-sided. Having a little bit of a background in Latin American politics and history may add to your like of this book as it was very interesting to me to compare and contrast historical events with Evita's glossy remembrance of events. There is not much of an outward look at how the opposition saw some of the negative effects of Peronism. 


The writing of the book was interesting. The layout of the book was off the beaten path. This book in many ways feels like Evita is telling you vignettes from her life. The book is very much divided what happened to Evita year by year in her life without a true narrative string other than the simple chain of her life. Each vignette is bounded by something like "It was September 194x" before giving a brief description and maybe a conversation or two surrounding the event. I did find the book a bit limited and yearned for more of a story rather than a statement of what happened. This book gives good insight into how Evita saw herself.