Reviews

La casa de los espíritus by Isabel Allende

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mrsnwankwo57's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

Content Warnings

book_concierge's review against another edition

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4.0

Audiobook narrated by Marisol Ramirez and Thom Rivera.
4****

Review UPDATED on second reading, June 2019

Allende covers three generations of the Trueba family in her native Chile. Based loosely on her own family’s history, the novel weaves together personal and political triumphs and tragedies into an epic story of love and history.

I first read this with my F2F book club back in 1997 and was completely enthralled. I’ve been a fan of Allende’s ever since. I love Allende’s luminous writing, and the way that she seamlessly introduces elements of magical realism into her stories. Her gift for vivid description had me feeling cold drafts, luxuriating in sumptuous fabrics, enjoying the sweet juiciness of ripe fruit, hearing the cacophony of a busy marketplace or a student riot, cringing at the stench of human waste in a prison cell. She makes me believe that a woman can have bright green hair, or be clairvoyant and commune with ghosts.

These two examples show both her range from the vaguely humorous to the creepily eerie:
He had to make an enormous effort not to follow her around the house like a hypnotized chicken.
-or-
It had an impossible labyrinth of dark, narrow halls, in which the stink of cauliflower soup and cabbage stew reigned eternally.

And this passage perfectly described the entire novel:
…he told her about his family: a collection of eccentric lunatics for several generations, whom even ghosts made fun of.

The audiobook is narrated by Marisol Ramirez and Thom Rivera, changing narrators as the primary points of view change in the novel from male to female and back again. I thought they did a marvelous job. But this was my second “reading” so I was already familiar with the story. Because it has so many characters and complex story-telling I may not have enjoyed it as much had I not read it previously.

FROM MY ORIGINAL REVIEW: Allende is a wonderful writer, but this is a very "Latin" book, full of spiritualism and layers of meaning (look up the names of the characters in a Spanish/English dictionary). I was very comfortable with this device, but others in the book club were not. If we gave a collective rating it would probably be 2.75 stars.

bookishblunoser's review against another edition

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5.0

I loved this book! Beautifully written, it is tragically captivating and possessed me for nine straight days. This is a book of contrasts. From the left and right wing political landscape within the country as well as within the walls of Trueba family estates. Esteban's unyielding love for his ethereal wife Clara is in stark contrast to his desire to possess her and bend her to his will. He has become both a sympathetic and despicable protagonist.