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4.21 AVERAGE
4.21 AVERAGE
Last month my Classic Read for my blog was Gabriel García Márquez's epic [b: One Hundred Years of Solitude|320|One Hundred Years of Solitude|Gabriel García Márquez|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327881361s/320.jpg|3295655]. I'm glad that I read that book before this one because it's obvious that Márquez's writing was a strong influence on Allende's. On the face of it, a multigenerational family saga with elements of magical realism and strong female characters sounds like it must be overly similar to Márquez's book. But expect that and you'd be wrong. While there are obvious similarities, Allende's sharp takes on the abuses of men in positions of power and swipes at political corruption in Chile are clever and set the book apart from Márquez's story. Allende, who is related to deposed Chilean president Salvador Allende, has written a far more overtly political book than that of Márquez.
The story of the Trueba and del Valle families, we first meet Clara del Valle as a child who is gifted with the gift or curse of clairvoyance. She keeps a journal and it is through this journal that we learn of the fifty years of her family's history, meeting her parents, Severo and Nivea, her beautiful and doomed sister Rosa, her beloved uncle Marcos, teller of stories and the one who brings her a dog, Barrabás upon his death. We also meet Esteban Trueba and his sister Férula. Esteban, who was engaged to rosa the beautiful, gives up his mining work after Rosa's death and returns to his family's hacienda, Tres Marías where he rapes pretty much every young woman he can get his hands on, clearly on the assumption that it's his right as the boss of the estate. Eventually, when his mother is dying, he promises to marry and have children. Upon his mother's death, he goes looking to see who else the del Valle family might have available to marry. (It's important to note that the del Valles are liberals and Trueba is a conservative.) Eventually, he marries Clara and both Esteban and his sister Férula become obsessed with her, in part because she cannot be possessed by anyone. Clara and Esteban have a child, Blanca, who falls in love with a revolutionary with Marxist ideals, Pedro Tercero Garcia. (Clara and Esteban also have sons Jaime and Nicolás, with strongly different personalities.) Esteban García, illegitimate son of Esteban Trueba from one of his rape victims, Pancha García, has inherited some of his father's charming violence toward women (even children, like Blanca's daughter Alba). Eventually, the socialists come to power, but then the military seizes power in a violent coup, spelling disaster for the Trueba family. Jaime is killed and then Alba falls into the hands of García (now a colonel) where she is repeatedly brutalized and mutilated by him. The ghost of Clara, her dead grandmother, sustains Alba and helps her survive. Once freed, Alba and Esteban Trueba complete writing the story of the Trueba family and Esteban dies. Rather than pursue revenge, Alba, whose name means sunrise, seeks to forgive and move on with her life.
This book, because of an entire chapter devoted to Alba's rape and torture at the end of her uncle Esteban (who is her mother Clara's illegitimate half-brother), is a grueling read. Frankly, there is so much violence and rape in this book that I had to put it down several times. But Allende is not using a rape trope to show us women who become stronger, etc. If anything she is showing us the brutality of both the conservative Patrón (Esteban Trueba) and the military (represented in the person of Esteban García). Father and son are both horrible individuals, though at least Trueba eventually admits to Blanca and Alba that the military government he supported overthrowing the socialists he hates is far worse than government he wanted them to overthrow, and he tries ardently to get Alba back from his brutal son.
There are so many themes one can examine in this book, from the fact that all political extremes are harmful, to the use of writing within the novel itself conveying the story, to the juxtaposition of the legitimate and illegitimate (children, governments, etc). There is also the role of social class and its relation to abuse of power to examine.
While without question House of the Spirits is a true classic of Latin American literature, giving us a taut novel of political historical fiction with magical realism, it is also a book I can only recommend with Trigger Warnings.
TW: rape, torture, murder
The story of the Trueba and del Valle families, we first meet Clara del Valle as a child who is gifted with the gift or curse of clairvoyance. She keeps a journal and it is through this journal that we learn of the fifty years of her family's history, meeting her parents, Severo and Nivea, her beautiful and doomed sister Rosa, her beloved uncle Marcos, teller of stories and the one who brings her a dog, Barrabás upon his death. We also meet Esteban Trueba and his sister Férula. Esteban, who was engaged to rosa the beautiful, gives up his mining work after Rosa's death and returns to his family's hacienda, Tres Marías where he rapes pretty much every young woman he can get his hands on, clearly on the assumption that it's his right as the boss of the estate. Eventually, when his mother is dying, he promises to marry and have children. Upon his mother's death, he goes looking to see who else the del Valle family might have available to marry. (It's important to note that the del Valles are liberals and Trueba is a conservative.) Eventually, he marries Clara and both Esteban and his sister Férula become obsessed with her, in part because she cannot be possessed by anyone. Clara and Esteban have a child, Blanca, who falls in love with a revolutionary with Marxist ideals, Pedro Tercero Garcia. (Clara and Esteban also have sons Jaime and Nicolás, with strongly different personalities.) Esteban García, illegitimate son of Esteban Trueba from one of his rape victims, Pancha García, has inherited some of his father's charming violence toward women (even children, like Blanca's daughter Alba). Eventually, the socialists come to power, but then the military seizes power in a violent coup, spelling disaster for the Trueba family. Jaime is killed and then Alba falls into the hands of García (now a colonel) where she is repeatedly brutalized and mutilated by him. The ghost of Clara, her dead grandmother, sustains Alba and helps her survive. Once freed, Alba and Esteban Trueba complete writing the story of the Trueba family and Esteban dies. Rather than pursue revenge, Alba, whose name means sunrise, seeks to forgive and move on with her life.
This book, because of an entire chapter devoted to Alba's rape and torture at the end of her uncle Esteban (who is her mother Clara's illegitimate half-brother), is a grueling read. Frankly, there is so much violence and rape in this book that I had to put it down several times. But Allende is not using a rape trope to show us women who become stronger, etc. If anything she is showing us the brutality of both the conservative Patrón (Esteban Trueba) and the military (represented in the person of Esteban García). Father and son are both horrible individuals, though at least Trueba eventually admits to Blanca and Alba that the military government he supported overthrowing the socialists he hates is far worse than government he wanted them to overthrow, and he tries ardently to get Alba back from his brutal son.
There are so many themes one can examine in this book, from the fact that all political extremes are harmful, to the use of writing within the novel itself conveying the story, to the juxtaposition of the legitimate and illegitimate (children, governments, etc). There is also the role of social class and its relation to abuse of power to examine.
While without question House of the Spirits is a true classic of Latin American literature, giving us a taut novel of political historical fiction with magical realism, it is also a book I can only recommend with Trigger Warnings.
TW: rape, torture, murder
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
No tengo suficientes palabras para expresar lo hermoso que es este libro, una mezcla perfecta de realismo magico y el violento desarollo de la política chilena de la epoca. la manera en que allende describe lo que sucede es tan vivida que uno se logra sumergir por completo en el libro.
si tengo que leer la frase "lo que no sabía/sospechaba era que..." una sola vez más voy a llorar
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book may not have been the most fun to read, but I found it to be so good and so important that I would liken it to taking your vitamins—something that we should all do because it is important. The writing, the plot, the characterization, the hints of what was to come, everything was so well done. Seeing the epic scope of covering the lives of the various family members being the principal focus, but then also including the Chilean politics in the background that eventually builds to taking over the characters’ lives was the work of a master storyteller. I will admit to it being very troublesome to read about all the decisions that led to the coup and then to read about what happened afterwards, because given the current political climate, it all felt scarily relevant now.
Gabriel García Márquez is better…which is what this whole book reminded me of. A pretty, easy to read, yet less eloquent version of 100 Years of Solitude…. Bummer because I’ve heard such great things! But those people maybe have never read 100 Years of Solitude?! It’s basically the exact same book!
Extremely detailed world building/character development that translated to a bit of rambling
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
I really wanted to love this book but I just could not get into the story . While I can appreciate that the characters are fairly well written and the book even had a few interesting moments, it was moments not the overall story. A few of the major deterrents for me were the extremely long chapters (I’m talking hour long or more) and the overall lack of a true plot or story . The majority of the book is simply character ramblings ,internal monologues or stream of consciousness with no apparent purpose. The primary male character is not only physically and emotionally abusive but is portrayed in violent CSA multiple times throughout the story . Between the SA, DV , racism and misogyny in the book it’s hard to find an intriguing story. Also , why are all the main female characters referred to as strong or brave when they literally take abuse and allow themselves , despite being the only magically gifted people, to be walked all over at every single turn. The authors writing in general was decent but without the strong theme and plot the beauty of the words was lost .
DNF
Maybe it eventually all comes together, but it wasn’t before about 60% percent through. This book made me dislike reading, so I had to throw in the towel. Beyond the absence of a clear plot, the vocabulary in this book felt like the author had a quota of SAT words that had to be included. Maybe it was lost in translation, but “Solomonically” legit sounds made up, as do many other words. If the story were incredible, I would’ve overlooked it, but it only added to the pain.
Maybe it eventually all comes together, but it wasn’t before about 60% percent through. This book made me dislike reading, so I had to throw in the towel. Beyond the absence of a clear plot, the vocabulary in this book felt like the author had a quota of SAT words that had to be included. Maybe it was lost in translation, but “Solomonically” legit sounds made up, as do many other words. If the story were incredible, I would’ve overlooked it, but it only added to the pain.