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4.21 AVERAGE
4.21 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, War
adventurous
dark
emotional
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Loved this book wholly. Generational, building toward something constantly, while reflecting and calling back what came before with magic and craft.
dark
emotional
informative
sad
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
Can we forgive those closest to us when they hurt us time and again?
I actually tried reading this book two other times before and couldn’t do it. Maybe I needed to be at a certain point in my life to be able to sit down, trust in the author, and continue through a story of a family’s horrors, loves, and losses. Whatever the reason was for my hesitation to finish this book, I’m glad I finally sat down to read The House of the Spirits.
I’m not exaggerating when I say this book is lifechanging. I literally can’t stop thinking about it. This book presents the history of a country, people, family, love, and the intertwined web of generational trauma through it all in one bound cover. It’s an astonishing feat.
Only a story like this can really convey how generational trauma touches every thread of a family’s history. Even the irredeemable and unforgivable people of this book, and the insane amount of pain and humiliation they inflict on others, is met with unbounding humanity and understanding. The ending of this book ties together this tapestry of love for the damned, unlovable, and pure hearted perfectly. Ah, I can’t stop gushing about it.
At times it can be a hard read, whether it's from the long paragraphed prose or the disturbingly intense traumas that occur to many. But if you're able to trust in Allende's process I'm sure you won't be sorry.
I’m not exaggerating when I say this book is lifechanging. I literally can’t stop thinking about it. This book presents the history of a country, people, family, love, and the intertwined web of generational trauma through it all in one bound cover. It’s an astonishing feat.
Only a story like this can really convey how generational trauma touches every thread of a family’s history. Even the irredeemable and unforgivable people of this book, and the insane amount of pain and humiliation they inflict on others, is met with unbounding humanity and understanding. The ending of this book ties together this tapestry of love for the damned, unlovable, and pure hearted perfectly. Ah, I can’t stop gushing about it.
At times it can be a hard read, whether it's from the long paragraphed prose or the disturbingly intense traumas that occur to many. But if you're able to trust in Allende's process I'm sure you won't be sorry.
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Police brutality, Medical content, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Moderate: Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Murder, Lesbophobia, War
Heartbreaking mystical multigenerational family saga that tells the story of multiple intertwined families in Chile throughout the 20th century. Blending magic realism, political history, romance, family dynamics, and feminism- it’s incredible that this was Allende’s first novel. The story reminded me of Les Miserables and the writing reminded me of 1Q84. A pleasure to read and hard to put down.
“Nana reassured her by telling her that many children fly like birds, guess other people’s dreams, and speak with ghosts, but that they all outgrow it when they lose their innocence. “None of them reach adulthood like that,” she explained. “Wait till she starts to ‘demonstrate.’ You’ll see how fast she loses interest in making furniture move across the room and predicting disasters!””
“Almost all her brothers and sisters had married or left—some to travel, others to work in the provinces—and the big house, which had contained such a large family, was almost empty, with many of its rooms locked.”
“Despite her tender age and complete ignorance of matters of this world, Clara grasped the absurdity of the situation and wrote in her notebook about the contrast of her mother and her friends, in their fur coats and suede boots, speaking of oppression, equality, and rights to a sad, resigned group of hard-working women in denim aprons, their hands red with chilblains. From the factory the ladies would move on to the tearoom on the Plaza de Armas, where they would stop for tea and pastry and discuss the progress of their campaign, not for a moment letting this frivolous distraction divert them from their flaming ideals.”
““This boy should have become a priest,” Clara declared. For Jaime, who would not have been the least disturbed by the priestly vows of humility, poverty, and chastity, religion was the cause of half the world’s misfortunes, so when his mother would make this comment he would become furious. He felt that Christianity, like almost all forms of superstition, made men weaker and more resigned, and that the point was not to await some reward in the sky but to fight for one’s rights on earth. These were things he discussed in private with his mother; it was impossible to do so with Esteban Trueba, who quickly lost patience and ended up shouting and slamming doors because, as he put it, he was up to here with living among a bunch of lunatics and all he wanted was a little normality, but he had had the misfortune of marrying an eccentric and siring three good-for-nothing crazies who were ruining his life.”
““My children are all fools. If they inherited Tres Marías, in less than a year it would be a ruin again, just as in my father’s day,” he told his granddaughter. “All this is yours, Grandfather?” “Every bit of it. From the Pan-American highway to those mountaintops over there. You see them?” “Why, Grandfather?” “What do you mean why? Because I’m the owner!” “But why are you the owner?” “Because it belonged to my family.” “Why?” “Because they bought it from the Indians.” “And what about the tenants who’ve always lived here? Why aren’t they the owners too?” “Your Uncle Jaime is putting Bolshevik ideas into your head!” Senator Trueba would roar, sputtering with rage. “Do you know what would happen here without a patrón?” “No.” “The place would go to hell! There would be no one to give orders, sell the crops, take responsibility for things—you understand? No one to take care of people, either. If anyone got sick or died or left a widow with a lot of kids, they’d all starve to death. Everyone would have a little piece of land that wouldn’t produce enough for them to eat. They need someone to do their thinking for them, someone around to make decisions, someone to help them. I’ve been the best patrón around, Alba. I may have a bad temper, but I’m fair. My tenants live better than a lot of people in the city. They lack for nothing, and even when there’s a drought, or a flood, or an earthquake, I see to it that no one suffers here. And that’s exactly what you’ll have to do when you’re old enough. That’s why I bring you to Tres Marías—so that you’ll learn to know each stone and each animal and, above all, each person, by their first and last name. Do you understand?” But in fact she had very little contact with the peasants and was far from knowing each of them by name.”
““You’re a hopeless loser, son,” Trueba would say, sighing. “You have no sense of reality. You’ve never taken stock of how the world really is. You put your faith in utopian values that don’t even exist.” “Helping one’s neighbor is a value that exists.” “No. Charity, like Socialism, is an invention of the weak to exploit the strong and bring them to their knees.” “I don’t believe in your theory of the weak and the strong,” Jaime replied. “That’s the way it is in nature. We live in a jungle.” “Yes, because the people who make up the rules think like you! But it won’t always be that way.””
“While luxury stores, miraculous finance companies, exotic restaurants, and import business were flourishing, the unemployed lined up outside factory gates waiting for a chance to work at the minimum wage. The labor force was reduced to slavery, and for the first time in many decades management was able to fire people at will without granting any severance pay and to have them thrown in jail for the slightest protest.”
“I felt as if I were assembling a jigsaw puzzle in which each piece had a specific place. Before I put the puzzle together, it all seemed incomprehensible to me, but I was sure that if I ever managed to complete it, the separate parts would each have meaning and the whole would be harmonious.”
“It would be very difficult for me to avenge all those who should be avenged, because my revenge would be just another part of the same inexorable rite. I have to break that terrible chain.”
— The House of the Spirits: A Novel by Isabel Allende
https://a.co/3BY66AJ
“Nana reassured her by telling her that many children fly like birds, guess other people’s dreams, and speak with ghosts, but that they all outgrow it when they lose their innocence. “None of them reach adulthood like that,” she explained. “Wait till she starts to ‘demonstrate.’ You’ll see how fast she loses interest in making furniture move across the room and predicting disasters!””
“Almost all her brothers and sisters had married or left—some to travel, others to work in the provinces—and the big house, which had contained such a large family, was almost empty, with many of its rooms locked.”
“Despite her tender age and complete ignorance of matters of this world, Clara grasped the absurdity of the situation and wrote in her notebook about the contrast of her mother and her friends, in their fur coats and suede boots, speaking of oppression, equality, and rights to a sad, resigned group of hard-working women in denim aprons, their hands red with chilblains. From the factory the ladies would move on to the tearoom on the Plaza de Armas, where they would stop for tea and pastry and discuss the progress of their campaign, not for a moment letting this frivolous distraction divert them from their flaming ideals.”
““This boy should have become a priest,” Clara declared. For Jaime, who would not have been the least disturbed by the priestly vows of humility, poverty, and chastity, religion was the cause of half the world’s misfortunes, so when his mother would make this comment he would become furious. He felt that Christianity, like almost all forms of superstition, made men weaker and more resigned, and that the point was not to await some reward in the sky but to fight for one’s rights on earth. These were things he discussed in private with his mother; it was impossible to do so with Esteban Trueba, who quickly lost patience and ended up shouting and slamming doors because, as he put it, he was up to here with living among a bunch of lunatics and all he wanted was a little normality, but he had had the misfortune of marrying an eccentric and siring three good-for-nothing crazies who were ruining his life.”
““My children are all fools. If they inherited Tres Marías, in less than a year it would be a ruin again, just as in my father’s day,” he told his granddaughter. “All this is yours, Grandfather?” “Every bit of it. From the Pan-American highway to those mountaintops over there. You see them?” “Why, Grandfather?” “What do you mean why? Because I’m the owner!” “But why are you the owner?” “Because it belonged to my family.” “Why?” “Because they bought it from the Indians.” “And what about the tenants who’ve always lived here? Why aren’t they the owners too?” “Your Uncle Jaime is putting Bolshevik ideas into your head!” Senator Trueba would roar, sputtering with rage. “Do you know what would happen here without a patrón?” “No.” “The place would go to hell! There would be no one to give orders, sell the crops, take responsibility for things—you understand? No one to take care of people, either. If anyone got sick or died or left a widow with a lot of kids, they’d all starve to death. Everyone would have a little piece of land that wouldn’t produce enough for them to eat. They need someone to do their thinking for them, someone around to make decisions, someone to help them. I’ve been the best patrón around, Alba. I may have a bad temper, but I’m fair. My tenants live better than a lot of people in the city. They lack for nothing, and even when there’s a drought, or a flood, or an earthquake, I see to it that no one suffers here. And that’s exactly what you’ll have to do when you’re old enough. That’s why I bring you to Tres Marías—so that you’ll learn to know each stone and each animal and, above all, each person, by their first and last name. Do you understand?” But in fact she had very little contact with the peasants and was far from knowing each of them by name.”
““You’re a hopeless loser, son,” Trueba would say, sighing. “You have no sense of reality. You’ve never taken stock of how the world really is. You put your faith in utopian values that don’t even exist.” “Helping one’s neighbor is a value that exists.” “No. Charity, like Socialism, is an invention of the weak to exploit the strong and bring them to their knees.” “I don’t believe in your theory of the weak and the strong,” Jaime replied. “That’s the way it is in nature. We live in a jungle.” “Yes, because the people who make up the rules think like you! But it won’t always be that way.””
“While luxury stores, miraculous finance companies, exotic restaurants, and import business were flourishing, the unemployed lined up outside factory gates waiting for a chance to work at the minimum wage. The labor force was reduced to slavery, and for the first time in many decades management was able to fire people at will without granting any severance pay and to have them thrown in jail for the slightest protest.”
“I felt as if I were assembling a jigsaw puzzle in which each piece had a specific place. Before I put the puzzle together, it all seemed incomprehensible to me, but I was sure that if I ever managed to complete it, the separate parts would each have meaning and the whole would be harmonious.”
“It would be very difficult for me to avenge all those who should be avenged, because my revenge would be just another part of the same inexorable rite. I have to break that terrible chain.”
— The House of the Spirits: A Novel by Isabel Allende
https://a.co/3BY66AJ
Such a marvelous book! Full of life, love, death, hatred, and the common everyday. There were times I wanted to put it down, give it up, not finish it. Some if it seems just silly, some of it is just too painful to bear. But the last few pages push it beyond most things you will read and will render it one of your life's treasures. I knew nothing about this book or the author when I started it, suggested by my daughter which is very fitting, so even the author's short bio at the end transformed the book into something else. Magical realism, indeed!
challenging
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Incrível. Acho que como não estou acostumada com drama familiar, preferiria se fosse mais curto, já que costumo ler coisas muito fluidas e cheias de reviravoltas. No caso, o livro é incrível e a história é muito boa, mas a melhor parte é a escrita em si, então tive dificuldade de manter o ritmo.