Reviews with content warning for Racism - La Maison aux esprits

Reviews tagging 'Racism'

La Maison aux esprits by Isabel Allende

50 reviews

summermorning's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

2.5

I did not enjoy this book. All the blurbs, and everything I had heard about it, made me excited to read it, and by the time I was halfway through I was already considering quitting.

I think the prose and writing was good. I loved the magical realism aspects, I loved the historical fiction aspect, and the idea of tracing a family through that tumultuous period and all that led up to it. I even really liked the way the story wasn't told entirely chronologically, and I got over the weird switch between first and third person narrative just fine.

That being said, after I started reading this, I was really shocked it wasn't a male author. The gratuitous, excessive sexual violence was insane. I understand that she is trying to illustrate how powerless women, both upper and lower class, were at the time, but at points, it just seems way too much and unnecessarily descriptive for the purposes of narrative.

Especially with Esteban Garcia and young Alba. The incest is a bit much too, with Jaime's weird longings as well. He was the only championable character until then.

Which brings me to my next point, which is that none of these characters are truly likeable. I detested being asked to pity and forgive Esteban Trueba just because he was old and sad. I feel as though his character could have been illustrated just as clearly without so much of the narrative being claimed by that horrible sexist, racist, rapist wife and child beater.

My biggest complaint is that this book is heralded for its strong female characters. Who? Where? Literally all the women never do anything but get abused until maybe the last 30 pages or so, and even then, Alba's biggest contribution seems to be to suffer nobly. All the big revolutionary players who accomplish things, or even try to, are men. And the women exist to love them, get in their way (@Miguel), or suffer for them. Clara has magical powers and was raised by, at least for the time, decently liberal people. Yet she marries someone she doesn't love, puts up with his abuse, and even forgives him. I fail to believe the only revolutionaries in Chile were male, and all the women could do were sing in concentration camps and survive.

I enjoyed the aspect of generational trauma and tracing that alone the lineage, but it fell incredibly flat when in one sentence Alba was claiming she would break those chains, and in another forgiving her rapist because it was just meant to happen, and probably her children would do the same to his someday. I couldn't believe that she was supposed to be the strong, female lead when all she did at the end was bury her beloved grandfather and wait for Miguel and for her baby to born. It really felt like the women simply existed to birth the next generation for the men to use and that we were supposed to cheer that on.

I also felt like the second half of the book fell flat with the magical realism. Had it been to illustrate the realistic suffering of the war, or to highlight the modern age, that would have worked. But instead it was sort of thrown in willy nilly just enough to ruin that idea, but not enough to make it feel connected.

Honestly, some of this might even have been okay reading if not for the fact that not a single character was redeemable and literally nothing good happens except for maybe 20 pages in the middle of the book. I understand a tragedy, but honestly, this book was too long for almost no highs and only lows. It makes the tragedy drudgery and torture for the reader rather than powerful and poignant with nothing good to contrast it with.

This book was not at all what it has been heralded as, and I was really disappointed with it.

Also, the dog dies.

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makbrandt's review against another edition

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challenging emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Content Warnings

chaoticnostalgia's review against another edition

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lighthearted sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Agh, such wonderful writing, I just didn't connect to the story or characters much. Can't wait to read more from this author!

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seawarrior's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

4.0

While I felt that this book was difficult to initially get invested in since the plot didn't have a clear direction, and the narrator was unknown, once I fell into the story I was able to appreciate how lyrical and magical the writing is, even when describing horrific events. At its roots, this is a story about how a single patriarch destroys an entire country. Yet it blooms a story of family triumph and tragedy, of love that endures destruction, and how acts of violence are never restrained to a single point in time. It's a modern epic that is as rewarding to read as it is distressing. Although reading it does require a level of acceptance that this family is steeped in racism, misogyny and the violence inherent to massive wealth, I did think the book has worth. I would recommend it to those that can withstand reading about the subject matter, namely, the egregious sexual, physical, and political violence the leading character commits over his seemingly never-ending lifetime.

Content Warnings