A review by samants
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende

challenging dark emotional informative reflective medium-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

4.0

Deducted 1/2 star for unnecessary use of slurs and harsh language (m-slur, f-slur, "Oriental", etc.) by not just characters (which would be more understandable) but the narrative itself.

Thoughts:
  • Overall, I enjoyed this. (despite the extensive content warning list I just filled out)
  • Parts of it were harrowing (the most difficult parts were all about
    Esteban Garcia and Alba
    , which I'm sure was deliberate), and I didn't think all of it was strictly necessary, but I thought it was a compelling intergenerational tale spanning 20th century Chile.
  • It reminded me a lot of One Hundred Years of Solitude, which I'm certain was intentional; Allende pokes fun at García Márquez in a section where
    Blanca proposes naming Alba Clara after another Clara, who is still alive, but Clara I puts her foot down and says that doing that is cursed or something
    , which I thought was funny (this book could be funny at times). I did enjoy it more than One Hundred Years of Solitude, partly because only one name is repeated (very deliberately so) and partly because it didn't drag on as much -- the premise of One Hundred Years of Solitude is that the village is extremely isolated and nothing much changes / it's behind the times, and The House of the Spirits is set mostly in the capital, very connected to the goings-on of Chile. This kept things moving and made each character interesting as they had different issues to deal with than the generation prior. Both books have connections spanning generations (politicians in the family, generational trauma, the same people coming up again and again) and elements of magical realism. I'm glad I read One Hundred Years of Solitude beforehand, as this is definitely a spiritual (ha) successor of it, but I preferred this.
    • The connections between generations were so interesting and I'm sure have been the topic of many academic papers. I just read the wikipedia summary of the book and saw this quote (from wikipedia, not the book):
    • After helping Alba write their memoir, Esteban Trueba dies in the arms of Alba, accompanied by Clara's spirit; he is smiling, having avoided Férula's prophecy that he will die like a dog.
    • But this is incorrect. Perhaps he believes this, but he is wrong. He does
      die like a dog; it just so happens that the dog is Barrabás, who also died in the arms of the only one who loved him
      . This book.
  • Some things were left unresolved (
    who killed Barrabás? how did the count end up dead in the capital?
    ) with the feeling of "sometimes in life, there are just mysteries that you never solve".
  • There's nothing like reading about a country falling into fascism and going "well, shit."
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