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A review by knod78
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
4.0
This completes The Read Around The World: October: South America book challenge. I have since sat on this a day to process my thoughts. Two things came to me when reading the book that are not really about the book:
1. I'm reminded of the scene where Rory Gilmore claims she has a crush on the professor, because she lied about liking Isabelle Allende. At the time, I had no idea what that was when I heard it, but now I do.
2. When we went to Santiago for our honeymoon, we stopped in the history museum. I was curious about Pinochet, because I knew about him, but little about him. I wanted to know more. In the whole museum, there were three pictures of newspaper articles framed: Pinochet took power, Pinochet during his reign, and Pinochet is forced to resign. That's it. Nothing else. It's almost like Chileans wanted to sweep that shit right under the rug.
I really enjoyed this book. I loved reading another sweeping family epic through one century of time as the characters moved through the time periods as people and ideals and society changes. I loved the magic and spirits within this book and how Clara made room for guests by creating new nooks and crannies. I was really in to this book even though yes, it started out slow and it took me time to get used to the style of writing. As with lots of Latin American books, I feel like things were a bit lost in translation, but I get it. I also learned more about this country I grew to love. And yet again, for the sixth book this year, I read words written 30 years prior eerily saying the same shit, especially with regards to justifying the attempted coup on January 6, and how if the votes don't go our way, we can just make Congress decide.
My issues with the book (why I gave it four stars) was that this was told in narration form looking back in the past. That is normally fine and I liked it. However, there were key events that were given away in early chapters. For instance, we meet someone and then it's told that he will betray the family. When the betrayal happens, it was almost anti-climatic. I was already prepared. I really hated Esteban Trueba's character (even though, well done for accepting Clara as she was), and I could see he would be a stalker at some point. And it wasn't until the last 100 pages that we get to know more about Pinochet (I assume it's Pinochet), but it's not really all about him. It was almost rushed, and again, I was reminded about the museum in Chile with little about Pinochet. Also, why didn't we get the actual names of the Poet (assume Neruda), the Candidate, and the Coup General?
Despite Rory's objection to Allende, I am so glad I read this book and would definitely read another one of her books.
1. I'm reminded of the scene where Rory Gilmore claims she has a crush on the professor, because she lied about liking Isabelle Allende. At the time, I had no idea what that was when I heard it, but now I do.
2. When we went to Santiago for our honeymoon, we stopped in the history museum. I was curious about Pinochet, because I knew about him, but little about him. I wanted to know more. In the whole museum, there were three pictures of newspaper articles framed: Pinochet took power, Pinochet during his reign, and Pinochet is forced to resign. That's it. Nothing else. It's almost like Chileans wanted to sweep that shit right under the rug.
I really enjoyed this book. I loved reading another sweeping family epic through one century of time as the characters moved through the time periods as people and ideals and society changes. I loved the magic and spirits within this book and how Clara made room for guests by creating new nooks and crannies. I was really in to this book even though yes, it started out slow and it took me time to get used to the style of writing. As with lots of Latin American books, I feel like things were a bit lost in translation, but I get it. I also learned more about this country I grew to love. And yet again, for the sixth book this year, I read words written 30 years prior eerily saying the same shit, especially with regards to justifying the attempted coup on January 6, and how if the votes don't go our way, we can just make Congress decide.
My issues with the book (why I gave it four stars) was that this was told in narration form looking back in the past. That is normally fine and I liked it. However, there were key events that were given away in early chapters. For instance, we meet someone and then it's told that he will betray the family. When the betrayal happens, it was almost anti-climatic. I was already prepared. I really hated Esteban Trueba's character (even though, well done for accepting Clara as she was), and I could see he would be a stalker at some point. And it wasn't until the last 100 pages that we get to know more about Pinochet (I assume it's Pinochet), but it's not really all about him. It was almost rushed, and again, I was reminded about the museum in Chile with little about Pinochet. Also, why didn't we get the actual names of the Poet (assume Neruda), the Candidate, and the Coup General?
Despite Rory's objection to Allende, I am so glad I read this book and would definitely read another one of her books.