La casa de los espíritus | Isabel Allende

La casa de los espíritus | Isabel Allende | Wonderful historical fiction

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La casa de los esp...

	La casa de los espíritus Isabel Allende Rayo, 1995 - 464 pages average customer review:based on 272 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Bestseller internacional y muy admirado clásico de la literatura latinoamericana, la trascendental novela de Isabel Allende cuenta la historia épica de la numerosa y turbulenta familia Trueba de Chile, con su patriarca angustiado y sus mujeres clarividentes, trazando sus vidas desde los fines del siglo pasado, hasta los días violentos del golpe que derrocó al gobierno de Salvador Allende en 1973. En La casa de los espíritus, Allende combina lo supernatural con lo real en una versión sumamente personal de realismo mágico. Es raro, el caso, en que una primera novela lanza a su autora tan repentinamente al foro internacionales.

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men can read this too

At first, I never wanted to pick this up. It had its deterrents: the cover with its colorful depiction of strong-willed women, the concise summarization on the opposite side of the cover, making it seem like a sweeping love affair, something Fabio might pose for, and the dedication of the book. The dedication reads "To my mother, my grandmother, and all the other extraordinary women of this story." This did not arouse my senses or alert my curiosity, and I was very close to putting it back on the shelf unread forever. But I picked it up again almost right away. My reasoning was if I can read a book which seems so unattractive to me, I can read anything. I've already read dozens of books from the male perspective - from just in the last year, such titles as Catch-22, The House of God, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values - all fun, intriguing, well-written guy books. But women read them too, and enjoy them just as much. I've only read two books by female authors in the last year, so I decided why not. It might even be good.

To call this "chick lit" would be such a degradation to the novel. (But this is the category I lumped in before I read it.) There are several male characters, by the way. And they're not at all stereotypical. All the men in the novel range from almost saintly to your ordinary human being. One man, a bastard child fuels his rage throughout the novel and at the end he is the only really evil character.

Some of it is told from the perspective of the patriarch of the family, Esteban, who grew up poor and made himself one of the richest and most powerful men in the country. There are no melodramatic passages in the book. The writing style is professional and admirable, and Magda Bogin does an exceptional job translating the work from its Spanish.

Parts of the books made me think of The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, other parts made me think of My Life as a Dog (1985) or Pippi Longstocking (these were the earlier chapters). Further in, since it's such an epic family drama, I thought of the movie Doctor Zhivago (1965) and nearing the end, in the brutal chapters, I thought of the film Midnight Express (1978).

Though the novel never mentions - not once - the country it takes place in, we slowly begin to realize it's Chile in South America. In fact, I had to look at some of the blurbs on the book to figure that out. Isabel Allende was the niece of Salvador Allende who was a Socialist President in Chile - the first ever Socialist President. But he was soon after killed by the military when they bombed his Presidential Palace in a coup d'état in 1973. The military promised to bring the country back to a capitalist democracy, but instead put the country in a totalitarian regime, a police state, from 1973 to 1990, murdering about 3,000 civilians. This is discussed with such passion in the last few chapters.

It's really one of the best books of its kind. And despite the dedication, the summarization and cover, it is not a story about women. It is a story about people. It's not floozy romantic epic, it has intellect and is written with skill and passion. Read it.

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Wonderful historical fiction

Isabel Allende's books are all very realistic, but include some elements of magical realism. This book has a little more graphic violence than the others that I have read, but it sticks very closely to the realities of the period in which it is based in history. I highly recommend this book.

wow

I went into this book thinking I was going to hate it. I generally don't like required readings for school so I assumed this was just going to be another pointless book. It was actually quite interesting. If you have ever seen the movie "My Family," it really reminds me of that. It has a similar style because it explores several people's stories.

Essentially, this book is a compilation of many different tales that intertwine and explore different themes but end up being related in a way that is difficult to describe.

If I had to pick one message to describe what this book is about, I would say it is that family members don't necessarily have to have similar beliefs and agendas to love each other. The revolution in Chile separates the Trueba family to the point of hatred for one another but each member of the family ends up regretting things and treasuring the things that they share with each other in order to make each other happier, better people. Each person lives on as a spirit in the big house on the corner.

I am currently at my aunt's house and she has seen the movie so we are going to rent it. I just hope it is as good as the book. I honestly didn't know there was a movie.

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review of house of the spirits

I thought this was a very good book, considering I had to read it for school. At first I thought I would not enjoy it because it was very wordy and there were a LOT of characters that seemed to have no real importance, but as I continued reading, I realized that it was a very well thought out and well written novel. I wish that I were fluent in spanish so that I could read the original version, but the english translation will have to suffice. I highly reccommend this book to anyone interested in Latin American politics and communisim, but also to anyone who is looking for a challenging and intriguing read.

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