The House of the Spirits

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	• The House of the Spirits Isabel Allende Bantam, 1986 - 448 pages average customer review:based on 267 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

The House of the Spirits

Of all of Isabelle Allende's books that I have read, "The House of the Spirits" would be my nomination for "Best of Show." At first I was puzzled and even frustrated in trying to understand why and even how Esteban Trueba's reflections were appearing in random places. I soon came to realize what a clever way it was for Allende to tell the story. She employed a particularly useful construction tool to make a dark story shed some redemptive light.

Great Book

I won't write a lot because of the numerous reviews already posted. This was the first book that I have read by Allende. I read the original version in Spanish, which is preferred if you are bilingual since that's the original language (as my Don Quixote professor always used to reiterate a sentiment of Cervantes, that "el traductor le equivale a un traidor", or that a Translator is equivalent to a Traitor, in that you cannot fully appreciate a book if not read in its original language. Reading a translation is like looking at the back side of a tapestry; you won't get the full effect of the image in all of its beauty. So I recommend reading the original Spanish version, if you are able to. I cannot comment on the English version since I have not read it.

To sum up the book though, it was very well written and a great piece of literature. The story goes all the way up to the beginning of the Pinochet dictatorship, and we experience life in Chile through the story of three generations of the Trueba family, starting with Clara, then Blanca, then Alba. El Senor Trueba (Clara's spouse) is there from beginning to end, an extremely machista man who works his way out of poverty and becomes a wealthy and affluent ranch owner and Senator of the Republic. He is an adamant conservative who absolutely opposes any hint of Marxism; but is unable to stop the tide of communism that eventually sweeps over his country and eventually envelops even his own children (Blanca is the life-long amante of Pedro Tercero Garcia, a leader of the communist movement and sworn enemy of her father; Alba later falls in love with Miguel, a guerrillero who believes in a violent taking of the country by force). El Senor Trueba is a very angry and violent man, the machista typified; however he harbors a guilt for his actions throughout life, yet his pride prevents him from publicly admitting his guilt, only when one of his loved ones dies or in the arms of his beloved life-long prostitute who in a way acts as his sole confessor throughout life. Only at the end of his life does he resign himself to his grave error, and there is a beautiful scene of redemption with his daughter and grandchild.

The story is very tragic throughout, yet comedic, a story of longsuffering and unrequited love, of the battle against communism and the horrors of a military coup and subsequent dictatorship (which was not the intention of Senor Trueba in overthrowing the communist President, instead, democracy altogether was thrown out and the country was in a worse position than before).

This is a work of literature. I highly recommend it, it was a book that I could not put down, and one that made me think a lot about the universal suffering in the world and the tendency of those who live in the upper-class to ignore pain and suffering; however as we see in the lives of Clara, Blanca and Alba, they are also a part of that class yet dedicate themselves to attending to the poor and needy even at the objections of Senor Trueba. The story is one of despair, but also one of hope in that even Senor Trueba, at the end of his life, has his pride shattered and finds redemption in the most unusual of places.

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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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Entrancing...

This is an amazing book. I picked it up not knowing what to expect and found myself unable to put it down. Allende is a marvelous writer, though this is the first and only book of hers I have read (so far). I loved knowing the characters of this story and was sad to finish reading it. I wasn't ready to leave their family.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Here, in an astonishing debut by a gifted storyteller, is the magnificent saga of proud and passionate men and women and the turbulent times through which they suffer and triumph. They are the Truebas. And theirs is a world you will not want to leave, and one you will not forget.

Esteban -- The patriarch, a volatile and proud man whose lust for land is legendary and who is haunted by his tyrannical passion for the wife he can never completely possess.

Clara -- The matriarch, elusive and mysterious, who foretells family tragedy and shapes the fortunes of the house of the Truebas.

Blanca -- Their daughter, soft-spoken yet rebellious, whose shocking love for the son of her father's foreman fuels Esteban's everlasting contempt... even as it produces the grandchild he adores.

Alba -- The fruit of Blanca's forbidden love, a luminous bearty, a fiery and willful woman... the family's break with the past and link to the future.

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