Rating: 
Summary: Great book, a little on the long side
Review: Daughter of Fortune, by Isabel Allende, is a novel set in the time of the California Gold Rush that tells the story of a young woman's journey across the Pacific.
Eliza Sommers was left on the doorstep of a prominent British family in Chile, and was raised to be a "lady". Eliza has to put up with all the boundaries set for women in the 19th century. She is brought up believing that her main goal in life should be to arrange a good marriage, and to please her future husband.
Her life turns upside down when a young, intense store clerk named Joaquin woos her, and they fall madly in love. After a brief but passionate love affair, Joaquin sets off on a boat to follow the sudden gold craze that has swept South America.
Eliza, pregnant with Joaquin's child, determines to follow her lover nad try to find him in California. She makes it overseas with the help of her future best friend, a Chinese doctor named Tao. She continues to chase after the faintest chance of finding her lover, traveling with various traveling bands, including a group of prostitutes.
In California, Eliza's unending quest to meet up with her lover eventually leads her to finding out who she really is. In this new place, she can establish herself and build up a good reputation, despite the fact that she is a woman.
I thought Daughter of Fortune was a wonderful book. Allende's writing style is very descriptive and thorough, and is rich with detail. At times, however, she is a little too thorough and I got bored with what was happening. Luckily, there were plenty of exciting moments to make up for the dull ones..
The reader can tell how mcuh research went into making this book good. I found it fascinating that it began in Valparaiso, Chile, and described that place so well, and also went on to describe California and China. I learned many things about the cultures of these places, and also about the Gold Rush time period. It was difficult for women to express their individuality back then, and Allende has created a female protagonist whose search to find her own identity in that society makes it all the more believable.
Contrary to what most of the reviews say, I like the way the story ends. I do not think it is abrupt. If the author had gone on to further describe the relationship between Tao and Eliza, the book would have had to have been much longer, and it is quite long as it is. Its length, actually, is the main thing I didn't like about the book. I struggled through the first hundred pages or so, but in the end, the slow pace was worth it.
I highly recommend this book, and though it seems to be geared more towards women, I think anyone would enjoy it.
Rating: 
Summary: Pulp Romance
Review: This book is simply a pulp romance attempting, I suppose, to fictionalize a point in history, the mid to late 19 century and a Chilean foundling's misadventures, sans corsette, among the plunderers of the California gold rush and beyond. It is a surprisingly weak addition to Oprah's book club.
Rating: 
Summary: Lyrical Writing
Review: I don't know whether to credit Isabel Allende, Margaret Peden, or both, but this is an immensely enjoyable read. My wife bought this book because of Oprah's (overrated) book club. I was bored one evening and picked it up. I could not put it down. Wonderful!
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful!
Review: Allende, in her usual South American slightly magical Garcia-Marquez-esqe way, has written another classic. The book combines the poetry of Allende's prose with a bitter-sweet story of an orphan left on the doorstep of a middle class English brother and sister. The girl, Eliza, raised with the intention of being married off to a good, stable and weathy man, falls in love at 15 with a local nothing. The story, which follows Eliza's life and love, is interwoven with each of the unique personal histories of each character. It is pure Allende and, thus, a fantastic book.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing ending
Review: I hate books like this. You read and read forever and then the ending is so disappointing!
Rating:
Summary: Daughter of Fortune
Review: This was an incredible book! It draws you in and you become so close to the characters - you feel like you are living their life. My only problem with the book was the ending. It left me longing to know more. I can only hope that Isabel Allende is planning on writing a sequel!
Rating:
Summary: Careful attention to details
Review: A lot of people say that this book has an abrupt ending, that it needs a sequel.. but Allende gave so many "hints" into the future of Eliza's life that a sequel is certainly not needed. This is definitely a book where small details cannot be skipped and skimmed, 'cause ya might miss a few clues if you do.Otherwise, the novel was a good early morning read during my subway ride to Manhattan. Allende transported me into another era, another world. Everything was described in such lush detail that I could smell the odor of every character in the book. Tao Chi'en and the scent of the sea. Eliza's cooking. Rose's vanilla perfume. Joaquin's sweat.
*yummmmm.....
Rating:
Summary: A Breathtaking View of the Old West
Review: Allende once more has captured my imagination and taught me lessons in culture and history without my even knowing it. The characters are deep and wide as the vistas she paints of early California during the goldrush. My only complaint about the book was the abrupt ending. A sequel coming? The editor called and said "get me thoses last pages or else!?" Either way it was a bit unfair to end the story so suddenly.
Rating:
Summary: great potential, has you hooked, then drops off at the end
Review: From the beginning I was amazed with this book. The small details and passionate way tha Allende incorporates really shine. The book however starts to weaken after Eliza arrives in California. Her adventures with Tao Chi'en are fascinating and his character is very interesting. Eliza's story is really amazing. ALlende does nto finish teh book. We never know waht happened!! Maybe teh sequal will explain it all! I think it was a great idea, the nvoel and it has taught me a lot about the history, but just has me hanging on a hook! i do recommend it though for the good qualities I have listed!
Rating: 
Summary: An exhaustive history lesson but no novel heroine
Review: I had the opportunity recently to sit down for a week and read six Allende novels in a row. I say this up front so that you can understand the swirl of Allende I was in and the ability I had to truly absorb the complexity of each of the six and then try and distinguish them from one another.
There is no distinguishment, which both works and falls flat in places.
Daughter of Fortune propelled to yet another level of success by the Oprah Book Club nod is an odd duck book, much like The Infinite Plan. Unfortunately The Infinite Plan succeeds, achieves it's goal of wholeness while Daughter of Fortune strays to heights and middle areas that never quite reach resolution in a way that the reader can interpret as true. It's very important for a reader to be able, with the written information given and particularly the senses of the characters, to trust the reality they perceive or at the very least divine when one is being misguided by the other.
Daughter of Fortune ends not quite with a bang but a sigh or a huh?, depending upon how much you've bought into it to begin with.
Was the head in the bottle the man that this fool girl had crossed oceans to find her love or not?
The book instead does what Allende does best, elaborate about historical periods and elucidate things ad infinitum to the point of not just realism but an appreciation of the characters that distract from the history lesson and at the same time slowly, easily interweave themselves into this historical period.
But did I like the book, you press?
Yes and no.
Yes, I liked the bold action on Allende of blending so many cultures Chinese, American, South American into the California Gold Rush, leading to the creation of San Francisco. It's always pleasant to see a strong storyteller at work, weaving such disparate themes into an interesting bow.
However, the pesky judgmental, however, Allende's character get in the way of her history and her history gets in the way of her characters. Both are strong, literally capable of supporting a tome by themselves and distracting from the other, competing in ways that throw the story onto a edge, a misshapen end that undermines the entire product.
I liked Chuan, the Asian doctor who helps Eliza first to leave South America trailing her lover and then to a deeper love with him than she ever experienced before. However the novel spends so much time unveiling California history and then creating a mythic history of the vanished lover and then another history for Miss Rose and her brothers who raised the abandoned Eliza as one of their own until it's revealed, she is one of their own. Now here's where the novel stumbles. It's never revealed to Eliza, no one even gets close enough to her for there to even be a suspense about her knowledge of her parentage. The whole trick of abandonment feels like twenty minutes of a film that was related to the main plot but never connected to it, not as quick as a commercial but more like an interesting footnote. However this footnote info, along with the periphery characters it entails isn't strong enough to stand on it's own, making the novel as a whole weaker.
The final conclusion, which is more of a mystery than a revelation portends another book, another chapter in what seems to be a huge Allende canvas of characters and interrelations. But there is no prior warning that we are walking into a huge gallery of characters and a network of history and ramifications to the future novels to come so instead of anticipating this weaving and leaving character strands loose we wonder, did this part of the book mean to end or is it unfinished or does it even matter?
IN the end, no the real end, Daughter of Fortune loses all of it's feministic power by making Eliza a witness to womanhood, disguising her as a man and never making her stand out as a heroine to be reckoned with. She in essence goes from one male dominated arena to another until finally she comes to the one that suits her best and can take care of her, there are women mentioned around her that are interesting, provocative and sorely missed when the novel turns its' focus to the rather bland Eliza.
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