Rating: 
Summary: A moving tale of love and violence
Review: "Of Love and Shadows" is Isabel Allende's novel about life under military dictatorship in an unnamed Latin American country (the dictator is simply called "the General"). Margaret Sayers Peden has translated the Spanish original into a very readable English. Although the book was slow to grasp my close attention in the opening episodes, I ultimately found it to be a powerful and moving story of love in the midst of violence and fear.Allende, who is Chilean, mixes a naturalistic style with several surreal touches in this novel. As the story progresses, her main characters investigate a disturbing mystery, and their ultimate discovery has a profound impact on several interconnected families. Allende uses this narrative framework to explore such issues as gender identity, philosophical conflict, religious difference, censorship, and the role of both the journalist and the soldier in the modern state. "Of Love and Shadows" is an important book for those interested in contemporary Latin American literature.
Rating:
Summary: A modern, less mystical novel than others by Allende
Review: Adoring some of Allende's other works (Eva Luna; The Stories of Eva Luna), I picked this up. The characters are well-drawn. The book has an interesting but somewhat predictable plot. Overall, it was a pleasant read, but not of the caliber of some of her prior fiction.
Rating: 
Summary: Predictable but one of her best
Review: After reading 'Eva Luna', Isabel had captivated me. Now, after reading 'Of Love and Shadows', I am even more captivated. The book holds great relevance at this time as it coincides with the current issue involving General Pinochet. The great characters and the modern sense of the novel over shadowed its predictability. Simply a great read.
Rating:
Summary: Book review
Review: Althougth this book gathered dust on my shelf for over 3 years I finally sat down to read it. How glad I am that I finally finished this book. We are taken to an uncertain world with in these pages. A Latin culture so immersed in magic, spirituality and love of family battels their political deamons. The question is what happens to the political prisoners who mysteriously disapear? Although many of the people know the answer, it is too horrible for them to admit until they are awakened by the discoverys of the main characters, Fredirico and Isabel. These two characters are not only our heros but they are also madly in love with one another. Great work!
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Summary: It took the reader to the world of the dictatorship,exciting
Review: As a major in Spanish Literature, I believe that De amor y sombras takes the reader to the tumultous years of the dictatorship in South America. It not only detalils what occured in Chile but what occured in Argentina in the late 1970s and correlates to many situations that are occuring today in Latin American. This work not only relates the happenings of Latin American history but it also gives the reader a face to the dictatorship. Thus, it endears the reader to the situation. The love story that unravels is charming! The book was exciting and it kept me interested. This is the second book that I have read by Isabel Allende y ¡está muy bien hecho!
Rating: 
Summary: disapointing
Review: I loved The House of Spirits and Daughter of Fortune, but Of Love and Shadows was disappointing. It amounted to a pretty predictable cheesy romance novel, rather than the complex, intriguing stories Allende is capable of.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful imagery mixed with undeniable tragedy.
Review: I read this book inorder to study the coup of Pinochet in Chile as part of a class in high school. Allende is such a wonderful author that I was captured by this novel and unable to put it down. The characters are so real that they wrap themselves in the sympathy of the reader. This book was both entertaining and enlightening. Allende is one of the best writers in any language.
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Summary: One of a kind book/storyline
Review: I think this book is great. I don t really agree w the fella from NY who says that it is weak and that the charatceters don t develop really well. I think the characters develop beautifully. It is another great book by Allende. This was her second or third book written, and makes a great read almost any time and to me is a bit better than Eva Luna. Reccomended to folks who want to read a book like no other where the characters make the book very interesting. Others recomended: 100 years of solitude by Garcia Marquez.
Rating:
Summary: long lasting
Review: Isabelle Allende brings out extreme emotions of love, death, and pain in "of love and shadows". The love story displayed in this novel enitces the soul to search deeper into the emotion called love. The tragedies cuased by the depicted regime forces the reader to face the reality of human cruelty and the stench of death. As a political tool, this book proves its stripes. As a novel it lures the reader into its web that sticks to the mind long after that last word is read.
Rating:
Summary: long lasting
Review: Isabelle Allende brings out extreme emotions of love, death, and pain in "of love and shadows". The love story displayed in this novel enitces the soul to search deeper into the emotion called love. The tragedies cuased by the depicted regime forces the reader to face the reality of human cruelty and the stench of death. As a political tool, this book proves its stripes. As a novel it lures the reader into its web that sticks to the mind long after that last word is read.
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