Rating: 
Summary: You'll like it if you liked "100 years of solitude"
Review: If you liked the Marquez's "100 Years of Solitude", you'll definitely like "The House of Spirits". If you haven't, probably read the Marquez's book first. Both books are beautiful (and very similar while being quite different), the Allende's one is closer to the (cruel) reality, and so a bit less philosophic.
Rating: 
Summary: The House of the Spirits / / Saddenly Tale
Review: Im going to talk about the ending, I started an online review only for the first chapter only. I'm done with the book for about 3 weeks. In the last few chapters, it all started that Esteban Trueba sent her daughter Blanca and her lover Pedro Tercero to Canada to get out of the country safely and he forgave Pedro Tercero and everything he had done with him. One night, the military polices broke in Esteban Trueba's house and arrested Alba(Esteban Trueba's granddaughter) for assisting or being invovled with a terrorist (Marxist communinst) Miguel. Esteban Trueba was deeply in shock with intense anger because the militaries won't even recognize his fame as a senator of his own country. He instead sign the form because the polices slapped Alba. Alba was sent to Colonel Garcia (an evil son)and was tortured and abused by Colonel Esteban Garcia (an evil son of Pancha, the woman that got raped by Esteban Trueba a long time ago in Tres Marias)Senator Trueba received no help from his old fellows for searching for her granddaughter,except the lady Transito Soto (Whose suppose to return him the favor for making her rich)Finally, after all those terrible months with Colonel Garcia,Alba was rescued by Transito Soto (an old friend from the Red Lantern of Senator Trueba), she has access to any political parties. Alba got home safely. And the ending is that she learned that there are many pains and memories that she cannot bear with the past. Her grandfather Esteban Trueba died peacefully. Don't watch the movie, "THE HOUSE OF THE SPIRITS", most of the scenes don't really fit the book. They didn't even included the minor characters, major plots, and anything in it, they made the movie in nonspecific ways. Alba was suppose to be arrested, not Blanca. Isn't that weird? Never mind, just don't watch the movie, I'm advising you. Thanks! Hope you enjoy the middle part of the book...
Rating: 
Summary: Ugh!
Review: I couldn't even finish it, and so I had to skip my book club!
Rating:
Summary: Delicious!
Review: I read this book when I was 20, and loved it. It is a great story about life, death, family, friends, war, and everything else you can think of. Isabel Allende manages beautifly to mingle fiction with reality, and tells the story of a family, and especially the relationship between a girl, who is telling the story, her mother and her grandmother. They are not the only characters in the book, and, as in real life, the story is filled with many different people that come through the door of anyones life, some stay for just a few seconds, some become best friends, some even enemies. But, even with so many different characters, they are very complex, yet very simple and real, which makes you laugh and cry along with them all through the book. I loved this book in part because it is an excellent story, but also because it gave me an insight of what was happening in Chile during the 20th century, and how the people that lived through it were able to make it, and also because it showed me that the people we love are never gone from our lives, even if their physical selves are no longer with us.
Rating:
Summary: The House of the Spirits
Review: I'm only 12 years old and I am in the middle of the book. It was a very intriuging story, mostly about Esteban Trueban and the loss of his bride Rosa (the oldest of the fifteen children) with green hair and yellow eyes, she died from a brandy(gift) and it contained rat poison. Besides, Rosa's youngest sister Clara predicted that a member of a family is going to die and it remarkably came true. She saw the whole thing when Dr. Culvar and his "seduced-to-dead-Rosa" assistant dissect her sister on a kitchen table with blood all over. IT was the most disgusting part though. Esteban was about to write Rosa a letter the good news that he had the money for their marriage and their future. He loved her very much. Unfornuately, a peasant informed him the death of Rosa and he was out of rage. This is the most saddest part of the story, too. I was only around pages 44 right now, so I don't know what's going to happen in the second chapter. I hope this helps only for the first chapter. I only read the book for an hour, so I'm sorry if I didn't summarize the whole book, I'm eager to tell you the first chapter, which is one of my favorite chapter..hehe..oh well, hope this helps.
Rating:
Summary: A lush exploration of the world of spirits in South America.
Review: This woman can write! Even translated, her talent blazes. The strength of this work, and others, (particularly Paula), is the wonderful women that it showcases. Exploring these women and their adventures is a joy, just in and of itself. Allende's characters are wonderfully mysterious and lush, and her vision and imagination combine to produce a work that is fresh, inviting, and courageous in scope. This was the first experience with this extremely talented woman, and her later books prove she is certainly not a one-book wonder. This book is about magic and spirits who weave spells, and in masterfully writing about this subject, the author will certainly magically weave her own spell as the pages are read. Savor the experience of being led on an etherial journey, and think about the subject matter. Highly, highly recommended!!
Rating:
Summary: Love, Revenge and Magic
Review: I read this book as a required text when I studied in Madrid, Spain and was so intrigued that I read it twice, once in spanish. This outstanding novel brings together the realism of the turmoil in Chile with the mysticism of Allende's imagination. This novel follows a wealthy Chilean family through three generations with underlying themes of love and revenge with an added twist of magic. The setting changes form their urban mansion to the serene home in the country, where the main man constructed a village over a number of years and generations. Basically, love conquers all, end of story. The downside: it can get a bit confusing at times becasue several of the characters have the same names, and there are many spanish words in the english version. Overall, this was a beautifully written book. By far, Allende's best novel.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Work
Review: I just wanted to clarify that the United States CIA was behind the death of President Salvador Allende and that he did not commit suicide. He was murdered. He was also democratically elected. As a result of US involvement, the Coup was successful and is why Pinochet was able to assume power and commit mass murders from 1973 until 1990. Thanks to the United States government and military, millions of people died at the hands of the ruthless Pinochet. When the book ends, it is Pinochet who is beginning his reign of terror that would later be described by historians as the Dirty War. While Pinochet is responsible for his actions, the United States is also responsible for this by facilitating the process of the Coup and subsequently supporting and recognizing the dictatorship as the official government of Chile. Based on this and many other instances of US intervention, I am ashamed to be a citizen of the United States.
Rating:
Summary: Powerful, but what a Waste!
Review: Reading the novel 'House of Spirits' was indeed an experience or rather a nightmare-like experience. I could not help being haunted by the various scenes depicting strong passions and unbridled emotions, brutal rapes, cold murders, bloody battles and human tortures. Did I enjoy reading it? I am not sure. Did it have a kind of Cathartic effect on me? May be. According to the author this is a section of the chain of tragic events through centuries 'in an unending tale of sorrow, blood and love'. The narrator's intention is to break this chain. The protagonist in the story is Esteban Trueba, a character with whom the reader can hardly identify. He is a willful man given to fits of rage and haunted by loneliness. His infatuation for Rosa the beautiful brings him to the light in the story. Her death and his subsequent rise in economic power as the respected and honored 'patron' of 'Tres Marias' lead him to marry the clairvoyant Clara, Rosa's sister who though frail in her frame has contacts with the spirits and an unusual gift of premonition regarding future events. They begin to live in an extravagant house which becomes 'the big house on the corner' a place of hectic activity throughout the rest of the novel. Clara the spiritualist gets soon exposed to the world of Esteban Trueba in Tres Marias, where a true capitalist system in which the landlord lives in luxury at the cost of the workers who have no personalities of their own, exits. Soon we see signs of their uprising in the new generation's reaction to the oppression. The children of Esteban Trueba as well as his wife Clara seem to welcome a change. Esteban in his turn, to enhance his glory and influence enters politics and soon becomes an influential Congressman in the conservative party. The socialists gain more and more control through democratic means and get voted to power. By this point the story of Esteban Trueba and family becomes the story of the struggles of an unidentified nation in South America. The socialists are overthrown by the military coup with the patronage of capitalists like Senator Esteban Trueba. A blood battle follows in which many are killed and Senator Esteban and his grand daughter Alba are left in the big house on the corner. Soon she too is arrested and tortured. In order to effect her release Esteban has to beg for the assistane of the woman at the brothel. He realizes his mistake in bringing down the democratically elected socialist Government and encouraging the military coup. Finally Alba and her grandfather together put down the account of his life in writing. Then he has a peaceful death. The passionate love of Blanca for Pedro Tercero Garcia and her marriage to Jean de Satigny, the eccentricities of Nicholas and Jaime, the sufferings of Amanda and the growth of the terrorist Miguel, the spiritual persuits of Clara and the Mora sisters, the rise to power of Esteban Garcia who being the grandson of Esteban Trueba inherited his cruel nature, the birth and early life of Alba the daughter of Blanca and Pedro Garcia are also dealt in detail in the book. Alba who writes the events down sees fate playing an important part in everything and she is resigned. Finally, we readers are confronted by a strong sense of waste.
Rating:
Summary: MAGICAL EXPERIENCE
Review: AFTER HAVING READ EVA LUNA FROM ISABEL ALLENDE I STARTED READING THE HOUSE OF THE SPIRITS AND I ENJOYED IT SO MUCH! IT IS A MAGICAL STORY, EVERY PAGE YOU READ IS PURE PLEASURE! I CAN SAY THAT SINCE THE DAY I FINISHED READING THAT BOOK MY LIFE HAS CHANGED BECAUSE OF ALL THAT IT BROUGHT TO MY LIFE, AND TO MY DREAMS WICH HAVE BECOME NOW A MAGICAL EXPERIENCE! THE HOUSE OF THE SPIRITS IS A "DELICIOUS" BOOK!
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