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Summary: Magical!!! Yet true to life.....
Review: House of the Spirits, although filled with magic and fantasy, is a beautiful and poignant family saga, that gives insight into human nature and life itself. Esteban Trueba the male protagonist of the novel is a greatly flawed, and egotistical character, whom we are still able to feel sympathy for because of his passionate love for Claire. Claire meanwhile, provides much of the fantasy of the novel, yet she is as realistic as any character can get, emphasizing the fact that magic exists in life in many forms. This novel is also a tale of the politically turbulent Chile,which is the beautiful setting for this great novel and its characters, and provides great excitement and suspense to the plot. I definetly recommend this book, it will get you hooked an Allende!!
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Summary: Story of the women of Latin America
Review: House of the Spirits is a semiautobiograbhical novel by Isabel Allende. It also turns out to be a tribute to her cousin, Salvador Allende, the president of Chile who met the similar fate as the Socialist President meets in this tale as told by Isabel Allende. House of the Spirits follows the tale of four generations of women of the same family. Starting with Nivea, mother of Rosa the beautiful and Clara the clairvoyant who instills the values in Clara through her short tales accordingly, she carries the burden of significant part of this tale very gracefully. As Rosa falls prey and meets an early demise to a conspiracy to kill her father by his political opponents, Clara ends up marring her fiancé, Esteban Trueba. Trueba the male protagonist of this story is a very ambitious, self-involved man who is never able to win Clara's love. Clara a sensitive woman, who has a mystical gift and is able to tell the future, prognosticates her marriage to Rosa's fiancé fully aware that she will never love him. As Esteban Trueba emphatically tries to win Clara's love, Clara goes on performing her wifely duties but not responding to his efforts. Blanca is the third generation who has her own sorrows to go through as she falls in love with Pedro Trecero Garcia, son of her father's foreman. Pedro Trecero Garcia's rebellious and justice-seeking nature from a tyrannical patron wins him Trueba's hatred. Finally, Alba, an illegitimate product of Blanca's and Garcia's love is ironically the focal of Trueba's affection after his failed attempts to win Clara's love. Its Alba who symbolizes the political struggles of the time. While Clara's and Blanca's lives are portrayal of the social aspect of feminine struggle in Latin America. The book is a very easy read and the story flows in a chronological order therefore its not very confusing. The author gives little glimpses into the lives of the characters as they are about to come keeping the reader interested and engrossed. House of the Spirits gives is a fascinating insight into the life in Latin America, specifically Chile. The effects on the psyche of the people from a very feminine point of view in context of the political, cultural and social setup.
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Summary: Los espíritus y la dictadura
Review: Isabel Allende emplea en cada uno de sus libros el mágico realismo de manera muy particular, es así que le da vida a un extraño pero simpático personaje, Clara, otorgándole la facultad de comunicarse con los espíritus. Los espíritus la convierten en una singular vidente capaz de predecir los acontecimientos venideros, le revelan quien será su futuro esposo, cuantos hijos tendría, los nombres que les daría, e incluso ...... su misma muerte. La historia gira en torno a tres familias: Los Del Valle, los Trueba, y los García. Los primeros son los típico ricos, que nacieron ricos y morirán ricos, los segundos son pobres pero luchan duro para sobresalir del montón y emerger de esa posición expectante hasta que lo consiguen, y los García que representan a los más pobres, que nacen pobres y morirán pobres porque no se les enseñó otra cosa mas que servir a los asalariados. Isabel nos lleva de la mano a través de tres generaciones de estas familias, las cuales por cuestiones del destino se involucrarían tarde o temprano. A diferencia de Clara Del Valle, Esteban Trueba pertenecía a una familia pobre pero con ambiciones de dejar de serlo. Mediante un trabajo arduo Esteban logra amasar una fortuna envidiable pero cada una de las vicisitudes que pasó, en lugar de ablandarlo, lo transformaron en una persona insensible capaz de abusar de sus trabajadores convirtiéndolos en esclavos en un mundo donde la esclavitud había sido abolida hace ya muchos años. Clara, mientras tanto, se mantiene viviendo en su mundo astral, con sus espíritus, alejada de su familia, indiferente a todo asunto terrenal; sin embargo, su actitud no era malintencionada, la única respuesta era que ella no pertenecía a este mundo. Los años transcurrían, la pareja Clara Del Valle - Esteban Trueba tendrían hijos y luego nietos. Esteban, sumergido en una riqueza desproporcional, incursionaría en política para malgastar el dinero que le sobraba. Sus ideas se inclinaban a favor del partido Conservador pero luego de tantos años de victorias son derrotados por los socialistas apoyados por los más pobres quienes cansados de tantos abusos y maltratos deciden elegir un gobierno que se preocupe por ellos. Ya solo para entonces, pues había cambiado tanto su comportamiento que hasta logró agredir a Clara quien decidió abandonarlo espiritualmente, Esteban y sus co-partidarios inician una guerra sucia contra los constitucionalmente ganadores. Les entregaron armas y poder absoluto a los militares que poco tardarían en eliminar a todo aquel identificado de una u otra forma con los socialistas hasta hacerse ellos mismos del gobierno. Sin embargo, Esteban no había considerado que su propia familia estaría involucrada en toda esta guerra...... pero del lado contrario al suyo. Uno de sus hijos murió al encontrarse fortuitamente al momento del bombardeo en la Casa de Gobierno con el Presidente Socialista; su hija, Blanca, tuvo que ser asilada en una embajada extranjera para poder salir del país junto con Segundo García - uno de los principales defensores de las ideas izquierdistas y con quien ella mantuvo un sórdido romance -; y Alba, su nieta, sería encarcelada y maltratada por los militares que no tenían límites para sus atrocidades. De esta forma Esteban se encuentra con la soledad más cruel, pagando sus abusos y maldades, extrañando a su familia, amando a la única mujer por quien tuvo ese tipo de sentimientos pero al mismo tiempo arrepentido por todo. Poco tiempo después lograría rescatar a Alba y moriría al lado de ella con una sonrisa en los labios y murmurando el nombre de su amada: Clara, clarísima, clarividente. Isabel combina perfectamente lo mágico con un fragmento pequeño de la historia chilena, el golpe de estado del Gnral. Pinochet en contra de Salvador Allende, tío directo de nuestra escritora. Hace esto, no para reabrir heridas del pasado sino, creo yo, para recordarnos a su modo que esas cosas no deberían volver a ocurrir........ NUNCA MAS HERMANOS CHILENOS!.
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Summary: Beautiful book
Review: This book was a wonderful read! It's full of fantasy and imagery. It's surreal but it also has a lot of substance. It's also definitely written from a woman's point of view, and is much more focused on the women (although there is one male character that is a very important figure throughout the story). People have been comparing it a lot to One Hundred Years of Solitude, but I've read both books and I think that although there are some similarities, this book is great in its own right. It's also much more hopeful and optimistic than One Hundred Years of Solitude. The characters are also explored much more in this book. You really get to know the main characters of the story. You understand them, you love them, you hate them, you care about them. I think this book is definitely worth reading.
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Summary: I'm almost sorry this book ended
Review: What a magnificent story teller Isabel Allende is! I was impressed with the way she intertwined fact with fiction, and more than a fair share of eccentricities to create a truly wonderful story. Although many of these events and people were not ficticious to her...I was impressed by the way she portrayed the heroes and heroines...and the compassion and forgiveness she showed towards the 'enemies' of this story. I know very little about Latin american history, and even less about Augusto Pinochet and of Chile under his regime..but this did not prevent me from following and getting involved in this story since the themes were so universal. I would recommend this book to almost anyone, but especially too people like me who have no knowledge of the political/historical period of this time and place...as it opens your eyes...and inspires you to gain more knowledge.
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Summary: A Magical Journey into Chilean History
Review: This is perhaps Isabel Allende's most favored masterpiece. Although the story is a "good" story in and of it self, without knowing some of its' historical context you will be missing out. Knowing that Allende's uncle (Salvador Allende) is "the candidate", and that she knew Pablo Neruda "the poet" and that she is alluding to Agusto Pinochet in the 1973 Coup all make this book come to life. I urge all who are interested in Latin American history and literature to read this book and quickly review the history. It is amazing how much we can learn from one family, one family that teaches us the history, the patriarchal system, and the social context of an entire country in a very tumultous time. Disfrute! (Enjoy)
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Summary: Fabulous
Review: Isabele Allende is a masterful storyteller, who can drag you into worlds alien and familiar, or both at once. I was surprised when I finished this book, because I had been paying attention to one character the whole time but, in the end, I realized that the book was centered upon another. This makes it frustrating at times, when you want to see some judgement on the characters and the author refuses to do it. But once finished, the pieces fit together and feel complete. There is a lot of stuff going on in this story, and the reader emerges from it feeling that they have brought something with them. This is a book to read and reread.
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Summary: Absolutely delightful!
Review: This book captivates with its lyrical language, its realistic multifaceted characaters and its not-forced positive message. Not even the frequent switches of POV detract from it and the "storytelling" style adds a lot of charm.
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Summary: "The House of the Spirit" - The way the world is!
Review: "The House of the Sprits", written by Isabel Allende, is the extraordinary epic of the three generations of the Trueba family. The book focuses on the two main human problems: internal (personal) social relationship and the external political participation as a citizen. The story begins in an unnamed South American country during the middle of the 19th century which Esteban Trueba, a lonely, stern man, married Clara del Valle, a warm-hearted, hypersensitive girl. They built a family in a big house in the village with a practical, self-effacing daughter, Blanca and two sons, Nicolas and Jaime who were twins. A lot of tensions were caused between Esteban the father and his daughter since Blanca soon felt in love with the son of her father's foreman. However, with the birth of little cute Alba, Blanca's daughter, in the third generation, has brought a lot of happiness and warming to the family that lessen the tensions in the Trueba's home. And, as the politically roaring twentieth century beat on, the Trueba family became the actors of the victims of a series of tragedies under the Chilean military oppression. Many striking events emotionally attacked the heart of the readers. One of the most important events was the moment where Esteban found out that his daughter was having a relationship with the son of his worker. He slapped and beat Blanca terribly as if he wanted to kill her. Clara (the mother) tried to stop the violence, but he paid attention to nothing but the horrible beating and intolerable reviling. Esteban called his daughter a malicious woman for having relationship with a lower-class man. Unable to control her temper, Clara shouted aloud: "What about you who raped the peasant women!" The words stroke Esteban and he slapped her. Esteban was a crucial patron in the village that no one dares to say a word against him. He used his power to rape the peasant women in the village. Clara knew this but she never protest against him. She kept everything inside since a woman during that time couldn't interfere with her husband outside social relationship and suddenly she burst out everything at this day. From this short scene, we can see the author tried to present two issues: the division between lower and middle classes and the male-dominated world. During this time, the middle class treated the lower class as their servants. The middle class couldn't never be friends with the middle class; marriage between middle-class and lower-class was unacceptable to the society. The men were considered to be powerful creatures that dominate the world. Outside the community, they are politically leaders and business moneymakers. In the family, they lead the family. The women are weak, fragile creatures who were just born to serve the men and his children. "The House of the Spirits" compresses the whole complex society in a little book. Isabel Allende introduced colorful characters that represented typical people in the society. Each member in the Trueba family was assigned a different personal life to live on. Esteban Trueba, the leader of the family, strong and arrogant on the outside, struggled with loneliness deep inside his heart that he never willing to show it. He was jealous to see his wife, Clara, expressed her warming caring and tender loving toward the children, the neighbors, and the workers, but always being cold toward him. His children were never willing to share their feelings with him and always gave him their cold fearful eyes whenever they have to face him. Clara, on the other hand, was a beloved mother and grandmother, but a struggled wife who found her heart compelled every time she has to confront him. She hated his hateful attitude toward the farmers, his immoral abuse of the peasant women, and his intolerable neglect of caring and support toward his own children. She repressed his actions, but she pushed all her unbearable feelings to the bottom of her heart because she couldn't protest against him. For Blanca, she faced hardship under the classism society. She was kicked out of the house for having a relationship with a lower-class man. Her lover has to flee to avoid the killing her father. Each member in the Trueba family struggled through the unbreakable solid walls of rules of the society. Why should people formulate rules to make people turning themselves against each other? Did they feel happy anyway? Isabel Allende also presented a broader theme in which she showed the evilness and cruelest of human. I love the last one-third of the book in which Isabel Allende described a horrified world during the Chilean civil war with violence, mass murder, genocides, and concentration camps. Alba and Jaime were the victims of the civil war. Under the military oppression, they suffered shocking violence in the concentration camps. From "The House of the Spirits", we can see how human hurt human themselves, putting tragedies on each other. Why is that? As reading "The House of the Spirits, I question about how love and hate hurt people individually, why do the social classes cause the man turn against each other, what level of evilness is mankind committed to during a civil war? I really like the book and I rate a 5. As reading the "House of the Spirits", I can see the way the world work, how the rules in the society and the people around me have affected my life. I want to recommend everyone to read this book since it will teach us how to be a better person and how to live happily. I recommend people to read this book so we can have a better vision about our own actions, and from there we can create a better society in which everyone would be able to enjoy happiness and loving.
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Summary: Have I read this before?
Review: This book is a very good read. I enjoyed it from start to finish. I have just one problem with it. It follows the basic line of 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Márquez only varied with twists that could have been taken from a "What modern feminine Latin authors need to succeed" brochure. The book offers nothing new for the development of Latin Identity. If you are looking for an entertaining, well-written book this book will work well. If you would like to explore why many claim that Latin America is producing some of the the most innovative and thought provoking works of our times, look to Márquez, Borges or Cortázar and others.
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