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Summary: Rich, interesting story line with equally rich characters
Review: "Daughter of Fortune" is the story of a young woman, Eliza Sommers, who grows up in Chile, adopted at birth by a wealthy English spinster and her brother living in Valparaiso during the mid-1800s. She grows up sheltered and naive, and soon her adopted mother devotes herself to finding her an appropriate husband, even though she herself finds marriage too confining. But Eliza has different plans in mind. When her illicit lover takes off to California during the frenetic gold rush days, Eliza runs after him by stowing away in a ship, aided by a young Chinese doctor, Tao Chi'en. Upon arriving in California, she disguises herself as a boy so that she may move about freely as she searches for her lover, and yet all the while she is developing a bond with Tao. Through these adventures, the book tells not only Eliza's story, but the stories of Tao growing up in China and of Eliza's adopted mother, who left England because of her own illicit love affair. It also describes to a lesser extent the lives of several other colorful characters, in Chile and California.I enjoyed this book on many levels. The diverse range of characters were interesting and believable. Through their adventures, Allende brings to life the culture and daily life of Chile, China, and California during the Gold Rush. In the background, the book conveys the constraints imposed on women and foreigners during that time, and how those constraints varied in the different countries described. It showed how much of English social conventions were adopted by the Chileans, which surprised me. Through Tao, the book discusses the differences between Eastern and Western medicine at the time and how distrustful each was of the other's approach (just as they are now). I saw more vividly how extraordinary the California Gold Rush was, not only because of the quick riches (for some), but because it allowed people constrained by class in their homelands to reinvent themselves in ways unimagineable in their own cultures. And yet even in the class-agnostic society of California, still there was a racial pecking order among the immigrants. The book depicted how, after the initial frenzy, those who found ways to provide needed services benefited more than those who struggled to mine what gold was left. While enjoying the rich story line, I also appreciated how perceptive Allende was about people's motivations and the dynamics of relationships. I thought she captured the subtleties of her character's conflicting emotions quite well, and how that drove behavior that at times even the characters themselves didn't always understand. In all, this book was a pleasure to read.
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Summary: This has to be one of the best books i've read lately.
Review: As a 16 year old high-school student, i found this book to have been a very enjoyable read. The prose is rich with detail, the tale is adventurous, and it gives a lot of information out about the gold rush in California. The background detail the author provided about the other characters let you see their different points of view and how they fit into the story. The only thing that I didn't like about it was the amount of coverage the prostitution element of the story got.
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Summary: Needed a better ending
Review: I thought this book was excellent in the way it captured the history and times of the mid-1800's. I especially enjoyed watching Eliza & Tao's relationship grow, but was dissapointed not knowing how they came out. I think the book should have gone further - after all, an interracial relationship in those times would have been interesting and would have made the story better. I found that when Eliza was off on her own, her character was not as interesting as when she was with Tao. To be honest, there should have been some physical point of the relationship - it left me feeling dissapointed. Overall the story was good, but my heart sank on the last page when I had done all that reading and expected a good ending.
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Summary: This book never connected
Review: The premise of this story was promising, but it just never connected. I did not find the characters to be believable. I did enjoy the historical and cultural information, but I was never able to quite believe this story. These people never fleshed out into humanity and their story seemed to go nowhere. I have read worse, but I picked up this book with hopes of a good read. Finished it right away but with a sense of disappointment.
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Summary: too ambitious
Review: I loved House of the Spirits, but this book went all over the map in its effort to paint a picture of Eliza's childhood, etc., in an effort to show why she would go chase a man to California who clearly had problems, didn't love her and never found out she was trying to find him. I was disappointed.
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Summary: Soap Opera
Review: With this book Isabel Allende has attempted a leap from magical realism ("The House of the Spirits," "Eva Luna," "Of Love and Shadows") into conventional historical drama, unfortunately with a most unsuccessful result. It does not measure to her previous writings! Using a wide canvas and multi-ethnic characters, the author goes into the realm of absurdity, of unrealistic twists of plots, boring and inconsistent characters. Dealing with the old and never-ending "love theme" can only be stretched up to a certain point, otherwise the result becomes a soap opera. And as much as soap operas are popular, so does this book became popular. The result is clear: reviews have been extremits, it's either "love it" or "hate it!" The main character's (Eliza) last words are: "I am free!" For some readers it was a relief, but others wanted more... Disappointment for readers of Isabel Allende, disappointment for the choice made by Oprah.
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Summary: Mesmerizing--GOOD READ!
Review: For some reason, I didn't like the cover and I didn't buy it--kind of surprising because I like Oprah's picks. Finally, I decided to give it a try and was very pleasantly surprised. WOMAN OF FORTUNE is an unusual book, but absolutely mesmerizing. I couldn't wait until my lunchtime to read it and to get home from teaching school to finish it. I enjoyed the setting in Chile and in California and the varied characters... I learned about Chile and the Gold Rush and China--kind of educational and enjoyable. Sometimes I felt that the situations were improbable, but sometimes I feel as if some of my own life situations are improbable, too! This book is a good read and I would recommend it heartily. I'd even like to try to read it in the original Spanish--I'll have to get out my Spanish dictionary, but I bet that the original is even more magical.
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Summary: Strange book, not sure it was worth the effort
Review: This was a difficult read. I've never read Allende before so I assumed that maybe the problem was in a translation or something. And then I read the other customer reviews which says that this is simply not her best book. On that, I can't comment. But this was not my favorite either. I was tempted to abandon the book at several points. It got mildly intriguing when the "California gold rush" got underway, and I found this book to take so many bizarre turns, I stuck with it. I think Allende was trying to make too many statements about disjointed social issues and ultimately, her point got lost entirely. There's social class issues, gender issues, race issues, moral issues (the prostitutes were memorable), ethnic issues and on and on. What was her point? ...Don't know if I can recommend this one.
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Summary: A Wonderful Journey
Review: This story is about a journey of growth and learning to love other people for their mistakes in life. After going to a book signing and meeting Isabel Allende, I was inspired to read this book. Not only is she a captivating oral storyteller, she is a wonderful writer as well. For those of you that love to travel a journey with colorful characters such as the willful Eliza and Tao Chien, you will love this book!
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Summary: At her best -- the perfect Chile con California
Review: Isabel Allende is unfairly castigated for not always running a sequel to her first book -- as if it is a curse to start with a gem. I am a fan and I think she has three gems: House of Spirits (but she was on home turf); The Infinite Plan, brilliant as her first novel based in new home California (and with some lovely funny twists like the Blonde white lawyer with the LA barrio accent when speaking Spannish in his TV ads); and now this book, Daughter of Fortune which shifts between Chile and California during the 1849 Gold Rush and shows her at her best: strong characters with strong relationships: is it surprising that her best women get strong but understanding men? That her best men are rounded but imperfect chracters? The best characters are the best partners -- not the most stupid and arrogant despots loved by the most foolish sycophants (as in most stories). Yes there is a bit of magic, no, not as much as in House of Spirits. But if you want a Gold Rush of character and story, get this. It is brilliant. (well a bit over the top in places, but that is IA, she is allowed a few excesses).
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