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.
Rating: 
Summary: A classic in the works
Review: I read this book on the recommendation of one of my friends, and I absolutely am loving it!! The way the author, Isabel Allende, uses wording makes the book come to live in more ways then one. You can actually imagine that you are a character in the book, feeling the hardships that they are dealt during this period in time. (The California gold rush) It's one of those books you can learn from, plus enjoy an enticing story about hardships and love. An excellent read!
Rating:
Summary: Just Okay
Review: I was disappointed with this book. While I did finish, it was a struggle to do so. The middle was tedious, and while I enjoy historical fiction, much of the details added had little to do with the central story line. Like another reviewer, I felt that the book ended just when it was starting to get interesting and that the relationship between Tao and Eliza could have been expanded. Maybe I will try one of the author's earlier books!
Rating: 
Summary: Epic spanning several continents
Review: "Daughter of Fortune" by Isabel Allende is the epic story of a woman named Eliza Sommers. She is born a bastard and left on the doorstep of a rich British family's home in Chile. She is not adopted by the brother and sister, Jeremy and Rose Summers, but is still raised like she was one of their own. Neither sibling has children of their own.Eliza is never treated completely as if she were their daughter, but she is given a good home and education to allow her to marry into the best of families. However, along the way Eliza falls in love with a lowly clerk and follows him to California, a land where gold has just been discovered and many were rushing to this place in search of wealth. Eliza goes to California with the help of a chinese doctor named Tao Chi'en, who also happened to be a friend of her "uncle" Captain John, who happened to be Rose and Jeremy's brother. She is stowed upon a ship and she and Tao Chi'en sail to California. From this point, the story diverges to tell the story of Tao Chi'en and his humble beginnings. His story is epic in nature as well. The story of Eliza is a story of a woman's journey towards self-discovery and love. I found "Daughter of Fortune" to be wonderfully written, an epic full of adventure and romance. I found myself glued to this book as I read it from cover to cover. I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: A Touching Experience
Review: Eliza Sommers grew up as an orphan in Valparaiso, Chile. She ws raised by Miss Rose, a spinster and her cold, hard brother Jeremy. Eliza follows her lover and journeys to California during the 1849 Gold Rush. Eliza's experience starts her on a journey of transformation. In her new world, Eliza discovers independence, freedom, and love.
This is one of the best books I've ever read. It touches the heart in every way.
Rating:
Summary: An intricate tale.
Review: Daughter of Fortune is an interesting piece of historical fiction. It is the consuming story of Eliza, a young Chilean woman, who flees her adoptive home to pursue her first love. Through her eyes we see the rigid social constraints that she would have to deal with if she remained in this home. Her adoptive mother Rose, while loving and protective, wants to find Eliza a husband, even though she herself adamantly refuses to marry. Eliza feels that she must find Joaquin who has left for the Gold Rush. Through her journey to find her love she also finds herself. Tao Chi'en is the other strong character in this novel. He and Eliza become unlikely allies but their amazing connection to one another makes the story that much more interesting. He also learns things about himself that he didn't expect. This story unfolds from Chile in the 1800's to the California Gold Rush days. Because of Allende's wonderful writing skills I was able to see the harsh realities of life for so many of the people of that time, especially the women. The social structure of that era is amazing to read about. Eliza had to pose as a mute Chinese boy just to survive those times but in doing so it allowed her more freedom than she ever thought possible. It showed her that she is able to survive on her own and through the disguise she is able to find her own femininity. The only thing that I did not enjoy about the book was the abrupt ending. I expected a little more I guess after reading in depth so much about each of the characters. Overall though, a good story.
Rating:
Summary: my review
Review: This is the first book I have ever read from Isabel Allende and I must confess I was positively impressed. I really enjoyed the book and was able to follow the plot all the way through. The main character, Eliza, is easy to fall in love with and follow her passion and her desperation and later her new discovery. The settings are so full of life you can almost feel as if you are living in 19th century Chile and later an early settler in California. You can sympathize with the chinese and how other races were so badly treated during the gold rush. It is a book that has everything, interesting characters, a great plot easy to follow and wonderful settings.
Rating:
Summary: The California gold-rush and an independent woman
Review: I highly recommend this book to anyone that lives in the San Francisco Bay Area or is interested in the area. Also recommended for those who like to read about other women making their way in the world in the 1800's without relying on a man (this is an unusual thing for that time period). The story follows a young orphaned girl, Eliza Sommers, from her upbringing in an upper-class British home (transplanted in Valparaiso Chile) to her striking out on her own to follow her lover into the San Francisco gold rush in 1849. The character development in the first half of the novel is great, with emphasis on Eliza's relationships with her "adoptive mothers" Miss Rose and Mama Fresia. I really started to enjoy the novel when the story arrived in California, as I have traveled to many of the places listed in the story. I have read many of Oprah's picks, and find this one the least schmaltzy of all of them (yes, I really did say schmaltzy). This is not your typical "girl overcomes adversity" story that Oprah usually picks.
Rating:
Summary: For love or adventure...
Review: This book wonderfully showed the consequences of a love that has no approval or place in a world of impressions and expectations. Eliza Sommers was illegitamately born in Chile in the early 1800's. She was adopted by Rose Sommers, a British Spinster, who raised her for 16 years, only to lose her to a secret 'first love' affair, which left Eliza to discover her own inner strenghts and determinations in a world that made her quest to find her abandoned lover, Joaquin Andieta, end in a tragic sense of closure. Through the help of her closest fried, a chinaman named Tao, she is able to discover the underlying meaning of her search for Joaquin as she travels to California in the times of the Gold Rush of 1849. There she is forced to live the freedoms she was restricted from in Chile. Tao who is her only source of support and comfort in her lonely expedition, helps Eliza to question her true intentions to continue her four year search for Andieta, who is feared to have become a murderous bandit in the height of the racial tensions during the gold rush. The unfortunate Eliza, who is battling with the feelings of her misunderstood and unconditional love for Joaquin, has a desperate feeling of unacceptance and unapproval until she finds herself in California where, at the time, nobody cares what kind of socially unacceptable things you may have done in your past life. It is that kind of freedom that helps her find her true passion that she has unknowingly restrained. This book by Allende was very well written. The history value is great, as it shows what kinds of racisms and descriminations that may have flourished in a land with overwhelming corruption of human nature. Also, the graphic descriptions of the scenery makes you feel as if you are right there in the story. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes passionate and historical stories...
Rating:
Summary: A Search for Identity
Review: I was handed this book by an Allende fan who thought I would love it as well. Love is too strong a word, perhaps, but I was engaged and entertained throughout. This story is epic in scope and romantic in texture. As an historical fiction, it gives an enlightening view of settings that already interested me: 19th century Chile and California. Along the way Allende provides a glimpse of the prejudice and hatred felt toward the Chinese by aristocratic Chileans and white Americans, and a similar hatred toward Hispanics of all origins and cultures by gold-seeking white people caught up in the fever of anticipated wealth. Without really trying the author also handed us another injustice, the one that shows how women, especially Asian, were treated as just so much disposable merchandise by men who sought their wealth by servicing the sexual needs of those populating Central California during the Gold Rush of 1849 and beyond. Her language was beautiful at times, but tended to be flowery and of the romance novel genre. Her history was fascinating and enlightening. I will definitely read more Allende and already have "The House of Spirits" on my shelf. It will have wait a couple of months, however.
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