Rating: 
Summary: Under-developed disappointment
Review: I was greatly looking forward to this book, as I had heard and read so much about it. But I was ultimately disappointed. The language itself is beautiful and fluid, and the world it transports you to - San Francisco's Chinatown in the 19th century and the political and geographical climate in Chile - is fascinating. Her characters are interesting, but sorely under-developed and inconsistently characterized. In her plot, she alludes to the dangerous, beautiful, passionate and fantastical, but in the end only develops the conventional. There was so much potential in the culture and climate of this book and the language is so beautiful... it is such a shame she never focused and developed the story into what it could have been.
Rating: 
Summary: Something lost in translation
Review: I've found all of Allende's other books compelling to read, hard to put down. This one was hard to get through for some ineffable reason. Maybe something was lost in the translation from Spanish to English, or maybe there were just too many characters and it was too large of a generational saga to fit into a 300 page book-maybe a five or six hundred pager would've given me the depth of character I was looking for, because I just felt unfulfilled when I finished. There are some really gripping moments and the main character, Aurora, seems to be a strong, interesting protagonist on those rare occassions when her personality really comes through.
Rating:
Summary: A Disappointment
Review: I've read almost all of Allende's work, considering her one of my favorite writers. Sadly, each book after "Paula" seems weaker than the last. I read that she was utterly devastated by the death of her beloved daughter, Paula, and had to go on anti depressants and that it was hard to write for quite some time because the medication made her feel muted. It may be, tragically, that the death of her only daughter created a permanent void for her, that she is unable to write with the same type of passion she was capable before. This would be understandable and yet a great loss for the world.
Rating:
Summary: Too many characters, not enough plot
Review: If Allende was already an established author, this book never would have made it past an editor. We are introduced to the main character, Aurora del Valle, on the first page, and then subjected to a massive flashback which drones on for 95 pages!!! The flashback, unfortunately, is about as dull as it gets, for instead of creating a story, Allende drones on and on with page after page of narration. Telling, not showing, the cardinal sin that writing teachers warn about. Plus she crams the stories of so many characters into these pages, that they just turn into a jumble after a while.Finally, Aurora returns. She is an adult, but instead of moving into the story, we are again subjected to a lengthy narration on her part, and then the story jerks backward again to her childhood. That's when I gave up. Other reviewers say that it gets better once they reach Chile, but I don't want to waste my time. Also, too much in this story was already so contrived. The daughter conveniently dies in childbirth, so we're rid of her. And then Eliza suddenly decides to turn the grandchild Aurora over to her paternal grandmother Paulina because she needs to take her husband's body back to China. And it's decided that she should have no further contact with her mother's family. Come on, what idiocy. Eliza says she can't take care of the little girl. Why not? She has a successful tea shop and the child's adoptive father, who is wealthy, has provided for her. And why can't she just take the girl with her to China? Duh...Contrived plots really grate on my nerves. Surely Allende could have found a better more realistic way of bringing the child into Paulina del Valle's family. While this book was supposed to be somewhat of a sequel to Daughter of Fortune, it really wasn't. That book ended cold, abrupt, without any resolution. Even if a sequel is expected, a story does need to be able to stand on its own. Portrait only minimally tells us what happened to the characters. It rushes through their story, and then tries to push forward with this new addition. However, I think Allende would have had a better book if she had picked up where she left off, and told us Eliza's story, Rose and John Sommer's story, maybe what became of Joaquin Murrieta, and so on...rather than give us a dull 95 page narration and then try to get us involved with a new character. Allende's worst effort--skip it. Read some of her old stuff instead.
Rating: 
Summary: The future is here.
Review: If you read "Daughter of Fortune" and want to know what ever happened to the characters this book will satisfy your curiosity. Familiar characters are revisited and newer ones are introduced in this book. Allende once again paints a picture with her prose and you are drawn into the world of families full of tragedy and hope. This was a great anytime read and I look forward to reading many more books by this gifted author.
Rating:
Summary: I wish I could give it 6 stars!
Review: Isabel Allende has done it again with her latest release. This one was fully worth the wait. This book is my new favorite - absolutely amazing - there's not a single slow part. If I have an addiction, it is to books like "Portrait in Sepia". You'll love this one!
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant study of the human soul........
Review: Isabel Allende is a talented and gifted weaver of beautifully crafted stories. Portrait in Sepia takes place after her previos novel, Daughter of Fortune, although it is not a true sequel. Reading Daughter of Fortune is a wonderful experience but not necessary in order to follow this novel. This is a brilliant story of a young girl's past as she discovers the missing pieces to who she is. She discovers her heritage, her true history and learns to understand that the mistakes and choices that people make are usually done for love or because of love. The characters are vivid and alive. The women cover a wide spectrum, but many are strong, independent and loving women, with a clear picture of who they are and how they wish to live and knowledge of their own faults. The men are also amazing characters, from the strong to the weak, all with real human flaws and strengths, that make them very real. Portrait in Sepia is a study of the human soul, always present, always visible for those who truly take the time to look.
Rating: 
Summary: From Platinum Print to Portrait in Sepia
Review: Isabel Allende is an encaptivating writer and story teller and she proves this again with her latest novel about the difficult life of Aurora del Valle's family. The people mentioned in her novel are all full of character and Allende manages to weave poignant lessons to learn from them. After reading and enjoying Daughter of Fortune, I had to get a copy of Portrait in Sepia and I am glad I got it. Allende keeps the reader magnetized to the family trees that she speaks of. I loved her tittle from the very start but was wondering why she had used it. Her last paragraph in the book answered my question making me sigh "I wish I could write as beautifully as her." While reading the novel, I was already visualizing filming the movie in San Francisco, Hongkong, London and eventually in Chile. I wonder whether she will eventually be doing a movie just like House of the Spirits which was excellent.
Rating:
Summary: Subtle, Like a Watercolor
Review: Isabel Allende writes wonderful books that focus on women and their world without being in the slightest bit feminist. "Portrait in Sepia," one of Allende's finest works and my favorite, tells the story of Aurora del Valle, the daughter of a half-Chinese mother and a wealthy Chilean father. Although Aurora's selfish and self-indulgent father denied her existence, her mother did find true love, and a very brief marriage (she died in childbirth) with Aurora's father's cousin, Severo del Valle. After her birth in San Francisco's Chinatown, Aurora was raised by her mother's parents until the death of her sweet and angelic grandfather, Tao Chi'en. Then her wealthy (and somewhat arrogant), "paternal" grandmother, Paulina del Valle steps in. (It is interesting to note that Aurora's maternal grandmother, Eliza Sommers, was the protagonist of a previous book by Allende, "Daughter of Fortune.") Although the primary focus of this book is on Aurora, it is the widowed Paulina who is the most engaging and, in my opinion, the most lovable, character Allende has ever created. Paulina is certainly a character with a strong will and she usually accomplishes what she sets out to do. After her husband's death, Paulina, seeing no reason to remain in San Francisco, packs up and moves her entire family back to Chile, Aurora included. She also marries her very own butler and, when back in Chile, she manages to pass him off as an impoverished British lord. Thus, rather then being ridiculed, Paulina becomes the object of envy instead. Williams (the butler), Aurora later tells us, spoke exactly four words of Spanish and so was, of necessity, rather silent and taciturn in Spanish-speaking Chile. His silence, however, was revered by the locals who saw him as wise and full of both pride and mystery. Although it may not be apparent at first, Aurora and Paulina are a lot alike. They are both independent women who become trapped in very traditional, but loveless, marriages. Both women rebel in the sense that they seek to transcend their circumstances, something 19th century women, in San Francisco or in Chile, usually didn't do. Paulina becomes a shrewd businesswoman, while Aurora becomes a photographer. Both women, however, remain true to their cultural heritage and to Chile. Aurora seeks, through her art, to capture "the multifaceted and tormented face of Chile" on film. And, at the age of thirty, Aurora wants and needs to recapture the first five years of her life, the five years she spent in San Francisco with her maternal grandparents. Part of the charm of this book is Allende's very skillful rendering of period detail. She makes both 19th century San Francisco and 19th Chile come alive. Although this isn't a historical or a political novel, (nor is it a feminist one), Allende does align her protagonists with the feminine side of political issues. This is not, however, a book that sacrifices story to social commentary. Allende is far too good a storyteller to let that happen and she possesses far too much restraint. Despite that restraint, this book is a sumptuous feast of a romance...high-spirited, lyrical, sensitive, melancholy, rapturous and exuberant. Don't let that put you off..."Portrait in Sepia" is definitely literature, not genre fiction. I realize that Allende has been compared to Gabriel Garcia Marquez, but I believe that comparisons between these two great Latin American authors are supremely unfair. Each is wonderful is his or her own way. And Allende has come a long way from magic realism and "The House of the Spirits." While Garcia Marquez writes of characters in the subtropical jungles and rainforests of Colombia, Allende's characters are firmly rooted in Chile...a country that is more temperate and more unforgiving. And Allende writes more like a woman than a man; she is more of a romantic, more lyrical in her prose style. She lets us share in the emotional life of her characters more than does Garcia Marquez. They are different writers with different styles, and each one contributes something to his or her work that is lasting and beautiful. Much of this book is "told" rather than "shown," i.e., dramatized in scenes. In the hands of a lesser writer, this could have been a huge mistake and could have resulted in a book that was dry and boring and without emotional depth. In the hands of a writer as skilled as Allende, however, this device creates a seamless fluidity that only makes the book grow lovlier and lovlier. And we do become involved with the characters, there can be no doubt about that, for they are anything and everything but ordinary. I don't understand why so many readers didn't care for this book. Perhaps they were looking for something closer to the style of Garcia Marquez. Perhaps they were put off by the "memoir" style of the book and the fact that so much of it is told rather than shown. In my opinion, Allende wanted to keep some distance between the reader and some of the book's more tumultuous events lest the delicacy of the story be disturbed. I loved the watercolor delicacy of this book and I think one has only to look at the epilogue to recognize that delicacy was part and parcel of this story. As Aurora, herself, says, "I live among duffuse shadings, veiled mysteries, uncertainties; the tone for telling my life is closer to that of a portrait in sepia." I loved "Portrait in Sepia." I wish I could find more books out there like it.
Rating:
Summary: More than I expected
Review: Isabelle Allende really delivered for her fans on this one. This delicate masterpiece of a novel weaves together characters taken from 'House of the Spirits' and 'Daughter of Fortune' so beautifully, it's like a litte unexpected gift. The book explores a branch of the Del Valle not previously mentioned and enlightens Allende fans as to how the Del Valles of 'House of the Spirits' got to be who they are. It's just a beautiful, joyful homage to living and I loved every word.
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