Portrait in Sepia : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: Was the 'Return' key on her keyboard broken? Paragraphs!
Review: To start, I have not read Daughter of Fortune, so I miss any references to that story in this one.
Will someone tell this author about paragraph structure! Paragraphs were frequently 1-2 pages long. The gentle reader needs something to break up these huge blocks of words. The worst offender was a 1522 word whopper (by actual count) which spanned her childhood education. (This crime occurs from pages 143-147 in the hardcover edition.) A character is introduced in the middle of this monstrosity, perhaps as a trick to punish the word weary.
This was at times a very tedious book to read. The story 'peaked' at certain times, such as the revelation about Aurora's marriage (no spoilers here!), and the last thirty or so pages. (Concerning that revelation: she later states that her grandfather was her counsel in emotional affairs, yet there is no mention of him as she works through this stage of her life.)
The plot dragged during the descriptions of historical events, with little to no sense of 'being there.' While this type of narrative is natural in a memoir, it breaks down when the narrator was not at the events described. This gives the plot a third-hand feel. Early in the story a character dies, and there are revelations about that person's death later. This was a suprise, since there were no suggestion that the person had died in any type of mysterious or unusual circumstances at the time. I'm told that this character was in Daughter of Fortune, so perhaps the background was given there.
In conclusion, this book was at times interesting, rarely riveting, and poorly structured. With the sales, perhaps she can buy a keyboard with a RETURN key.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointment
Review: What a piece of work this was! I was only able to tolerate about 20 pages at a time, and I didn't give up simply because it was a book by Isabel Allende. The best part: the compelling tale of Diego and Susana. Now there's a wonderful book in the making!!!

Rating:
Summary: Tying all the pieces together.
Review: What happened in that museum when Eliza Sommers viewed the supposed head of Joaquin Murieta? And what about the parents of Clara the Clairvoyant, what is their story? Portrait in Sepia answers both these questions and more. It also introduces us to Aurora del Valle, the granddaughter of Paulina del Valle and also Eliza Sommers. The story is told in a fashion similar to Eva Luna, with childhood memories and later discoveries forming most of its basis. I absolutely loved Daughter of Fortune and have been eagerly awaiting the sequel for years. Anyone who cannot get enough of Isabel Allende and her magical realism style of story telling will love this book. As for claims that it is not as good as the original, I would say so only in the aspect that I think I like the character of Eliza Sommers more than that of her granddaughter. However, this is a powerful book and I am grateful to the author for writing it.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful but ultimately disappointing
Review: When I finished reading 'Daughter of Fortune' I had a profound sense of letdown: the exhilarating trip through the unique character's fascinating lives was over, yet there were no resolutions to the major conflicts of the novel. I felt that the narrative had stopped abruptly, rather than concluded in any satisfactory way. I wondered if Allende had been under some sort of pressure to finish this novel and get it to publication. I awaited the publication of 'Portrait in Sepia' eagerly,I was still enamored and involved with the characters in 'Daughter of Fortune', even though 'Portrait in Sepia' is not exactly a sequel, jumping forward the backward in time, I was eager for some answers about what exactly had happened to Tao Chien, Eliza, Paulina and Severo. Finishing 'Portrait in Sepia' left me with a familiar sense of let down; though I devoured it, reading from cover to cover, bouncing back and forth from Chile to San Francisco, I finished unsatisfied. I have resolved to re-read 'House of the Spirits' for more details of the de Valle family history. My frustration at the lack of conventional plotting does nothing to dim my enthusiasm for Allende's writing, which is, as always, lyrical and magical. I am amazed that the poetry and the flow of her language survives translation time and again. As long as she continues to invent characters this vivid and three dimensional and as long as her language lilts and soars in this fashion, I will continue reading her happily. However, I hope that in future writing she might confine herself to a smaller canvas, a story that can be told whole in a single novel.