Rating: 
Summary: Isabel will tell you yourself...
Review: Isabel would be able to tell every story, to put a reason in the life of every person. In reading the life of Gregory Reeves, I had the impression that the dreams, hopes and hidden reasons of my life were becoming clear to myself. Reading her books is like telling her your story, and waiting for her to give it a reason and, at the same time, to put poetry in it, to make it worth to be told.
In her narration, also the feelings, the pains, the irrational of an existence are put in a rational light. But nonetheless her writing does not loose the poetry of the irrational that she shares with other South-American writers, like Marquez or Amado.
I'd say that the secret of her books is really this merging of rational and irrational, the sense and order of feelings and the mysterious poetry of what seems rational.
Rating:
Summary: My Adventure into The Infinite Plan
Review: It all started a hot summer day here in Taipei. My brother was here on vacation, before he went off to university. I noticed that he wouldn't come out of his room for hours while I played on the computer, or watched TV. It was nine pm and he came out of the room with a smile on his face and he held out a book to me. He said" you have to read it!" with excitement. After a couple days he went off to university and I was left alone. I really hadn't payed much attention to the book, but one day I put my mind to it and started reading it. I discovered that the book never stoped unraviling surprises. It was practically impossible to stop reading in middle of a chapter, I had to know what would happen next. I was surprised how the book always had surprises.It was an emotion I had never felt before, reading a book. A sensation that you dont get by reading any other book. This is a book that shows you reality and how real life is, not just some wonderland. Its fiction, history, andventure, sexuality, and other subjects in one book. I'd read for hours until my body was exhausted. When I finished the book I was a little sad because I didnt know what would happen next. I have to say this is the best book I've read in my young life, and probably not the last book I read from this author: Isabel Allende. Id recommend this book to everyone who loves reading.
Rating:
Summary: My Adventure into The Infinite Plan
Review: It all started a hot summer day here in Taipei. My brother was here on vacation, before he went off to university. I noticed that he wouldn�t come out of his room for hours while I played on the computer, or watched TV. It was nine pm and he came out of the room with a smile on his face and he held out a book to me. He said" you have to read it!" with excitement. After a couple days he went off to university and I was left alone. I really hadn�t payed much attention to the book, but one day I put my mind to it and started reading it. I discovered that the book never stoped unraviling surprises. It was practically impossible to stop reading in middle of a chapter, I had to know what would happen next. I was surprised how the book always had surprises.It was an emotion I had never felt before, reading a book. A sensation that you dont get by reading any other book. This is a book that shows you reality and how real life is, not just some wonderland. Its fiction, history, andventure, sexuality, and other subjects in one book. I'd read for hours until my body was exhausted. When I finished the book I was a little sad because I didnt know what would happen next. I have to say this is the best book I've read in my young life, and probably not the last book I read from this author: Isabel Allende. Id recommend this book to everyone who loves reading.
Rating:
Summary: Gringo manchild
Review: The infinite plan which Charles Reeves administered left no room for doubts. Life stories repeat themselves over and over with few variations Olga, the midwife, healer, and fortune teller, learned. The family consisted of Charles, husband and father, and doctor in divine sciences, his wife Nora, and the children, Gregory and Judy Reeves, and friend and courtesy aunt Olga. Charles Reeves was a man ahead of his time. About a year after Hiroshima--Hiroshima caused Nora to lose faith in humanity--Charles was hospitalized for stomach cancer and the family camped in Los Angeles with the hospitable Morales family, Mexicans. Judy and Gregory were taught Spanish by the Morales children, and for the first time attended school. When Charles was released from the hospital, the Reeves family bought a small shack at the edge of the barrio. The priest taught Gregory to box and in turn he had to serve as an altar boy. Olga moved to a place of her own.Charles's death disrupted the family and since Nora's habit of dependence was deeply rooted she began to live in a daze. Both children thought of her indolence as a sickness of the spirit. The Morales house became Gregory's true home. When Gregory left the city thirteen years later, he was homesick for the Morales family. He was a shoeshine boy and a rabid movie watcher. Gregory started to steal and his mother unsuccessfully tried to place him in an orphanage and in an adoptive home to save him from a life of crime. Then she said to him to just grow up. He was raped by a gang leader. He and Carmen Morales developed an act of juggling, playing the harmonica, and tricks by his pet dog. The more posh the setting, the greater the rewards for the troupe. Gregory had been encouraged by his father to pursue education. He did well in high school. He developed a friendship with an employee at the public library who could direct his reading. The gang leader died in a contest with him called race the train. This defeat of Martinez traveled around the school and bolstered Gregory's reputation. Following high school, Gregory held a number of menial and factory jobs. On one he injured his leg. The man from the library died and gave him eight hundred dollars to go to college. He went to Berkeley. As a result of his upbringing he had a chicano accent. He went to law school in San Francisco. Before completing his legal studies he married and the couple had a daughter. They separated, however, and just after he took his bar exams he left for service in the army. Reeves saved the lives of eleven men. In the middle of a combat zone he taught villagers English. He was sick and was sent to Hawaii for tests. Gregory returned home from the war around the same time his childhood friend Carmen Morales moved to Berkeley. Carmen worked for two of Gregory's friends at a restaurant. Gregory was intimicated by the idea of seeing Carmen again. He confessed to her his desire to become a wealthy and successful lawyer. Carmen Morales adopted her dead brother's half Vietnamese son. Gregory remarried. His sister found happiness with her third husband and her children. Gregory separated from his wife and attained custody by default of his difficult four year old son David. After substantial turmoil a housekeeper settles the son. Gregory is nearly upturned by a malpractice claim, but his friend Carmen Morales who has become a successful business person rescues him This is a superb book. A South American writer writes about a North American and can stake her claim as a world writer.
Rating:
Summary: Gringo manchild
Review: The infinite plan which Charles Reeves administered left no room for doubts. Life stories repeat themselves over and over with few variations Olga, the midwife, healer, and fortune teller, learned. The family consisted of Charles, husband and father, and doctor in divine sciences, his wife Nora, and the children, Gregory and Judy Reeves, and friend and courtesy aunt Olga. Charles Reeves was a man ahead of his time. About a year after Hiroshima--Hiroshima caused Nora to lose faith in humanity--Charles was hospitalized for stomach cancer and the family camped in Los Angeles with the hospitable Morales family, Mexicans. Judy and Gregory were taught Spanish by the Morales children, and for the first time attended school. When Charles was released from the hospital, the Reeves family bought a small shack at the edge of the barrio. The priest taught Gregory to box and in turn he had to serve as an altar boy. Olga moved to a place of her own. Charles's death disrupted the family and since Nora's habit of dependence was deeply rooted she began to live in a daze. Both children thought of her indolence as a sickness of the spirit. The Morales house became Gregory's true home. When Gregory left the city thirteen years later, he was homesick for the Morales family. He was a shoeshine boy and a rabid movie watcher. Gregory started to steal and his mother unsuccessfully tried to place him in an orphanage and in an adoptive home to save him from a life of crime. Then she said to him to just grow up. He was raped by a gang leader. He and Carmen Morales developed an act of juggling, playing the harmonica, and tricks by his pet dog. The more posh the setting, the greater the rewards for the troupe. Gregory had been encouraged by his father to pursue education. He did well in high school. He developed a friendship with an employee at the public library who could direct his reading. The gang leader died in a contest with him called race the train. This defeat of Martinez traveled around the school and bolstered Gregory's reputation. Following high school, Gregory held a number of menial and factory jobs. On one he injured his leg. The man from the library died and gave him eight hundred dollars to go to college. He went to Berkeley. As a result of his upbringing he had a chicano accent. He went to law school in San Francisco. Before completing his legal studies he married and the couple had a daughter. They separated, however, and just after he took his bar exams he left for service in the army. Reeves saved the lives of eleven men. In the middle of a combat zone he taught villagers English. He was sick and was sent to Hawaii for tests. Gregory returned home from the war around the same time his childhood friend Carmen Morales moved to Berkeley. Carmen worked for two of Gregory's friends at a restaurant. Gregory was intimicated by the idea of seeing Carmen again. He confessed to her his desire to become a wealthy and successful lawyer. Carmen Morales adopted her dead brother's half Vietnamese son. Gregory remarried. His sister found happiness with her third husband and her children. Gregory separated from his wife and attained custody by default of his difficult four year old son David. After substantial turmoil a housekeeper settles the son. Gregory is nearly upturned by a malpractice claim, but his friend Carmen Morales who has become a successful business person rescues him This is a superb book. A South American writer writes about a North American and can stake her claim as a world writer.
Rating: 
Summary: Better in final execution than others, if not content
Review: There I am devouring Allende like a large meal, going from book to book, thought to thought, era to era without any regard to continuity or subject. I almost left The Infinite Plan for last but it was next on the pile so I picked it up and as weird as this sounds, enjoyed it more so than all the other novels that kept going on and on in their spinnings through history and drama and characters and relationships.
Gregory is a real protagonist, I wasn�t even sure if I liked him though I knew for sure that he didn�t even like himself. He seems to meander through life with aims that are less focused than an Allende plot. But this time the meandering works, the sense of simply walking with a character and them telling you there life is really used to its fullest here. Again m review is as a comparison to other Allende books and yet this style, the masculine voice/perception really seemed to come across. What I particularly found provocative, worth the price of admission, if you will was the root of Gregory�s problems, essentially accepting the company of unhealthy, needy people in his life. He even has an associate in the law firm he owns who regularly tries to commit suicide in the bathroom. Thinking about the characters and their spiraling lives made me think that there is a marked ear for humor, a comedy lost within Allende�s work. It all becomes this heavy historical missive and borders sometimes on a historical romance novel that is laborious and in love with it�s own language. To read her in Spanish must be a real treat, an added attraction to her work because I can see how the crossing of historical tapestry can become tiresome.
This time though, she strikes the mark in the final analysis of a character and his problems. Not perfect but it comes closer than the others do in fully executing a character. I agree with a previous reviewer that the Vietnam scenes are a little awkward but the awkwardness now strikes me as waiting to be funny, hilarious even but Allende�s characters tend to be so somber that their laughter is suspect or predatory for something that is about to bring more sorrow.
I don�t recommend this at full price nor do I suggest it as the only Allende novel to be read but it is a nice distraction from her main body of Latin American historical/romance work. It comes as a pleasant off-shoot to the present world and a strong experiment in a writer changing from a feminine focus to masculine.
Rating:
Summary: Better in final execution than others, if not content
Review: There I am devouring Allende like a large meal, going from book to book, thought to thought, era to era without any regard to continuity or subject. I almost left The Infinite Plan for last but it was next on the pile so I picked it up and as weird as this sounds, enjoyed it more so than all the other novels that kept going on and on in their spinnings through history and drama and characters and relationships.
Gregory is a real protagonist, I wasn't even sure if I liked him though I knew for sure that he didn't even like himself. He seems to meander through life with aims that are less focused than an Allende plot. But this time the meandering works, the sense of simply walking with a character and them telling you there life is really used to its fullest here. Again m review is as a comparison to other Allende books and yet this style, the masculine voice/perception really seemed to come across. What I particularly found provocative, worth the price of admission, if you will was the root of Gregory's problems, essentially accepting the company of unhealthy, needy people in his life. He even has an associate in the law firm he owns who regularly tries to commit suicide in the bathroom. Thinking about the characters and their spiraling lives made me think that there is a marked ear for humor, a comedy lost within Allende's work. It all becomes this heavy historical missive and borders sometimes on a historical romance novel that is laborious and in love with it's own language. To read her in Spanish must be a real treat, an added attraction to her work because I can see how the crossing of historical tapestry can become tiresome.
This time though, she strikes the mark in the final analysis of a character and his problems. Not perfect but it comes closer than the others do in fully executing a character. I agree with a previous reviewer that the Vietnam scenes are a little awkward but the awkwardness now strikes me as waiting to be funny, hilarious even but Allende's characters tend to be so somber that their laughter is suspect or predatory for something that is about to bring more sorrow.
I don't recommend this at full price nor do I suggest it as the only Allende novel to be read but it is a nice distraction from her main body of Latin American historical/romance work. It comes as a pleasant off-shoot to the present world and a strong experiment in a writer changing from a feminine focus to masculine.
Rating:
Summary: The Infinite Plan
Review: This is the first Isabel Allende book I've read, and it certainly won't be the last. The story is absorbing and the characters are so interesting.
Rating: 
Summary: Allende's weakest offering
Review: Usually when I read a book by Isabelle Allende I am mesmerized and eagerly turning pages waiting for another revelation. In this book I was just bored and disappointed. The main character is the child of a minister whose "Infinite Plan" sounds more like New Age speculation than revival preaching. He is raised in the Barrio where almost every character confirms to the whole Latin Men are sexy but sexist stereotype and when he grows up to be a lawyer, he's a complete creep. I can see that Allende's purpose is to take a likeable character, transform him into a jerk (as he warns you on about page 100 or so) and then slowly bring him back to humanity (there is one line about how he thought he was moving in circles but he was actually moving in spirals - I still remember that one.) but by the time he gets to his resolution, you still don't like him that much. He's been such a self-absorbed yuppie that you want to smack him upside the head a few more times. The rest of the characters are either awful or poorly drawn charactitures. There is the daughter who becomes a drug addict (and the main character realizes that its not his fault that his kid is such a screwup but then again, it kinda is his fault) and there's his best friend from the Barrio who has some strength and you really wish that she was in another book and not hanging out with these losers. There's the father who's mysterious and the sister that's constantly angry. There's also te best friend that is loud and abrasive. Now, this is still an Isabelle Allende book and as an Isabelle Allende book it has some great emotional highs and lows and some memorable scenes. It just isn't as sustained as her masterworks like House of Spirits or Eva Luna. A common complaint among women readers is that men who try to write women characters usually get them wrong. They are either window dressing or so obviously stereotypical as to be surreal. This book seems to be Allende's attempt to write a book from the male perspective. It's a failure, but it's an interesting failure. A better portrayal of the emotional lives of men would either be Fight CLub or High Fidelity (either the movies or the books are great)
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