The House of the Spirits: A Novel

Excellent book. I enjoyed reading through the generations of family and the history surrounding the times. Esteban Trueba is a character not soon forgotten.

This was book 4 of the Life's Library Book club. I've known about Allende and her work for years, but this was my first opportunity to read any. I'm glad I did.Its the story of Esteban and Clara Truela and their family in post-Colonial Chile. Esteban is a successful landowner who in the mirror of today's world is a completely unredeemable character. When I first read about some of the things he did, if I didn't know that it was a woman who wrote him, I might have been inclined to stop. Clara is bit of a mystic and their daughter and granddaughter both impress and disappoint their parents as they live their mostly upper crust lives in a country that is headed towards revolution. An excellent read. One of the interesting literary devices Allende uses, is that any chapter focusing on Esteban is told in the first person, everything else is in the third person by a narrator who is telling the family story from the future and knows what is going to happen. Several times she blatantly foreshadows things (mostly tragic) that will soon happen.Quotes: I blamed Rosa for the years I had spent dreaming of her deep within the mine. I didn't tell her that I hadn't seen any other women all that time except for a handful of shriveled old prostitutes, who serviced the whole camp with more good will than ability.He was the closest thing to a friend that Trueba had within a radius of fifty miles, but his monumental pride prevented him from recognizing in the man any virtues beyond those that marked him as a good peon. Trueba was not one to encourage intimacy with his subordinates. Pedro Segundo hated him, even though he had never given a name to the tortured feeling that gripped his soul and filled him with confusion. It was a mixture of fear and resentful admiration.9/10 S: 5/8/19 - 6/3/19 (27 Days)

Just simply excellent storytelling. While the scope of the work (over 3 generations) is epic, the realization of the work is of a more intimate nature. Love, power, politics and strong (although somewhat eccentric) female characters to go with a strong, visual story and a touch of magical realism ... what else do you really need?

I probably would have given this book 5 starts if My interest hadn't waned a bit at the end. Allende is a great writer and the translation is well done so it is allways a pleasure to read one of her books. This family was odd from the start, there was no way their story would be anything else but a little strange and over the top, just the kind of dynamic I like to read.

In the first few pages I was very disappointed that I bought this book. It seemed so derivative ofGabriel Garcia Marquez that I was embarrassed for the author. I stuck with it because despite my frustration, there were some very funny moments. As the novel develops, the characters pull you in and the complex landscape of three generations captured my imagination. In the last third of the novel, I could not put it down. Without saying too much I'll just add that Allende contributes some very beautiful and unique thought on the cyclical, ironic, introverted nature of our lives. I have no doubt that this story and these characters will stay with me as I continue to reflect on how personalities develop in a family and how people cope with power or the lack there of...

I read this one long ago and have always been captivated by the deep and intertwined stories and lives of each character. The lines between what is real and what could not possibly be are blurry making for a captivating journey of imagery and family ties. My first introduction to Allende and what led me to discover Marquez and others who write magical realism.