Just started this novel about three generations of women in Uruguay. Very much tradition of Garcia Marquez: a girl missing girl baby is found in a tree about 80 feet up.... I love Latin American literature.

I really enjoyed this book which related the story of three generations of strong independent women in Uraguay. I think I enjoyed Salome's story the most - it was heart-wrendhing at times. I did not know much about Uraguay's history and found the stories of the 'revolution" interesting.

Probably 3.5 stars. The beginning was slow but it really took off the last 100 pages or so and was heartbreakingly sad.

The story opens in 1900 in Uruguay. A lost infant appears in a tree, and sets in motion 3 generations of strong women. Pajarita (the lost infant) grows up and opens an herbal store that saves her family. She gives birth to Eva. Eva has to sacrafice her childhood to work in a shoe shop, because her family is so poor. Unfortunately, while she is there, she is mistreated by the owner of the shop, and she needs to find another job. She finds a waitressing job to help support her family, but her passion is poetry. Eva finds a rich husband and gives birth to Solome who grows up under her mother's dream for her to go to University. But Solome becomes a Tupamara during a time of Uruguay upheaval. Solome is arrested and is put in jail and finds herself pregnant with.....a girl. But she cannot keep her daughter (Victoria) so she is taken and raised away from the prison walls.



After 8 years in prison, Solome is released, but Victoria only knows her as an doding aunt. The families are all re-united. Pajarita is now 90 years old, but she the powerful matriarch of the family. These strong women have all had unplanned lives, but their strong personalities turned their fate.



This was a fair book. I think it has more to offer than what I got out of listening to it. As much as I want to get into audiobooks to help get through some of these novels, I don't think I am ablt to give them the attention they need. I think there are certain books that audio works for, but this wasn't one of them. I found myself having to rewind quite a few times.



The style of writing is also not one of my favorites. It has some magical realism mixed in with historical facts, and at times I felt it confusing. I did like all of the women protagnoist, though, so that saved the novel.

Such a powerful book that I want to think about my review!

But...wow.

Edit: & I'm still thinking about this book, which grew more powerful with each chapter! The best work of fiction that I have read this year.

De Robertis has a beautiful, evocative style which reminds me (a lot!) of Isabel Allende.

My only minor nitpick is some of the dialogue can be banal & strays into the telling not showing territory. But I'm certainly going to forgive this in a first novel.

Actually, I have a second nitpick, but this is with the publisher. The blurb with the large print edition I'm reading in one sentence gives away far too much of Salome's story. Try to avoid looking at that.

This novel should have a two-star review based on the first 250 pages, but I bumped it up a star for its strong ending. I couldn't escape the thought that I was essentially reading Marquez-lite - which isn't a fair comparison, but one that The Invisible Mountain invites. Particularly irksome is the emphasis on the poetic skills of some of the characters, but when we actually get to read some of the poetry it seems overwrought and amateurish. This is the same criticism I had of _The Song is You_ - if you're going to talk about someone writes brilliant poetry/lyrics, your examples better support this assertion.

Despite these complaints, it was interesting to learn about Uruguayan history, and the ending was powerful and unsentimental. Worth reading, but nowhere near a classic.