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A review by booksbythewindow
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
For full review: https://booksbythewindow.wordpress.com/2019/08/21/the-house-of-the-spirits/
Summary: The House of the Spirits follows one family through different generations with a particular focus on the women, although the reader sees through the eyes of the male narrator, Esteban Trueba. Writing the story of his family from a place of old age, Esteban takes the reader through his first encounter with the del Valle family, with an engagement tragically cut short to their daughter Rosa. Using the childhood notebooks of Clara, he retraces the events leading them to get married and start their own family, with a focus on their daughter, Blanca, and granddaughter, Alba. With Alba growing up in an increasingly politically unstable world, and Clara, the clairvoyant, dead, the narrative at the close of the novel shifts to focus much more on the physical that surrounds the family.
Overall Thoughts: I found the women in the narrative to be the most interesting characters, particularly Alba, whose story closes out the novel. However, I was having to fight through my extreme dislike of the narrator to enjoy the rest of the characters. He may be the only character to have seen all these generations, but I would much rather have read the same story through the eyes of other characters. The narrator aside, I found some of the characters to be interesting and complex and I enjoyed reading the nuances to their stories. Personally, I found some of the magical realism elements to be a little too strange for my tastes, preferring the more political aspects of the narrative that come in towards the end.
Summary: The House of the Spirits follows one family through different generations with a particular focus on the women, although the reader sees through the eyes of the male narrator, Esteban Trueba. Writing the story of his family from a place of old age, Esteban takes the reader through his first encounter with the del Valle family, with an engagement tragically cut short to their daughter Rosa. Using the childhood notebooks of Clara, he retraces the events leading them to get married and start their own family, with a focus on their daughter, Blanca, and granddaughter, Alba. With Alba growing up in an increasingly politically unstable world, and Clara, the clairvoyant, dead, the narrative at the close of the novel shifts to focus much more on the physical that surrounds the family.
Overall Thoughts: I found the women in the narrative to be the most interesting characters, particularly Alba, whose story closes out the novel. However, I was having to fight through my extreme dislike of the narrator to enjoy the rest of the characters. He may be the only character to have seen all these generations, but I would much rather have read the same story through the eyes of other characters. The narrator aside, I found some of the characters to be interesting and complex and I enjoyed reading the nuances to their stories. Personally, I found some of the magical realism elements to be a little too strange for my tastes, preferring the more political aspects of the narrative that come in towards the end.