I really wish I could say this is an amazing book, worthy of so much thoughtful praises, etc., but that would just be a lie. Given how much I enjoy good writing—and this book definitely has it all, like a beautifully crafted essay that speaks with prominent characters and conflicts between generations of families—it’s kind of weird for me to say this book is just okay. I mean, the only thing I like from this entire book is the language: the metaphors, descriptions, the lines that sound so poetic and true, and the impressive vocabulary. Everything else? Not so much.

Storyline. Absolutely hate how the story shifts like a timeline of generations. It makes sense that it would cover the entire family from grandfather to granddaughter since it’s a family story, but I hate how little time we get to spend with each character before s/he is whisked off to some other place, and only to return whenever the author feels like it. (That how it looks like to me.) Each chapter is almost devoted to just one or two characters, and I find it really tiring, especially when it’s all about relationships and love that I haven’t really figured out why it exists. It’s written at a speed that makes the character’s love story seem kind of random.

It’s like what I say about the protagonist falling in love with her best friend: when readers start the story, they’re just given the fact that they’ve been through a lot and have been best friends forever, so of course they fall in love. But readers don’t get to see that process, and it’s frustrating to see the point they’re making when the viewers are just like, “Yeah, okay, if you say so.” So the protagonists don’t fall in love with their best friends in this book, but they might as well have. Take Pedro Tercero and Blanca, for instance. Love at first sight. Whoop-de-do. First of all, clichéd. Second of all, no development. Love at first sight is pretty explanatory itself, but how the heck did they grow to love each other so much? One minute, they’re children, the next paragraph; they’re teens trying to express themselves. I hate that we just have to take the basic “Oh, they fell in love the first time they curled up against each other” from the author without really questioning how it happened or why it’s developed into some life-and-death scenario later. I can’t handle reading a relationship that doesn’t express itself in a deeper stand and instead, just tells you, yes, they love each other, yes, they are willing to do for each other, yes, they are having wild and passionate sex. So what if they do all of that? It’s the chemistry and direct message that I will interpret that matters.

Of course, if it was just one couple, I could handle. But the sad thing is that the same goes for Clara and Esteban. Maybe it’s the time period, but the author likes to play with the love at first sight story. That’s how Esteban fell for Clara. And Clara was only in it because of her vision, which makes me more frustrated. If you can see the future, why not change it? For a character that seems pretty strong—yet identified as fragile and beautiful, of all the freaking adjectives to describe women!—she lacks what I hope for in a protagonist. Isabel Allende tries to make her manner seem so unorganized and magical realism that she comes off rather cold and unconvincing. And the fact that she hardly talks, not just her character and her mute phases but the dialogue in the book itself (really, the only one who actually says things throughout the book in conversation form would be Esteban and Transito. I felt they talked more than husband and wife. Ironic much?). Seeing as how they’ve spent years and years together, you’d think I, as a reader, could see something present in their relationship, some sort of depth or attraction, but nope, nothing. I mean, I saw a spark in his relationship with a prostitute rather than Clara, which is just wrong. And, the only one who’s real in here is Esteban, but too bad I find him and his actions revolting. If I were to rate him on a personality scale, it’d be negative, negative 1. In this case, two negatives don’t make a positive, people.

Still continuing with the storyline, I find the political stuff just plain boring. I hate how we’re required to read books that not only talk about religion (like Christianity, which is really getting boring by now. How many more discussion topics about this can I handle before I start to scream?) but also politics. I don’t mind if the authors throw it in here and there, but to put all her characters involved with government conflict? It makes the story so predictable (because it is. You don’t politics never end well) and you know we will all spend a day or two talking about the different sides they’re taking and what a big theme it is. I’m just like, yeah, okay, whatever. I don’t want to end up having to look up the political references that the book mentioned to understand it all, and I don’t want a book that puts so much pressure on generations of families just because they don’t agree with each other. It’s bad enough that people are so passionate about that stuff, when others would very much like to just leave it at whatever’s best for the country, and still find something annoying in a work of fiction. With this topic, it threatens the characters and changes their personalities. Instead of being natural people, they get portrayed as good citizens who want to fight for what they believe in. We all know most people wouldn’t do that. Take the Holocaust, for instance. How much people stood up for Jews then? If I’m reading about a character that has journeyed into this political standing/situation, then I have nothing to complain about. But nope, not the case.

It’s also not about the storyline, but how messed up the characters and the people are. It drives me crazy how the author, out of the blue, tells you what can be expected somewhere down the road. I want to be amazed, shocked, and not told what’s going to happen. (One example would be when Amanda’s picking up Miguel from school and says something about dying for him. Then, the author jumps in with, little did she know that she would have to one day. Random!) And it also makes me nuts whenever characters appear and disappear. Like Transito. She appears early on in the book and vanishes until Esteban’s lust kicks in. And finally, she helps him. Or the Moira Sisters—I can’t even remember the significance they had, just that they were like Clara the Clairvoyant. Oh, just the tiniest thing can frustrate me about this book. I haven’t found one single character that I like. They’re all pigs/rapists, or poor fragile women who can’t stand up for themselves, with the exception of Alba. She realizes in the end that she can’t give up, but the whole pregnancy and don’t know who the father is makes me grimace.

I hate how every generation is about sadness, and how everything bad that can happen, happens to the Trueba/Del Valle family. But that’s story-telling for you, just not realistic.

On a final note, even though it couldn’t have been more than a few weeks, it seemed like I’d been reading this book for months, and those months just dragged on and on, especially since I had the old issue of the book where the pages were yellow and smelled like moth balls and some other unidentifiable thing.

The rating: I would have given it 1 star, but the writing was good, so I decided to be nice.

When I was a kid, me and my brother used to spend most weekends at our grandparents house. And most of those weekends we would watch one of the same two movies on the good ol' VCR: Steel Magnolias and The House of the Spirits. No one seems to know the latter movie when I mention it, but it starred a bunch of impressive names: Meryl Streep, Jeremy Irons, Glenn Close, Antonio Banderas and Winona Ryder. My memory might be painting a better picture than the truth, but me and my brother LOVED the movie.

So it really kinda amazes me that it took so long for me to get my hands on the book and finally read it. It's everything I can't help but love. A rich family saga filled with drama, hardship, love, violence and a touch of magical realism. The characters that once fascinated me in the movie have reemerged in a far more complex and fleshed out depiction. It is such an interesting story, spanning multiple generations and looking at the intricate relationships between the characters whilst the background features the post-colonial political struggles of Chile.

I love the beautiful and wild South American setting. I love the subtly woven aspects of magical realism. I love (and sometimes hate) the characters. I am fascinated by even the politics of the novel and the huge disparities between the women who campaigned for gender equality and those who believed a husband ruled over his wife. This book has everything: family, politics, love, magic... I always enjoy it when a novel can bring in many different elements that we love and get the balance right.

My favourite character has always been Ferula (played by Glenn Close in the movie). I find her the most tragic character and the one most buried beneath layers of complexity, even though she isn't ever really the novel's main focus:

n  She was one of those people who are born for the greatness of a single love, for exaggerated hatred, for apocalyptic vengeance, and for the most sublime forms of heroism, but she was unable to shape her fate to the dimensions of her amorous vocation, so it was lived out as something flat and grey that was trapped between her mother's sickroom walls, wretched tenements, and the tortured confessions with which this large, opulent, hot-blooded woman - made for maternity, abundance, action, and ardor - was consuming herself.n

Ferula is my favourite, but she is one in a sea of very different and interesting individuals. There is, of course, Esteban Trueba. He is violent, selfish and earns very little sympathy from me over the course of the novel; that's not to say he isn't of interest, because he certainly is. And there's his wife - Clara - a woman prone to bouts of clairvoyance that have dictated the direction of her life; a direction she has accepted without complaint. Then there's Blanca, Esteban and Clara's daughter, who falls in love with Pedro Tercero against her father's wishes and constantly defies him by pursuing the relationship.

Despite the pretty cover, this book isn't without its graphic descriptions of violence and some rape scenes. It isn't a nice book, but I suppose many of the best books aren't "nice". It is, however, a wonderful portrait of a family, spread over several generations, and it is as moving and beautiful as I'd hoped.

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[Disclaimer: This book was sent to me by the publisher with no obligation for a review. Also they sent it 2 years ago, so sorry, Atria! But I did finally get to it.]

How can so much happen in one book? And yet it's still pretty accessible and readable. There are a lot of characters—but the story is mainly seen through the lens of three strong women in a South American family: Clara, Blanca and Alba. They live through turbulent times, wars and rebellions, and are surrounded by violent men. Yet through supernatural and spiritual means, they persist.

It's quite a magical story, with some mystical elements but is mostly grounded in the harsh reality of the world in which they live. I didn't connect the story immediately, and in general I always felt a bit outside the story, like I was observing rather than living through it with these characters. But I did really love Alba, particularly, and the epilogue ultimately elevated my feelings about this book.

I'm glad to finally have read this modern classic and can see why it's remained at the top of influential books of the last century. I'd definitely give Allende's books another shot, because she is a skilled author, especially since this was her debut novel.

الرواية التي لا تستطيع تحديد من من شخصياتها هو الأحب لقلبك هي رواية رائعة بالتأكيد.

"No se puede encontrar a quien no quiere ser encontrado"

Es el libro primer libro de la autora chilena, y a mi juicio el más icónico, que todos deberían leer. Representa un clásico de la literatura latinoamericana, tanto como “Cien Años de Soledad” de Gabriel García Márquez.

La historia relata la vida de la familia Trueba a lo largo de cuatro generaciones y sigue los movimientos sociales y políticos del período poscolonial de Chile. Narrada desde la perspectiva de dos de sus protagonistas, los acontecimientos retratados en ella tratan sobre el amor, la familia, la muerte, los fantasmas, las clases sociales, la revolución, la política y los ideales.

Los personajes son fuertes y están muy bien desarrollados dentro de una historia que refleja el poder de una familia y su patriarca, la problemática de la revolución por los derechos laborales y la lucha de clases. Es un relato que te atrapa, con la narrativa impecable de Allende.

“La casa de los espíritus”, es un mundo complicado donde se mezclan elementos mágicos y surrealistas con una situación política que se va agravando a lo largo de la historia hasta conducirnos a un trágico final.

100% recomendado

"Igual que en el momento de venir al mundo, al morir tenemos miedo de lo desconocido. Pero el miedo es algo interior que no tiene nada que ver con la realidad. Morir es como nacer: sólo un cambio".

5/5 ... 5 estrellas merecidísimas

En tanto preparo una reseña más acorde, y sé que se me están amontonando, haré, al menos, algunos comentarios generales, mientras digiero el poso que me ha dejado el sublime final de la novela.

"Sospecho que todo lo ocurrido no es fortuito, sino que corresponde a un destino dibujado antes de mi nacimiento ... pero ninguna pincelada es inútil" (Alba Satigny Trueba)

"La casa de los espíritus" es una epopeya, que cuenta la historia de la familia sudamericana Trueba-del Valle (claramente chilena, aunque la obra no lo dice en ningún momento), a lo largo de 4 generaciones, siempre pivotando sobre la figura de Clara del Valle (clarísima y clarividente en acertada descripción de su esposo Esteban Trueba), que se superpone a la propia historia del país a lo largo de la mayor parte del siglo XX. Y todo esto contado de una manera magistral por Isabel Allende, que mantiene al lector embelesado durante toda la obra.

Particularmente sublime me ha parecido el final, en el que la autora cierra la novela volviendo al principio de la historia, de una manera natural y nada forzada, dando una sensación de plenitud al lector. Se dice que esta es la obra principal de Isabel Allende, y que no pierde ocasión para revisitar los personajes de esta novela en otras obras. Esto no lo sé pues es la primera obra que le leo, aunque no será la última.

Así que esta semana tendré que buscar tiempo además para ver la película que se rodó sobre la novela, con un elenco de actores de primera magnitud, encabezados por Meryl Streep, Jeremy Irons, Glenn Close, Antonio Banderas y Wynona Ryder (ahí es nada), aunque con el inconveniente de sus 2 horas y media de duración.

Me ha parecido una obra totalmente recomendable, con una variedad de géneros que no aburrirá al lector.

n  El pasado y el futuro eran parte de la misma cosa y la realidad del presente era un caleidoscopio de espejos desordenados, donde todo podía ocurrirn

La casa de los espíritus es la historia de varias generaciones de una familia, donde el pasado, el futuro y el presente se entrelazan, a veces volviéndose indistinguibles, es similar en muchos aspectos a “Cien años de soledad” aunque en mi pensar no es una copia, y tiene méritos por contar una historia diferente, aunque utilice el mismo recurso de Realismo mágico, me gustaron muchas cosas de libro, como sus personajes, cada uno con sus locuras particulares…

n  —En casi todas las familias hay algún tonto o un loco, hijita —aseguró Clara mientras se afanaba en su tejido, porque en todos esos años no había aprendido a tejer sin mirar—. A veces no se ven, porque los esconden, como si fuera una vergüenza. Los encierran en los cuartos más apartados, para que no los vean las visitas. Pero en realidad no hay de qué avergonzarse, ellos también son obra de Dios.
—Pero en nuestra familia no hay ninguno, abuela —replicó Alba.
—No. Aquí la locura se repartió entre todos y no sobró nada para tener nuestro propio loco de remate.n

Sin dejar de parecer muy reales y humanos, especialmente me encanto el personaje de n  Estaban Trueban por una razón muy personal, me recuerda mucho a mi abuelo, sobre todo por sus ataques de rabia, pero también porque a pesar de tener una personalidad iracunda, a su manera, ama a su familia.

Las mujeres de este libro son el centro de todo, cada una en su tiempo, a su manera, con sus sueños, sus amores, y su personalidad, desde n  Nivean, pasando por n  Claran, siguiendo con n  Blancan, y culminando con n  Alban.

A lo largo de todo el libro tenemos otro aspecto muy importante, lo sobrenatural, la fantasía medio mágica medio realista, que es algo clásica de los cuentos de los abuelos, que a pesar de ser adultos muchas veces quisieras creer, así tenemos, objetos cotidianos que se mueven, predicciones, espíritus y otros hechos inexplicables que le dan sazón a toda buena historia.

Debo decir que la segunda parte del libro se vuelve algo intensa con la política, la situación que atraviesa el país es muy similar a la de mi país Venezuela, elogio a la autora por el realismo de lo que narra, sin embargo nunca le perdonare a Allende hacer a la derecha culpable de todo mal y a la izquierda santa libre de todo pecado, a mi parecer eso es fanatismo, aun así la situación política hace a la trama en cierto sentido más interesante, y como pasa en la realidad, demuestra que puede dividir en bandos, a familias, parejas y países, y como el poder corrompe y es tan peligroso en manos de extremistas.

En fin, con todo, la novela es excelente, y una vez leída, te deja con ganas de contar las memorias de tu propia familia… quien sabe… tal vez algún día yo lo haga.

n  Escribo, ella escribió, que la memoria es frágil y el transcurso de una vida es muy breve y sucede todo tan deprisa, que no alcanzamos a ver la relación entre los acontecimientos, no podemos medir la consecuencia de los actos, creemos en la ficción del tiempo, en el presente, el pasado y el futuro, pero puede ser también que todo ocurre simultáneamente, como decían las tres hermanas Mora, que eran capaces de ver en el espacio los espíritus de todas las épocas. Por eso mi abuela Clara escribía en sus cuadernos, para ver las cosas en su dimensión real y para burlar a la mala memoria.n

Time of death: 67%
The framing of this book didn't work for me. I thought the insight was stunning, the idea ambitious and the translation phenomenal. But the actual story was all hitting a dead horse, summaries, and spending time in the heads of people I find not only uninteresting but repugnant. 1 star because I got over the 50% mark so I'm counting it read, and an extra star because I can see the significance of this work, and will assume that the last third contains all the poignancy I've missed.

CONTENT WARNING: (a list of topics)  rape (on screen), pedophilia, loss of a loved one, animal cruelty, spousal abuse, body horror, necrophilia

I wanted to spend more time in the heads of Clara, investigating her older sister, Tercero, and the things that wove them together. This read more like a family biography one would bring to the family reunion, plus a bunch of stuff intended to cause drama. It couldn't capture me and as I have a quota on the amount of rape I choose to witness, I'm moving on.

If you'd like to see the playlist I created for this book (through what I read) you can find it here: You may see the playlist I've assembled for this book here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4mv...

Our souls has no place in this world even if we lived in a one thousands room House

We continue to run madly behind freedom and love,money and beauty; justice and power; master ship and independence
For 75 years, and three families Allende have taken us to run behind the mirage and fall under the disappointments of an old house.that opened for her the door of literature kingdom


We struggle and suffer isolation and cruelty and alienation must defeat us

There are many kinds of life that makes you rush to death But nothing worse than our fear from fear itself and our novel here is about: fighting death

Three families of three Ethnicities To form the monstrosity modern Chilean society



The Spanish family of Del vallies; the Castilian-Arab: Trobia family; and the Indo-Latin Garcia family


for the first time Isabelle gave the lead to a hero, not a heroine, but time was the real hero here as always

The four whites
Neviea. .Clara..Blanca . .alba .. From the grandmother to the late granddaughter they all shared a name meaning: whiteness and disclosure .. Depart / political like Nivea and Alba

Indeed, one of them was not atrophied or false ' to the contrary, they were always clear; they shared simplicity and non-cost and sometimes "silliness " ..
Nivia grandmother was an early "feminism" and put them on the path of independence and giving to others and doing good and the compation for others either for Political reasons like Nivea and Alba
Or just for the sake of charity like Clara and Blanca


Esteban Troubia
He's the man who wither plants when he enter the place
The angry lion; the self-made the fascist; the disgruntled dictator

The descendant of the Peruvian royal family, who in his childhood bloomed with newspaper under his clothes and walked miles because he did not have Santafo to ride the tram.. he was angered by his father and by the heavy loss of Rosa on the day of his victory over poverty;

How I love these family sagas!

Leyendo en nuestro club de lectura: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...

La única novela que he leído de Isabel Allende en mi vida y una gran muestra de talento y narrativa.

Acá seguimos la historia de Esteban Trueba principalmente, un patrón de fundó abusivo y cruel. Aunque también seguirá a otros personajes de la familia Trueba como su nieta Alba o su esposa Clara, entre otros. Y abarca un periodo de tiempo qué parte de las primeras décadas del Chile del siglo XX hasta la dictadura militar.

Está novela la leí durante mi adolescencia dada la gran fama y la buena critica que se le ha dado y la verdad es que no me decepcionó, sino más bien superó mis expectativas. La caracterización y el desarrollo del personaje de Esteban es sin lugar a dudas magnífico, a mi opinión el gran protagonista de esta historia. A menudo es común que autoras intenten retratar a personajes masculinos en sus libros pero me atrevería a decir que Isabel Allende es la que mejor lo ha hecho, desde la forma de ver la vida hasta su visión de las relaciones, su crueldad... todo es perfecto, alejado totalmente de clichés o puntos de vista repetidos en otras historias.

Por otra parte la narrativa es envolvente y a la misma vez fácil de seguir, sin llegar a abordar la sencillez extrema que probablemente hubiera terminado por bajarle la calidad, mezclando todo a la misma vez con un toque de realismo mágico que lleva la narrativa hasta lo magnífico. Hay clarividencia, una chica de pelo verde... pero también una muestra de la política, las relaciones, las clases sociales e ideales del Chile de épocas pasadas.

Tal vez mi única crítica es que en las páginas finales, con el protagonismo de Alba, la autora cae en la típica y tantas veces vista historia de la chica de clase acomodada que se enamora del chico de bajos recursos, pero idealista, haciendo que el personaje de Esteban pasé a un muy segundo plano. Alba fue el único personaje que se me hizo insoportable, la tipica chica rebelde sin causa que siente remordimiento por pertenecer a una familia rica y que intenta seguir ideales contrarios a los que se le han impuesto en casa. Entiendo que todo va sobre la dictadura y todo ese rollo, pero es algo que ya hemos visto tantas veces en series, películas y libros que su poca originalidad simplemente no cuela. Tal vez la autora debió haber abordado el asunto desde otra perpectiva, pero una más que poco original historia de amor... meh.

Pese a ello, esta novela es una obra maestra con todas sus letras.

¡Recomendadísima!