Tuesday, May 1, 2012

The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende

Plot: Follow amibitious Estaban Trueba's journey from young adulthood to grandfatherhood, Clairvoyant Clara's life living with unseen spirits, and young Alba's battle against tyranny and tradition. This is a magical realism story about three generations of a closely connected family living in cycles of sexism toward women and set roles for social classes.

Comments: I analyzed this book for a class, which tends to lessen my enjoyment of the book. However, I think that without the requirement for the class I would not have finished the book at all. The House of the Spirits is Isabel Allende's first book and displays her style of magical realism, where magic is entwined with reality in subtle, almost believable ways. Personally, magical realism is not my favorite genre.

Esteban was an enormously sexist character, as well as believing strongly that the lower class citizens should stay in their inferior place. Despite all that made me despise him in the beginning of the book, I grew to sort of like his character at the very end. I did feel guilty for forgiving him of his horrible acts against women. There's an emphasis on abuse of women physically, mentally, and socially in The House of the Spirits, which I believe is meant to advocate equality.

I didn't connect with many characters for very long, which translated into a lack of empathy. The story didn't interest me very much. The political unrest didn't seize my attention and neither did the hidden messages in every action, word, and symbol. It was a good storyline, but I wasn't very impressed with the book.

Rating: I rate this book a six out of ten. It wasn't a great book.

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