The Book of Spirits is by acclaimed author Isabel Allende. I'm not quite sure what I think about it. There were a lot of good parts but there were also a lot where the story dragged and even repeated itself to a limited extent. The characters are very memorable though and stay with you long after you read the book.

The book follows a family through a few generations.

I found it hard to get into it in the first fourth of the book and was just looking forward to getting through to the end. Every few pages it would get good for a few pages, then it would drag for a few pages. The middle of the book picked up somewhat and the plot line intensified with more happening, and the characters growing into their roles. The last fourth of the book was extremely satisfying and kept me glued to the pages.

It's a story about the Treubas. Esteban Treuba is the constant from beginning to end. He's the patriarch and is volatile and hard-headed. He's money-hungry and will do anything he pleases, wrong or right.

He marries a woman named Clara who has the gift of talking to spirits and knowing the future. She's a woman who takes no interest in the basic day to day basic life activities. She's flighty and seems to float through life.

Her daughter. Blanca falls into a lifelong love affair with a peasant from the tender age of five. Her father forbids them to see each other, so when he finds out they're lovers in their teen years, Blanca's lover turns into her father's lifelong enemy; causing an already strained relationship to be even more so.

Alba is the granddaughter. The only being who can bring out her grandfather's tenderness. However, she is also rebellious and also falls in love with someone forbidden.

Jaime and Nicholas are twin brothers who are as different as strangers. They both have their eccentricities. They both bring something interesting to the story.

Literary Fiction Lovers, Fictional Generational History Lovers

The rich characters

How long it took to flesh them out and the parts of the book that dragged or repeated itself

Isabel Allende is one of the most widely read authors in the world, having sold more than seventy-seven million books. Born in Peru and raised in Chile, Isabel won worldwide acclaim in 1982 with the publication of her first novel, The House of the Spirits. Since then, she has authored more than twenty-six bestselling and critically acclaimed books, including Daughter of Fortune, Island Beneath the Sea, Paula, and The Wind Knows My Name.

In 1996, following the death of her daughter, Paula, Allende established a charitable foundation in her honor. The foundation has awarded grants to more than one hundred nonprofits worldwide, delivering life-changing care to hundreds of thousands of women and girls.

In 2014, President Barack Obama awarded Allende the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, and in 2018 she received the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from the National Book Foundation. Allende lives in California.

Aug. 1, 1986
448 Pages

Interested in buying this? Support Writing.Com by making your purchase of The House of the Spirits   from Amazon.Com!

Created Jun 05, 2024 at 8:54am • Submit your own review...