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260 hysterical
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imho-reviews / fiction /
Sunday, 24th November 2002, 6:00pm
An opinion by: Nette
 House of Spirits

House of Spirits by Isabel Allende

I got a copy of this book from the library and so maybe I can blame the pressure caused by the due date for my struggles and incomplete reading. Then again, I did manage to polish off a seven hundred page book in a couple of weeks not so long ago, so perhaps that wasn't what happened.

The story spans several generations and is told in a conversational, almost brusque tone. Someone's behaviour might be described and then the comment "this went on for several years" is added, so we are suddenly whisked up to a different date. It really is a bit like someone describing their crazy family over a long, late night dinner. And then this happened, and then he was like this and she was like this ... so story-telling, but somehow it didn't quite grab me and sweep me up the way I had hoped. The spirits mentioned in the title were only really a part of the scenery, not part of the story and in fact the author is quick to point out how the most clairvoyant character, Clara, gives up her psychic explorations after an earthquake because she is needed in the real world ... do I detect a slight hint of disapproval?

As the story became more about politics and revolution and love conquering all, I had to bring the book back, and opted instead for renting the video to see how it ended (oh I know, I know, unethical book reviewer ...). I was impressed at how the film did look the way I imagined the story, except for the shocking casting of big-boned Meryl Streep as the ethereal Clara and - the most bizarre - a thin neurotic Jeremy Irons in the role of the grand patriarch and mogul Esteban. He's got some weird things in his mouth to change his British overbite and insists on doing some sort of pompous imitation of Rhett Butler. Winona Ryder, perpetually fourteen, did sum up the point of it all at the end, something about the importance of the layers of stories, but I missed a certain epic magic. Pretty good debut novel in the magic-realist vein, with some very poetic passages. -JML



Readers have left 8 comments

Man, JML missed the whole point. how can you think the movie did a good job?????? Those actors don't even resemble a latin American feel, and movies always screw up the books plot. I'm not even sure if they have Alba in it, which is a huge part of the book. The book was extremely good. "politics and revolution and love conquering all", If those were the themes that you got, you missed the whole point. Politics were to show the dismay of the country and the class struggle, same with revolution. That was not a bigger theme than magical realism. Clara showed through this the strength of women in a society that portrayed woman as weak and below men.She did not give it up after the earthquake. She just woke up, looked at the bigger picture and knew what she had to do. She later began with it again, and was never afraid of what Trueba thought. As for the love conquering all, that was not a theme at all. At what point did love ever conquer??? Blanca and Pedro finally got together, but after many years of hardships. Alba ended up in a big mess without her love(You'd know that if you read the book) And Clara NEVER loved Asteban. It was pointed out many times in the book. It was more about womens strength and the struggle of the weak oversoming the strong. The magical realism is fun, and the so called layers of stories, it's not layers, it is a circle of life. The end connects to the beggining. Allende says herself that is is a circular pattern. It is not a layered pattern. I recommend this book to someone who is intellgent and a person who has depth and thinks deeply about meanings. This is all coming from a high school student too.
cb on Sunday, 5th January 2003, 7:18pm
naw, reading is subjective. you cant say someones opinion is wrong. just depends on how you look at things. you can interpret whatever you wish from what the author may imply.
cf on Tuesday, 19th April 2005, 7:38pm
i read this book as a junior in high school for my english class. i am in a IB class and have to read works from different countries. this book was by far the msot interesting. i agree with the first comment that there is a whole lot more than JML thought. the book is very deep and you can not skim through it to understand and enjoy it to its full potential. i have had to write over 12 pages on this and have looked into the novel pretty deeply. it is also very interesting how allende, the author, ties in her own life, that of others, and events from Chile (the unnamed country) around the time of the revolution. Allende does an excellent job portraying the time span from about 1905 to about 1975 and keeping the characters interesting. i also think it is very artful how she weaves all the characters together (which might seem to others like layering) through out the book. cb also touched on the over all theme of magical realism which is the major theme in the book. compared to many other foreign books this was one of the more interesting including allende's other books. one last thing i might mention is that allende started the HoS as a letter to a dying uncle that did not turn into her first book until she was half finished
travis on Friday, 13th May 2005, 8:42pm
Wow. Apparently House of Spirits is quite popular with IB English teachers. I just had to read it for my class, too, and I thought it was an excellent choice (much better than the way-overdone Grapes of Wrath). I must say, the book IS considered a classic for a damn good reason. I really recommend that JML go back and read it properly...and lets aim for some enlightenment as opposed to mediocre entertainment this time, shall we?
Danielle on Sunday, 14th August 2005, 9:25pm
I had to read this for IB English too!
A on Wednesday, 22nd November 2006, 3:40am
Like most of the people above i read this book in my IB english class. I found it very interesting. It is really captivating. And i recommend it to everyone. It can be very absurd in places but overall it is really good. I love the way concept of cyclical motion of time is presented in this novel.
Shaz on Tuesday, 5th December 2006, 10:01pm
Yay for needing it for IB english! Denver rep! Haha. Terrific novel.
Paj on Tuesday, 27th November 2007, 12:38am
I also read this for my English IB class, and i absolutely loved the book.
and now i have to talk about magic realism in the House of Spirits for my IOP (individual oral presentation) for 30 mins.
its hard as hell, but also easy in a way.
the more i learn about the book, the more interested i become.
if only Isabel Allende was more specific about the book instead of answering her interviews with more or less the same answers "the spirits wrote it"
uggghhh!!! god damn!! make researching my IOP easier!!
Cristina on Saturday, 1st December 2007, 4:02pm

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