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Title: The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende ISBN: 0-553-27391-4 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 July, 1986 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.3 (208 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: "The House of the Spirit" - The way the world is!
Comment: "The House of the Sprits", written by Isabel Allende, is the extraordinary epic of the three generations of the Trueba family. The book focuses on the two main human problems: internal (personal) social relationship and the external political participation as a citizen. The story begins in an unnamed South American country during the middle of the 19th century which Esteban Trueba, a lonely, stern man, married Clara del Valle, a warm-hearted, hypersensitive girl. They built a family in a big house in the village with a practical, self-effacing daughter, Blanca and two sons, Nicolas and Jaime who were twins. A lot of tensions were caused between Esteban the father and his daughter since Blanca soon felt in love with the son of her father's foreman. However, with the birth of little cute Alba, Blanca's daughter, in the third generation, has brought a lot of happiness and warming to the family that lessen the tensions in the Trueba's home. And, as the politically roaring twentieth century beat on, the Trueba family became the actors of the victims of a series of tragedies under the Chilean military oppression.
Many striking events emotionally attacked the heart of the readers. One of the most important events was the moment where Esteban found out that his daughter was having a relationship with the son of his worker. He slapped and beat Blanca terribly as if he wanted to kill her. Clara (the mother) tried to stop the violence, but he paid attention to nothing but the horrible beating and intolerable reviling. Esteban called his daughter a malicious woman for having relationship with a lower-class man. Unable to control her temper, Clara shouted aloud: "What about you who raped the peasant women!" The words stroke Esteban and he slapped her. Esteban was a crucial patron in the village that no one dares to say a word against him. He used his power to rape the peasant women in the village. Clara knew this but she never protest against him. She kept everything inside since a woman during that time couldn't interfere with her husband outside social relationship and suddenly she burst out everything at this day. From this short scene, we can see the author tried to present two issues: the division between lower and middle classes and the male-dominated world. During this time, the middle class treated the lower class as their servants. The middle class couldn't never be friends with the middle class; marriage between middle-class and lower-class was unacceptable to the society. The men were considered to be powerful creatures that dominate the world. Outside the community, they are politically leaders and business moneymakers. In the family, they lead the family. The women are weak, fragile creatures who were just born to serve the men and his children.
"The House of the Spirits" compresses the whole complex society in a little book. Isabel Allende introduced colorful characters that represented typical people in the society. Each member in the Trueba family was assigned a different personal life to live on. Esteban Trueba, the leader of the family, strong and arrogant on the outside, struggled with loneliness deep inside his heart that he never willing to show it. He was jealous to see his wife, Clara, expressed her warming caring and tender loving toward the children, the neighbors, and the workers, but always being cold toward him. His children were never willing to share their feelings with him and always gave him their cold fearful eyes whenever they have to face him. Clara, on the other hand, was a beloved mother and grandmother, but a struggled wife who found her heart compelled every time she has to confront him. She hated his hateful attitude toward the farmers, his immoral abuse of the peasant women, and his intolerable neglect of caring and support toward his own children. She repressed his actions, but she pushed all her unbearable feelings to the bottom of her heart because she couldn't protest against him. For Blanca, she faced hardship under the classism society. She was kicked out of the house for having a relationship with a lower-class man. Her lover has to flee to avoid the killing her father. Each member in the Trueba family struggled through the unbreakable solid walls of rules of the society. Why should people formulate rules to make people turning themselves against each other? Did they feel happy anyway? Isabel Allende also presented a broader theme in which she showed the evilness and cruelest of human. I love the last one-third of the book in which Isabel Allende described a horrified world during the Chilean civil war with violence, mass murder, genocides, and concentration camps. Alba and Jaime were the victims of the civil war. Under the military oppression, they suffered shocking violence in the concentration camps.
From "The House of the Spirits", we can see how human hurt human themselves, putting tragedies on each other. Why is that? As reading "The House of the Spirits, I question about how love and hate hurt people individually, why do the social classes cause the man turn against each other, what level of evilness is mankind committed to during a civil war? I really like the book and I rate a 5. As reading the "House of the Spirits", I can see the way the world work, how the rules in the society and the people around me have affected my life. I want to recommend everyone to read this book since it will teach us how to be a better person and how to live happily. I recommend people to read this book so we can have a better vision about our own actions, and from there we can create a better society in which everyone would be able to enjoy happiness and loving.
Rating: 5
Summary: Now I understand
Comment: "The House of the Spirits" gives the reader an extraordinary view of 20th century Chilean history. Through the Trueba family and the myriad characters that drift in and out of their lives, we see so many of the elements of the political and class struggle that continues until this day. Beginning with the landowner vs. tenant worker conflict and culminating with the left-wing vs. right-wing political/social conflict, we are given a glimpse into the inner workings of a country in turmoil. We see the horror of the Conservatives when a Marxist government is democratically elected, and their terror when the coup they so finely crafted becomes a dictatorship as terrible as they expected the Communists to be. Neither the left nor the right were winners--only the military.
I lived for several years in Chile during the 1990's. Even though Chile is emerging as a stable, fairly democratic economy, the political struggle remains. I could never grasp the true essence of my Chilean friends' passionate hatred for or passionate support of the Pinochet regime until I read this book. I always marveled that there was no middle ground. Now I understand why.
Rating: 2
Summary: Characters with geat potential yet plot unfulfilled
Comment: I was somewhat disappointed with Allende's 'The House of Spirits'. Everything about the book seemed to evoke a sense of great things will come from this writer, but unfortunately I was left wanting. So much untapped potential was made of the characters and yet after reading a while in to the book I realised that this is as far as Allende is going to take them. Why? I was left wondering. This is the first book I've read by this author but I'm not going to let it put me off reading more of her stuff. Perhaps my expectations of the author were too great but I don't think so some how.
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Title: Paula by Isabel Allende ISBN: 0060927216 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 24 April, 1996 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Eva Luna. by Isabel Allende ISBN: 0553280589 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 May, 1989 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Daughter of Fortune: A Novel by Isabel Allende ISBN: 038082101X Publisher: HarperTorch Pub. Date: 30 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Of Love and Shadows by Isabel Allende ISBN: 0553273604 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 April, 1988 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Portrait in Sepia : A Novel by Isabel Allende ISBN: 0060936363 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 22 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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