The Biblio Blogazine

 The House of The Spirits by Isabel Allende (1982)
 Translated from the Spanish by Magda Bogin
 Magical Realism, 448 pages
 The Dial Press a division of Random House, Inc.

Synopsis taken from the author’s website:
The House of The Spirits is the magnificent epic of the Trueba family – their loves, their ambitions, their spiritual quests, their relations with one another, and their participation in the history of their times, a history that becomes destiny and overtakes them all.

If word of mouth or reviews do not convince someone to read this novel, the opening sentences will. They immediately draw the reader in, and prepare them for what they are about to read:

Barrabás came to us by sea, the child Clara wrote in her delicate calligraphy. She was already in the habit of writing down important matters, and afterward, when she was mute, she also recorded trivialities, never suspecting hat fifty years later I would use her notebooks to reclaim the past and overcome terrors of my own.

In reading this beautifully woven tale, it becomes evident why it has been consistently on the challenged/banned book list. However, I never took offense at any of the language or subject matter. Never did I sense that any of the passages in question, did not belong or fail to further the plot. It must be noted though, that there will be those who take offense as there are scenes of rape and torture. But the story takes place during a tumultuous time in South American history, thus they have their place.

This was a difficult book for me. I have not read many novels of this nature, so I found that I couldn’t read it for long stretches of time. This is a genre that, for me, requires I digest its narrative slowly. So much is said, and so much is meant by every sentence, many of them long and descriptive such as:

During the summer, she had complained about the stifling evenings, which she spent shooing flies, about the dust clouds in the courtyard, which covered the house as if they were living in a mine shaft, about the dirty water in the bathtub, where her special perfumed salts became a Chinese soup, about the flying cockroaches that got between the sheets, about the burrows of the mice and ants, about the half-drowned spiders she found kicking in the glass of water on her night table each morning, about the insolent hens who laid their eggs in her shoes and shat on the lingerie in her dresser.

Also, the story is told in three “voices” or points of view. The flow was not affected, and I never became lost, as there was always a break before a change. It was just another aspect of the book that I needed to become accustomed to as I read.

I did like the book, and if you are a fan of magical realism, family sagas that span generations, narrative that flows like a raging river at times and a quiet stream in others – then this is a novel for you.

I am giving this a 3 Star rating as it is a good read, but one I could only do in stages. Perhaps it’s me, but I cannot see sitting down with this book and completely digesting it in a single afternoon. I also feel its style may be challenging to others and some of its subject matter too disturbing for sensitive readers.

Don’t let the lower rating fool you. I liked it well enough that it is not the only Allende book in my library. I look forward to reading Daughter of Fortune and Portrait in Sepia, whose stories are connected to The House of The Spirits.

Isabel Allende is has written eight novels, which include Portrait in Sepia, Daughter of Fortune, Of Love and Shadows, and Eva Luna. She has also written a collection of short stories; three memoirs, and a trilogy of children’s books.