No One Is Here Except All of Us by Ramona Ausubel
ISBN: 1594487944
Genre: Historical Fiction

After reading this book, no one can deny that Ramona Ausubel is an amazing storyteller. She crafts a tale out of her own family history in a voice that is at times poetic, the style much like a fable.

The characters were a little hard to connect to, however, this book is about the story and “the bigness of being alive”, according to the author.

. . .  it is about the stories we tell in order to survive, the stories we vow never to tell, and they way those tales mix with the chemistry of the world we think of as real, and change it. The way the story, told enough, becomes the truth.

Life is like that, or at least the tales we tell ourselves and our children. Great and horrible events overshadow and sometimes take over, making it seem as if we are not in control. In order to have this control, or at least the illusion of it, some people take extreme measures in order to deal with the hardships and tragedies they are facing.

But deep down, we remain the same and find strength in the truth of being us.

“Everything stays true. You are yourself, no matter how much you have to change.”

Until a long time later, until I was a mother myself, until I lost everything, until it found me back, I did not believe the stranger’s words. Everything stays true. Now I know that. Now, it’s all I know. And knowing it saves my life again every time I wake up.”

I’m not sure how much more I want to say about the story, as it really should be read, and discerned individually. Each person may feel something different that resonates with them. There is tragedy, as it is set during WWII. Some may be disturbed by it, but considering the setting, it cannot be avoided.

As I was explaining to someone, this is not a read that should be undertaken lightly. This is a book that will leave a lasting impression and must be read deliberately in order to get the most out of it. And I recommend that this effort be made. It’s worth it.

If you’d like to learn more about the background for this book, the following is a clip of the author discussing the it and her family.

 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.