The House of the Spirits

The book had no defects and looked exactly as expected.

I looved everything about this book.The book traces the family history of three generations of family members in an unnamed Latin American country whose fortunes rise and fall together with the rise and decline of the goverment .We may say that Isabel Allende's writing is similar to Gabriel Garcia Marquez.I felt that although the key factors of magic realism,exotic elements,out of the world imagery and the use of local folklore are the same in both their books,I felt Allende was the better writer because her story has a lot of deep ,unshakable love ,compassion and forgiveness in it. As,I have already mentioned ,I loved reading this book in and out so much that ,I actually checked if there was a film adaptation because I was so desperate to see the characters come to life.My favorite was of course clairvoyant Clara ,the girl who is silent for nine years and who is transformed into a woman who just stops talking to her husband when he hits her for the first time.Clara ,who loves everyone equally and does not agree to everything her husband ,Esteban Trueba ,a self made man who the world fears ,tries to impose on her.Ah ,the women in this story are magnificent .They all do just what they want to do with their own ideals in mind ,inspite of living under the roof of Trueba.I wanted to cry when Barrabas the dog dies an unfortunate death and when Alba ,Clara's granddaughter is caught by the wicked Colonel Garcia. In addition ,Allende has done a magnificent job in the last few chapters in portraying how a country with a stable rightist government ,becomes leftist due to the discontent of the working class.She then goes on to show how the leftist government becomes a dictatorship and military rule in a country is not to be preferred. I guess what I took most from this book is that in the end ,"Old Sins Cast Long Shadows" and a single act of kindness can save your family one day❤️. If you love Gabo and have not read Allende yet ,please run and get this book.You will love her writing💖 PS:I forgot to mention there was a movie adaptation with Meryl Streep playing Clara.

I have an edition in another language and I got the English version for a friend.

This book has delighted me and is continuing to delight me. Because of the movie, I had thought the book would be very long and difficult to read. But I was wrong. It turned out to be one of the best books I've read. Maybe it's the translation but I find her very easy to follow, even with many different characters and Spanish names. The door has opened for me to search more Isabel Allende books, and for this I am grateful.

The typography of this edition makes it painful to read. I gave up.