Isabel Allende's House of the Spirits

I finished reading Isabel Allende's "House of the Spirits" this morning. It took me much longer to read than I expected, considering I love Isabel Allende's writing. This was her first novel, and after reading some of her other novels, one can tell. The first half of the book is a bit slow. The characters do not develop as quickly and as powerfully as they do in her later works, and she seems to have really nailed how to switch between characters and move between time periods in her later novels. But it was really interesting to read this book and see how she's grown as a writer. I consider her one of my favorite authors. I love her "Portrait in Sepia." She's the only writer who can really get me hooked emotionally into a book, in such a way that I feel furious when her characters are angry and in love when her characters are passionate.

There is a particular paragraph from the book I found compelling:

She tried to explain Miguel's point of view: that it was not possible to keep waiting for the slow passage of history, the laborious process of educating and organizing the people, because the world was moving ahead by leaps and bounds and they were being left behind; and that radical change is never brought about willingly and without violence. History confirmed this. The argument went on and on and they became locked in a confused rhetorical exchange that left them exhausted, each accusing the other of being more stubborn than a mule. But in the end they kissed each other good night and both were left with the feeling that the other was an extraordinary human being.


The most admirable skill she has as a writer is that she can evoke such powerful emotion without every getting sentimental or poetic. Her images and the way she pushes a tone into her words creates the emotion.

The second half of the book is amazing! As she tells the story of the Communist movement in Chile and the dictatorship it faced, I couldn't help but notice how the political censorship, political prisoners, confessions, and even the conversations the young revolutionaries had in the book were mirror images of those currently in Iran.