Reviews
Enchanting. Engaging. Dense but incredibly well-paced. A masterpiece.
siempre estarás en mi corazón
I’m so deeply touched by this book. Latin American literature is out of this world. What a story and I’m a sucker for magical realism living inside historical events. This is a gem with one of the best endings I’ve read. Tragical but hopeful. Happy to see that in reality, in the present, being hopeful was worth it.
I have so much to say and don’t have the words.
This is the first book I’ve read that deals with magic, activism and the things some woman go through. Also love the Spanish overtone it really ties the historic element together & the common generational mistakes the four women make when it comes to men. 
Loved this so much!!! v HEAVILY influenced by One Hundred Years - if u r a lover of Magical Realism n Latin American Lit u will love this. I love One Hundred Years v dearly but I do think it can be hard to read n follow, not really the best introduction into the genre, and I think Allende’s ‘The House of the Spirits’ is a much better place to start with venturing into Latin American Lit!!!
Themes r v similar to One Hundred Years - fate and determinism, cyclicality of time etc etc - but I think where Allende really stands out is in the way she breathes life into her female characters~ love Gabo (rip king) but his writing of female characters can sometimes fall into v reductive and tired stereotypes. Allende does an amazing job with her depiction of the female experience, esp in the ways she portrays the different ways violence can be enacted on women of different classes (altho TW because her writing is also v visceral and some parts genuinely gagged me a bit)
Eine Familiensaga des 20. Jahrhunderts in Chile.
Man begleitet 4 Frauen Generationen, ihr Leben, die Menschen, die sie treffen, wie und wen sie lieben, die Umstände, in denen sie aufwachsen, ihre Vorlieben, Wünsche und Eigenheiten. Ich mochte, wie facettenreich die weiblichen Hauptfiguren im Buch sind, wie sie sich voneinander unterscheiden. Wie stark, selbstlos, sanft und weich sie beschrieben werden und wie viel Liebe und Mut sie aufbringen und ganz auf ihre eigene Art und Weise weiblich sind.
Man erfährt auch über die Gefühlswelt der männlichen Figuren, die es nie gelernt haben, offen mit ihren Emotionen umzugehen und wie das in Wut und Abkapselung führt.
Die politischen Ereignisse in Chile nehmen viel Raum in der Geschichte ein und wie diese das Leben der Familie beeinflussen. Durch dieses Buch habe ich viel über die Geschichte Chiles, ihre Landschaft und Geographie, die Kultur und Religion des Landes und natürlich über die politischen Ereignisse erfahren, die das Land für Jahre in Aufruhr versetzt haben.
In diesem Buch, in dem sich die Autorin des magischen Realismus bedient, war ich hin und hergerissen zwischen den brutalen Ereignissen und der rohen Wirklichkeit und dem Magischen und Verzerrten, das den Charakter der weiblichen Figuren, die im Zentrum des Geschehens stehen, wiedergibt, und das magische Etwas einer Frau unterstreicht.
Ein sehr vielschichtiges Buch, das in 500 Seiten so viele wichtige Themen aufgreift und zeigt, wie Fehler- und wechselhaft wir Menschen doch sind.
Mir hat das Buch sehr gefallen, und es hat mir, was selten bei mir passiert, am Ende ein paar Tränen entlockt.
3.75
So so soooo tasty. Mmmm.
Couldn’t finish this book. Boring as hell and nonsensical until even halfway through.
finished my first classic book 🙏🏼
You’re never really sure where in the world this story takes place - I believe it’s about Chile solely based on the political unrest we experience throughout the pages. The book feels like a family history - a journey you take that guides you through generations and across many view points from the main characters. The magical elements woven throughout make it feel like the story telling from a Wes Anderson movie - the way the character’s personalities are so far removed from ‘normal’. There’s so much pain, suffering, intense love, loss, revenge, and redemption that you almost get lost in your own emotions. One minute you hate a character and the next you justify them for their actions. It’s full circle and you come to realize destiny is written, our family history is rooted in our life’s story, and that everything happens for a reason. A story of the power struggle between politics and class structure, respecting debts that are owed and some that are never taken seriously.
La primera vez que leì este libro, con 13 años y en italiano, estaba sobretodo curiosa con los aspectos culturales y el titulo. Ahora que lo leo de nuovo, tan cerca de los 26, me digo, ay, porsupuesto que crecì asì, vaya.
Amazing!!! READ IT!!!
This was a very entertaining and quite different for Allende in that it's a more contemporary story. Not my favourite of her novels but I still couldn't put it down as it's a book full of suspense
all time favorite, thank you señora allende
A sweeping, multi-generations novel with magical realism and the backdrop of changing politics in an unnamed Latin American country. (Other more knowledgeable reviewers suggest is is based on Chile and the rise of Pinochet).
Increíble ! Tiene absolutamente de todo, es lindo, es cruel, te hace reír y te hace llorar. De mis favoritos.
the narration got a bit tedious sometimes, but overall, this book had some good moments in it, and it also gave a deeper understanding of how things worked in Chile during the dictatorship the country went through
hmmmmm 3.75 stars dragged on a bit but tbh I’m just a shitty reader with a bad attention span so who knows. started this months ago too but have had trouble digesting longer works. :( if I was in a better frame of mind I could have appreciated this more, and it was still a really good book. also I love Clara the most she is bae
We've progressed past the need for stories of women suffering for the sake of a man's redemption arc.
Certi libri vanno riletti per capire quanto possono suonare diversi, nel tempo. «Per la prima volta nella sua vita, Alba sentì il bisogno di essere bella e rimpianse che nessuna delle splendide donne della sua famiglia le avesse lasciato in eredità i suoi attributi [...]. Quando Miguel indovinò la sua inquietudine, la portò per mano fino al grande specchio veneziano che ornava un angolo della camera segreta; tolse la polvere dal vetro incrinato e poi accese tutte le candele che aveva e gliele mise intorno. Lei si rimirò nei mille frammenti dello specchio. La sua pelle, illuminata dalle candele, aveva il colore irreale delle figure di cera. Miguel cominciò ad accarezzarla e lei vide trasformarsi il suo volto nel caleidoscopio dello specchio e convenne infine che lei era la più bella dell'universo, perché aveva potuto vedersi con gli occhi con cui la vedeva Miguel»
3.5 stars
Someone I worked with at a bookstore once told me how great Allende was, and this story in particular was her favorite. This was over a decade ago, and pretty soon after she mentioned it I read it, and then through a couple more years I would read Eva Luna and maybe one other. At the time I would have sworn that I loved Allende, I use to name her as one of my favorite authors, but as I picked up this book again after finding a paperback copy at a library bookstore, I came to realize I did not remember much of the story at all. This time I read with less haste, humbled by how I had thrown out her name to those asking, as if I could say what actually happened in any of her books. When I thought myself more well read than I was. The story is far deeper than I remembered. Intricate, hard to swallow at times, beautiful in others. I stopped reading it and went on to other books a few times, but it haunted me in my shelf demanding I finish it before the year was over. And so I did. Today I read the last 1/6th give or take, and it brought the whole story together so well. Allende writes stories that take time. She writes characters that are so easy to hate but are so loved by their families. As much as I just wanted to finish this one and be done, I’ll probably pick up and reread Eva Luna in the new year, there is so much I have forgotten.
La casa de los espíritus es un recorrido por cuatro generaciones, con personajes femeninos fuertes, sucesos durísimos y dolorosos. En varios momentos se me ha hecho cuesta arriba, pero ha sido una gran lectura y he aprendido mucho de ella.
Highlights
Just as when we come into the world, when we die we are afraid of the unknown. But the fear is something from within us that has nothing to do with reality. Dying is like being born: just a change.
It was another world. A world whose existence he had not even suspected. Until that moment there had been a dividing line on one side of which stood the solemn poor and on the other people like himself, among whom he had classed Amanda. He knew nothing of that silent middle class that struggled between genteel poverty and the impossible desire of emulating the golden canaille to which he himself belonged. He felt confused and embarrassed, thinking of the many occasions in the past when she must have had to use witchcraft to keep her poverty from being noticed at the Truebas' and he, in his complete innocence, hadn't helped her. He remembered his father's stories about his poor childhood and how at Nicolás's age he was already out working to support his mother and sister. For the first time in his life, he managed to link those didactic anecdotes with a reality he could see. He thought Amanda's life must be like that.
Es sei gut, wenn die Welt erführe, welche Greuel parallel zu dem friedliche geordneten Dasein anderer geschahen, derer, die nicht wissen wollten, derer, die es fertigbrachten, sich die Illusion von einem normalen Leben zu bewahren, derer, die leugnen konnten, daß sie auf einem Floß über ein Meer von Klagen fuhren, und die gegen alle Evidenz nicht sahen, daß ein paar Häuser neben ihrer glücklichen Welt die anderen waren, die, die auf der dunklen Seite überlebten oder starben.
Whenever I think back on those days, I feel a great sadness. My life has gone by very fast.
time had worn everything away
The brother and sister had drifted apart, and the only thing that remained to unite them was the presence of their mother and the vague memory of the love they had had for each other as children.
My problem was that I didn’t have a cent, although I felt capable, through my love, of becoming a rich man.
until women shortened their dresses and their hair and stopped wearing corsets, it made no difference if they studied medicine or had the right to vote, because they would not have the strength to do it, but she herself was not brave enough to be among the first to give up the fashion.
the responsibility of her beauty would become her husband’s.
Even before she was born, Nívea had known she was not of this world, because she had already seen her in dreams.
I would use her notebooks and then reclaim the past and overcome terrors of my own.
This book appears on the shelf Pulitzer Prize for Fiction Winners
