I’ve read a number of books by Isabel Allende, and I’m sure I’ll read more. However, I didn’t know about The House of the Spirits (1982) until I saw it on my 50 Books Every Woman Should Read Before She Turns 40 List. As Allende’s first novel, it seems quite personal in nature. Apparently, Allende began writing it as a letter to her 100-year-old grandfather when she heard he was dying. There are some parallels with her real life. The House of the Spirits is pretty dense and comes […]
This didn’t even get me a bingo
Bingo Square: White Whale The House of the Spirits tells the story of three generations of the Trueba family. The patriarch Esteban and his wife Clara, who has ‘spiritual’ tendencies and foresees the future, their daughter Blanca who falls in love with a man her father despises, and Alba, the granddaughter Esteban adores. The book also covers the political upheavals of Chile and how that impacts the family. I haven’t read any Allende before, even though I’ve been meaning to, so this seemed a good […]
May We Be the Fortunate Ones (Bingo #6 & 7)
It took me a long time to read Daughter of Fortune. By some cosmic joke, which the reading gods seem to enjoy, I had paced my book choices in such a way that this book overlapped with Jane Eyre and that is quite a lot of heavy book to process all at once. What it did for me (besides slow me down a bit) was provide an opportunity to compare and contrast two different powerhouse women writers writing about the self-determination of their female leads. […]
1: Eva Luna
This was A’s Book Club January pick, and I was delighted. I had read two other Isabel Allende novels before this (The House of the Spirits, which I will defend to this day over One Hundred Years of Solitude, and Zorro), and I have been hoping to work my way through her canon. And this is an excellent choice. I’ve made it a goal to read through more of Allende’s canon this year, and Eva Luna reminded me why. Eva Luna is a storyteller, though […]