Book 47
47 THE HOUSE OF THE SPIRITS Isabel Allende (Chile, 1982)
This Chilean family saga follows several generations of women with political ambitions and/or magical powers such as clairvoyance. It falls into the genre of Magical Realism.
The House of the Spirits was a Best Novel of the Year in Chile and has been popular worldwide since it came out.
I truly struggle to understand what made this novel so popular. I want to give it the benefit of the doubt and say that it is perhaps the translation that made it so boring, but its worldwide popularity seems to prove this theory wrong.
To be fair, I've never cared for Magical Realism because of the genre's tendency to be a collection of grandma's tales come true. Allende's novel certainly felt this way. But my major issue with this novel was its predictability. Even beyond its in-your-face foreshadowing, the novel's sub-plots are so commonly used in literature and movies in general, that anybody over 14 years old should be able to see them coming.
Don't get me wrong, I do think some stories are eternal, which is why I like family sagas. My problem is that Allende's (translated?) style does not make those eternal stories of love and vengeance new. Finally, her characters were grossly underdeveloped, which is clearly something that has nothing to do with the translation. Each of them, except perhaps the main male character - which is ironic for a novel focusing on women- were defined by a few unusual traits (beauty, clairvoyance..) And that was it.
The political events described in the last two chapters saved the novel from being a completely useless read. Or maybe I'm just saying this to feel better about having wasted my time.
2/5
This Chilean family saga follows several generations of women with political ambitions and/or magical powers such as clairvoyance. It falls into the genre of Magical Realism.
The House of the Spirits was a Best Novel of the Year in Chile and has been popular worldwide since it came out.
I truly struggle to understand what made this novel so popular. I want to give it the benefit of the doubt and say that it is perhaps the translation that made it so boring, but its worldwide popularity seems to prove this theory wrong.
To be fair, I've never cared for Magical Realism because of the genre's tendency to be a collection of grandma's tales come true. Allende's novel certainly felt this way. But my major issue with this novel was its predictability. Even beyond its in-your-face foreshadowing, the novel's sub-plots are so commonly used in literature and movies in general, that anybody over 14 years old should be able to see them coming.
Don't get me wrong, I do think some stories are eternal, which is why I like family sagas. My problem is that Allende's (translated?) style does not make those eternal stories of love and vengeance new. Finally, her characters were grossly underdeveloped, which is clearly something that has nothing to do with the translation. Each of them, except perhaps the main male character - which is ironic for a novel focusing on women- were defined by a few unusual traits (beauty, clairvoyance..) And that was it.
The political events described in the last two chapters saved the novel from being a completely useless read. Or maybe I'm just saying this to feel better about having wasted my time.
2/5