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The House of the Spirits

Isabel Allende,

Magda Bogin (Translator)

Start date: March 1, 2021

Finish date: April 30, 2021

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What Members Thought

Mar 13, 2016 Brina rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, magical-realism, rereads, all-time-favorites, hispanic-culture, 500-great-books-women, chile, historical-fiction, isabel-allende, family-saga

House of the Spirits started my love affair with Isabel Allende's writing twenty years ago. I remember how the first line "Barrabas came to us from the sea" left me captivated and eager to read on. In college, I was fortunate that La Casa de los Espiritus was required reading for one of my classes, so I read the prose a second time in Spanish. Allende's writing is exceptional in both languages.

Recently, I completed Allende's memoir The Sum of Our Days. She reveals that Clara represents her own House of the Spirits started my love affair with Isabel Allende's writing twenty years ago. I remember how the first line "Barrabas came to us from the sea" left me captivated and eager to read on. In college, I was fortunate that La Casa de los Espiritus was required reading for one of my classes, so I read the prose a second time in Spanish. Allende's writing is exceptional in both languages.

Recently, I completed Allende's memoir The Sum of Our Days. She reveals that Clara represents her own grandmother: she also had the gift of being clairvoyant and communicating with all the spirits that entered her home by way of a three-legged table and tarot cards. Handed down this gift, Allende admits that she has had a number of meaningful dreams over the years that have influenced both her writing and family life.

La Casa de Los Espiritus is a sweeping epic that spans three generations of Chilean women- Clara, Blanca, and Alba Del Valle Trueba- from post World War I up until the Pinochet coup which overthrew the Allende government (Isabel's uncle) in 1973. The opus detailed their family saga in both good times and bad, reflecting on how the same mistakes repeated themselves through the generations. This is most evident as Allende uses the same name over again for all four women in the family: Nivea, Clara, Blanca, Alba. Each woman attempted to be as independent as her era allowed, yet falling for the society mores expected of an upper crust Chilean family. As the years pass, however, adhering to the higher class norms becomes harder as both family and society crumble around the Del Valle/Trueba clan.

Allende may be known for her feminist leanings, but she creates a strong, memorable male lead in Esteban Trueba. Reaching the ripe old age of ninety and telling this story alongside his grand-daughter Alba, Senator Trueba sees Chile rise, fall, and rise again. The country's hardships and successes mirror those of his own family as the Senator remains staunchly conservative even as the younger generations of his family opt for more liberal values. Trueba in his role as patriarch sees how the world has changed and holds his family together as Chile crashes around them.

Isabel fled Chile with her family and her writing has undergone changes since, depending on where she is on her life journey. This saga remains my measuring stick against which all of her other books are rated. As long as she maintains her high level of Latina magical realism, I have no difficulties rating all of her books at least 4.5 stars. Knowing that Daughter of Fortune and Portrait of Sepia make up a trilogy leading up to Los Espiritus, whenever I reread these books every few years or so, they will have to be read in succession, creating an epic family saga spanning nearly 200 years. House of the Spirits through its highs and lows will always keep its place as one of my favorite books read.

Post script:
I just re-read House of the Spirits for the fourth time as part of a group read for catching up with classics in September 2016. What I can take away from this reread of Allende's contemporary classic, is that her writing is as captivating as ever, even twenty years later. Having read her memoirs and current novel, by returning to her House of the Spirits, it is hard to tell if Alba Trueba is speaking or Allende herself, as this book appears to be a fictionalized autobiography of her family. Culling through the 90 years of Esteban Trueba's life, Chile has seen her share of hardships. Yet, by writing down memories as both Clara and Alba do, one is able to break the chain of torment, so that history is no longer doomed to repeat itself. As I have the other times I have read this masterpiece, I rate House of the Spirits 5 shining stars for Allende's outstanding prose and magical realism. ...more

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Oct 17, 2008 Book Concierge rated it really liked it

Shelves: book-club, ghosts, audio, latino-literature, magical-realism, own, culture, literary-fiction, historical-fiction, movie

Audiobook narrated by Marisol Ramirez and Thom Rivera.
4****

Review UPDATED on second reading, June 2019

Allende covers three generations of the Trueba family in her native Chile. Based loosely on her own family’s history, the novel weaves together personal and political triumphs and tragedies into an epic story of love and history.

I first read this with my F2F book club back in 1997 and was completely enthralled. I’ve been a fan of Allende’s ever since. I love Allende’s luminous writing, and the Audiobook narrated by Marisol Ramirez and Thom Rivera.
4****

Review UPDATED on second reading, June 2019

Allende covers three generations of the Trueba family in her native Chile. Based loosely on her own family’s history, the novel weaves together personal and political triumphs and tragedies into an epic story of love and history.

I first read this with my F2F book club back in 1997 and was completely enthralled. I’ve been a fan of Allende’s ever since. I love Allende’s luminous writing, and the way that she seamlessly introduces elements of magical realism into her stories. Her gift for vivid description had me feeling cold drafts, luxuriating in sumptuous fabrics, enjoying the sweet juiciness of ripe fruit, hearing the cacophony of a busy marketplace or a student riot, cringing at the stench of human waste in a prison cell. She makes me believe that a woman can have bright green hair, or be clairvoyant and commune with ghosts.

These two examples show both her range from the vaguely humorous to the creepily eerie:
He had to make an enormous effort not to follow her around the house like a hypnotized chicken.
-or-
It had an impossible labyrinth of dark, narrow halls, in which the stink of cauliflower soup and cabbage stew reigned eternally.

And this passage perfectly described the entire novel:
…he told her about his family: a collection of eccentric lunatics for several generations, whom even ghosts made fun of.

The audiobook is narrated by Marisol Ramirez and Thom Rivera, changing narrators as the primary points of view change in the novel from male to female and back again. I thought they did a marvelous job. But this was my second “reading” so I was already familiar with the story. Because it has so many characters and complex story-telling I may not have enjoyed it as much had I not read it previously.

FROM MY ORIGINAL REVIEW: Allende is a wonderful writer, but this is a very "Latin" book, full of spiritualism and layers of meaning (look up the names of the characters in a Spanish/English dictionary). I was very comfortable with this device, but others in the book club were not. If we gave a collective rating it would probably be 2.75 stars. ...more

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Apr 12, 2021 Samantha rated it it was amazing

Shelves: historical-fiction, all-time-favorite-books, owned, family-saga

The very first book written by Isabel Allende and so far my favourite. Book 3 in the del Valle family saga.

There is so much in this book that it demands a re-read in the near future. Set in an unidentified location, the book follows the life of one family as a unit as they live their lives during a period of revolution within the country they were born in and love in their own individual ways. With many strong female characters, a great deal of magical realism and lots of action and violence (th ...more

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May 10, 2021 Tasha rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction

3.5, rounded up to 4. I preferred the other 2 books in this 'trilogy' but the writing was still strong, just very long and not always holding my interest. The cover though, pure love. ...more

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Oct 23, 2019 Kristin rated it it was amazing

Shelves: atw_2019, latin-american, late-modern-1850topresent

Fictional Cities, Chile -- Latin America -- (abt 1908- abt 1973)

"Jaime's madness took a very different form." (220)

I've re-written this review so many times! There are just so many elements that you could talk about... I finally figured out that one of the reasons I really liked it is because every character has a "madness" of their own.

Every character has some sort of passion they grapple with during their lives and its so interesting to see how each person's passion collides with the others a ...more

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Jul 31, 2023 Lory Sakay rated it liked it · review of another edition

This classic was interesting enough but I didn't find it amazing. I truly was hoping to love it. The Trueba family's antics, personalities, and relationships were very fleshed out and told the story of a nation's political unrest amidst the unstable climate of a growing, evolving family. Allende wavered between expertly interconnecting characters throughout events and generations and just being way too serendipitous. It was def not my favorite Allende. ...more

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