The Works of Isabel Allende

[Shea]

Please post any thoughts you have about your Isabel Allende selection.

[Shea]

This is a haunting and sad story of a family throughout a history of upheaval in their country. The characters are flawed and complex but you grow to care for them as you would your own dysfunctional relatives. I enjoyed the beginning of the book and the very end. In the last quarter of the novel the story seemed disjointed and was sometimes difficult to follow. I spent the entire novel wondering who the narrator was but I imagine it was Allende's intention to not reveal that until the end. I believe it is a story that will stick with me for a long time.The House of the Spirits

[Julia]

Julia Strimer's review May 26, 15
3 of 5 stars
bookshelves: magical-realism, young-adult
Read in May, 2015

This was my choice for our book club, when we decided we could read any book by Isabel Allende, so I chose the first book in the Eagle and Jaguar series: City of the Beasts.

Publishers Weekly said: "Adventure seekers will find plenty of thrills in Allende's first novel for young readers. When 15-year-old Alexander Cold is sent to stay with his eccentric, gruff grandmother, Kate, while his mother is being treated for cancer, he is more than a little reluctant to accompany Kate on a writing assignment in South America to search for a legendary nine-foot-tall "Beast." However, once the expedition down the Amazon begins, Alexander's doubts are pushed out of his mind by more immediate concerns, such as keeping an eye on two suspicious members of the party: a native named Karakawe and Mauro Carias as, a wealthy entrepreneur. After Alexander's mysterious encounter with a caged jaguar, another teen, Nadia, explains its importance to him, and begins calling Alexander "Jaguar." This marks the beginning of their somewhat surreal journey: the two teens are kidnapped by the "People of the Mist," a tribe possessing the power of turning invisible, and enter a mountain to discover the mythical city of El Dorado and the enigmatic "Beasts." Reluctant readers may be intimidated by the thickness of this volume, but the plot moves at a rapid pace, laced with surprises and ironic twists. The action and outcome seem preordained, cleverly crafted to deliver the moral, but many readers will find the author's formula successful with its environmentalist theme, a pinch of the grotesque and a larger dose of magic."

I mostly agree with that summary, and certainly parts of the book are very magical, especially when Alex (Jaguar) plays his flute for the "Beasts" and Nadia (Eagle) dances for them. The closeness of the two teens to the indigenous people rings very true--but the expedition itself is filled with pretty stereotypical characters. The sudden twist at the end seemed rather "tagged on", in order to promote Allende's themes of environmental consciousness vs. greed.

I've not read other works by this author, so can only say that while the plot and main two characters were interesting, this YA genre doesn't seem to be Allende's strength. I won't be reading the other two books in the series, but may want to try Paula, a 1994 memoir written as a tribute to her deceased daughter Paula Frías Allende, who fell into a porphyria-induced coma in 1991 and never recovered. Allende's article, "Who Wants a Girl?", is very powerful as she tries to cope with the loss of her daughter: http://www.geoex.com/blog/2013/02/isa...