Discussion for The Invisible Mountain

[Diane , Armchair Tour Guide]

Start discussion for The Invisible Mountain here.

[Courtney]

I want to join in this discussion. Luckily my library has this book according to their catalogue. I'll have to pick it up sometime this week. Can't wait!!

[Diane , Armchair Tour Guide]

Great book! This is a saga about three generations of women in an Uruguayan family and the different challenges they faced. The writing is very beautiful. There is a lot of very interesting history about Uruguay and Argentina, a lot of which I hadn't know before reading the book. My only complaint about the book was that it seemed to portray men in a very unfavorable light. The female protagonists are very strong women, but the men in their lives are all weak and unlikeable (at least to me, anyway).

An aside note: After reading the reading the book, I realized that the wrong book description was shown on our featured edition. The description was for the author's second book, Perla, and had been entered by mistake. I corrected it to read the right description.

[Courtney]

I've been so slow. I'm only to page 78, when the book transitions between Parjita and her daughter Eva.

[Missy J]

I'm finally reading this book, still at page 143, in the middle of Eva's story.

I did need time to adapt to Carolina De Robertis' writing. At first I thought her writing was reminiscent of Isabel Allende. But the more I read, I noticed the difference: Isabel's writing is smooth, quick, it flows like water. Carolina's, I found, lacked that certain smoothness, but not in a bad way, her writing is actually really like Tango: a complex rhythm that doesn't flow consistent, the dancer has a lot of room to improvise and may stop moving all of a sudden, just to create a dramatic effect. Also, her descriptions are very original and vivid.

When I ll finish the book, I'll come back to discuss some things (Eva, poor girl, how could she blame herself and carry that heavy burden??)

[Amy]

I liked the perspective of how South America still seemed a little sheltered from events such as the War, which to North American and European culture was and still is one of the biggest events and had such a large and lasting impact. All of the new ideas this event created seeped into South American countries, but without shaking them to the core.

I very much enjoyed reading about all the strong women like Tia Tita and Pajarita who used their experiences to better the lives around them.

[Diane , Armchair Tour Guide]

Amer wrote: "I liked the perspective of how South America still seemed a little sheltered from events such as the War, which to North American and European culture was and still is one of the biggest events and..."

That's a really good point, Amer. Back then before modern technology and media as we know it today, the war must have seemed very far away and not very relevant to people in those countries.

[Amy]

Just finished the book and need to amend my post. World events did eventually shake the country in a very profound way. I also read some history about Uruguay and the book follows the arc of recent history and links the family directly to these events...very cool! What a great book. I would like to know more about Eva though, especially her time with Zola.

And what is it about Zola's magical hair washes that not only change women, but made both Eva and Salome weep for 7 hours after the second wash? What is the significance of these scenes?