Review
“Many children fly like birds, guess other people’s dreams, and speak with ghosts, but . . . they all outgrow it when they lose their innocence. ” The House of Spirits is a book about magic, politics, families, dreams, passion, obsession, and reconciliation. It is a book about almost everything, yet the relationship between innocence and natural/supernatural power is at the heart of all of these themes. Clara, the matriarch of the Trueba family, is blessed and cursed w…
Buy The House of the Spirits at Amazon
November 10th, 2009 at 8:47 pm
This review is from: The House of the Spirits (Mass Market Paperback)
The House of Spirits is probably Allende’s most famous and important book. In it, she chronicles the life of a family, as the patriarch grows from a child to an elder, with the world changing all around him while he tries to keep it the same. Through the lenses of the Trueba family, we follow the portion of Chilean history that eventually leads to the 1973 coup. Of course, the author is niece of Salvador Allende, the socialist president democratically elected that was removed from power and killed by Pinochet. The book is based on clashes; old versus young, communists vs conservatives, landlords vs tenants. As the story unfolds, we view the extremist positions that each side takes: landlords attacking tenants, conservatives attacking communists, and vice versa. From the polarization of positions emerges a military dictatorship that no one wanted, but that was a product of the system setup by polarization. In the end, the distinctions that originally separated young from old, conservatives from communists, are removed, as both sides realize the futility of their disputes in the face on an authoritarian regime.