Book Review: "The House of the Spirits" by Isabel Allende
Reading the legendary Chilean-American writer's first novel, with all its agonies and ecstasies.
This was my first foray into the works of the legendary Isabel Allende, and, to cut to the chase, I was well and truly enchanted. The House of the Spirits is Allende’s first novel, spanning four generations of the Trueba family as they navigate the post-colonial social and political upheavals of Chile. The story is perfumed with elements of magical realism, which is no surprise given how Allende was influenced by Gabriel GarcÃa Márquez’s family saga One Hundred Years of Solitude (I personally enjoyed House of the Spirits more than the latter).
There’s a lot to unpack in this novel, but above all, it’s about the triumph of magic, the otherworldly, and the irrational/spiritual over the hard and practical realities of life. The women in the book are imbued with this magic in both literal and more understated ways, and I loved how the spirit of these women created a bastion of love, optimism, and hope in the face of all the ugliness of abuse, hatred, and divisiveness in their world.
The book definitely has its heavier moments, which Allende tackles with both grace and brutal honesty. But she also injects the story with much-needed doses of humor, tinging the elements of magical realism throughout with absurdity bordering on the comical — think a decapitated head stuffed under a bed when someone’s water breaks and is giving birth on said bed.
I suspect The House of the Spirits will linger with me for many years to come, and it’s made me excited about reading more of Allende. It’s a headier book than most, and maybe not everyone’s cup of tea, but for those who can bear its unapologetic agonies and ecstasies, it’s well worth your time.
Read this if… you’re into sweeping family sagas infused with magical realism, between-the-lines cheeky humor, or just want to read the book by the legendary Isabel Allende.