Isabel Allende

I thought I'd do a posting on a couple books by Isabel Allende, since she has become one of my favorite authors in the past year or so. I've only read three of her books (which is actually pretty good for me): Daughter of Fortune (on my top ten), The House of the Spirits, and Portrait in Sepia. I thought I'd write a few thoughts on the last two since I read them most recently.

Just like when I read Daughter of Fortune, I had a really hard time putting this down. I loved the flow of the book, never stopped enjoying the magical realism, and felt like I had a stake in the Trueba family. Allende beautifully combined the themes of love, family loyalties and secrets, political unrest and revolution, and class struggles; seamlessly woven (not to sound too cliche). This book will definitely be read for generations, as it was intended, with its timeless themes.

This books convinced me that I love Allende's books, and will most likely read all. :-) Because it links families, characters and plots from both The House of the Spirits, and Daughter of Fortune, I felt like Cris did with Paul Auster's book; like I was putting together a puzzle. So fun! Allende mostly left out magical realism, but somehow it seemed to work even better without it, and I didn't really miss it. As in all of Allende's books which I've read, the celebrations and tragedies of love (romantic and familial) were the most compelling themes for me, and one of the reasons I keep coming back to Isabel Allende.

She'll always be at the top of my recommended readings list!