The House of The Spirits

        

           Spirits, ghosts, magic, and paranormal activities. In this world we are currently living in, full of long hours of work, dreaded homework, and inconvenient traffic, it seems unlikely any of them exist. But once you step into the world that Isabel Allende created, you believe anything she tells you; stunning girls with mermaid scales and green hair, simple toddlers with clairvoyant talents, antique houses that provide labyrinths for ghosts and lovers to dwell in, ancient cures for ant infestations or broken bones, and the most incredible power of all, true love.

           I instantly fell in love with the characters. Esteban Trueba, the main character, is very complex. A passionate young man with a head full of dreams; when his first love dies he becomes what I would define as an arrogant bastard. But his actions throughout the story make him so complex that it feels complete and realistic. It got to a point where I would know what his reaction would be to an event and actually rationalize with this stubborn, old fashioned man. He manages to bring realism to a story where the paranormal is vital.

The Trueba girls delighted in imagining unbelievable animals. 

          The women in this book represent important virtues that women around the world can relate to and attempt to keep in our lives. Rosa is obviously beauty, Clara is love, Blanca is perseverance and Alba is bravery. Their stories will show you what happens when these vital virtues are faced by an angry world that seems dedicated to bring them down.

          The house of the spirits addresses some groundbreaking historical issues from Chile. Classism was an issue in those times, and the book addresses the many aspects it involved; the viewpoint from the rich and the poor, which ended in a revolution and dictatorship. I like this quote Clara, the mother, tells her daughter Blanca when donating goods to the poor.

“This is to assuage our conscience, darling" she would explain to Blanca. "But it doesn't help the poor. They don't need chartiy; they need justice.” 

          The movie made in 1993 with Meryl Streep, Winona Ryder, and Antonio Banderas, is a fait attempt to capture the magical beauty of this family, but it obviously falls short to the enchantment the book provided. The book managed to effortlessly transport me to every place and battle the valiant members of theTrueba family fought for their individual reasons,  justice, revenge, tradition, or love.