Monday, October 4, 2010

The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende

This book is #276 on the 1001 Books To Read Before You Die list.  I recently read this book for my other blog, Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000-2009, so I thought I would copy some of my thoughts and feelings from the summary I did on that blog.

This book was very up-and-down for me as a reader.  It started off slow, got a little better, became slow again and got better again at the end.  Now, whether the end went faster because I was ready to finish the daggum book or because it was actually intriguing, I can't really say.  All I know is that I am grateful to have finished it and will probably never read it again.

The book is a story spread out over an extended period of time.  It begins with a little girl and finishes with that little girl's granddaughter.  It is the life story of a family.  It explores the relationships between them all: good, bad, sad, happiness, abuse, anger ... everything.  It's also important to point out that it also covers this family's involvement of a political and governmental upheaval.  I don't recall that the country the story is based in was ever actually mentioned, but it was definitely of the Mexican/Latin persuasion.

I think the reason I found it boring was because of the military garble and the depiction of the uprising of the country's government.  Yes, I understand that's an important time in a country's existence, but .... it put me to sleep.  Thus my struggle in finishing it.

With the recommended reading level being Young Adult, I would say that I agree with that.  By the time a child reaches the Young Adult age (say around 13 or 14), they've pretty much heard or said everything that's written in this book language-wise and relation-wise.

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