Post by Vorchia on Dec 30, 2005 13:42:32 GMT -5
I asked Tamith if she had any recommendations for Spanish literature and when asked what I wanted for Christmas I asked for a book to read, in Spanish. She sent me 'La casa de los espíritus', which I promtly failed to comprehend as my vocabulary but especially my grammatica is limited. So I ended up getting a Dutch translation at the library so I could comprehend what it SAID...
'The house of the spirits' is well written and reminds me of '100 years of solitude' as its the tale of a family living in Latin America between the end of the 19th century and the late 20th century. Like in 'Cien Años de soledad' the story is sometimes a bit surreal, it features a young woman with natural green hair and golden eyes for instance and there's a large role for spirits.
The story, like 'Cien años de Soledad' is set in a fictive Latinamerican country where a family gets to deal with everything from natural disasters to dictators to themselves.
Naturally they're all very different people with often radically opposing vieuws on politics and the world in general. This inevitably leads to some excellent character torture. ;D
Its not really a COPY but there were a few striking similarities. 'La casa de los espíritus' is easier to read and has a more 'real' feeling to it then 'Cien años de soledad'. La casa also happens to be more violent or at least more descriptive with the violence, especially towards the end.
I did like this book a lot.
From Wikipedia:
'The house of the spirits' is well written and reminds me of '100 years of solitude' as its the tale of a family living in Latin America between the end of the 19th century and the late 20th century. Like in 'Cien Años de soledad' the story is sometimes a bit surreal, it features a young woman with natural green hair and golden eyes for instance and there's a large role for spirits.
The story, like 'Cien años de Soledad' is set in a fictive Latinamerican country where a family gets to deal with everything from natural disasters to dictators to themselves.
Naturally they're all very different people with often radically opposing vieuws on politics and the world in general. This inevitably leads to some excellent character torture. ;D
Its not really a COPY but there were a few striking similarities. 'La casa de los espíritus' is easier to read and has a more 'real' feeling to it then 'Cien años de soledad'. La casa also happens to be more violent or at least more descriptive with the violence, especially towards the end.
I did like this book a lot.
From Wikipedia:
The House of the Spirits (La Casa de los Espiritus) is the debut novel of Isabel Allende. Its publication in 1982 catapulted its author to literary stardom. A family saga spanning four generations, the novel traces the post-colonial social and political upheavals of Chile. The story is told mainly from the perspective of two protagonists and abounds in magical-realistic elements.
One of the principal criticisms levelled against The House of the Spirits is its too-close-for-comfort similarity to One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez. Aside from the multi-generational aspects of both novels and the underlying theme of generational corruption, both rely heavily on magic realism and serendipity, both deliberately indulge in post-modernist flattening of characters, and both use distancing effects in order to achieve a dreamlike quality to the narrative. Also like García Márquez, who is an avowed and enthusiastic disciple, The House of the Spirits clearly shows the heavy influence of William Faulkner, especially in the novel's use of shifting narrative points of view, reminiscent of The Sound and the Fury.
The novel begins and ends with the same sentence: Barrabas came to us by sea... The novel purports to be a compilation of writings of Esteban Trueba and his wife Clara's diary entries as edited and annotated by their granddaughter Alba. Because the book is a compilation of diary entries and different authors, the point of view frequently changes without warning.
The story starts with the child Clara's diary entry on a Holy Thursday followed by her irreverent remark at a noon mass in the capital of an unnamed South American country. The scandalous incident at the church sets the tone for the rest of the novel.
Characters
Clara del Valle
Clara is the key female figure in the novel, which follows her from early in her childhood until her death (and after). She is a clairvoyant and rarely attentive to domestic tasks, but she holds her family together with her love for them and her predictions. She is the daughter of Severo and Nivea del Valle, wife of Esteban Trueba, and mother of Blanca, Jaime, and Nicolas.
Esteban Trueba
Esteban, Clara's husband, builds up a vast fortune with his family's old hacienda, before deciding he needs a wife and seeking Clara's hand, who marries him because she has seen that it is her fate. Esteban has a violent temper which causes deep tensions in the Trueba family. He is in love with Clara almost obsessively, and hates the way she is always too distracted by her clairvoyance to pay attention to him and is angry that he needs her more than she needs him. Both his love for Clara and his love and respect for his granddaughter, Alba, eventully resolve the family tensions caused by his temper.
Blanca and Pedro
Blanca is Clara and Esteban's first born daughter. She falls in love at a young age with Pedro Tercero, a young peasant living and working on Esteban's hacienda, later to become a revolutionary and a songwriter(his character is modeled after revolutionary songwriter Victor Jara). They remain passionately in love and continue to meet in secret for years, the source of much enmity between Blanca and her father, who despises Pedro.
Jaime and Nicolas
Jaime and Nicolas del Valle are Clara and Esteban's twin sons. Jaime devotes most of his life to helping the poor. Nicolas travels the world and returns, determined to pursue spiritual enlightenment, offering classes which embarrass Esteban, who sends him out of the country.
Alba
Alba is the daughter of Blanca and Pedro Tercero, although at the time of her birth, Blanca was married to another man. It is she who, in collaboration with an elderly Esteban Trueba, composes the book. She brings the family together with her love for them and their love for her. She falls and remains in love with Miguel, a revolutionary who joins the guerilla fighters.