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Knowing that Daughter of Fortune and Portrait of Sepia make up a trilogy leading up to Los Espiritus, whenever I reread these books every few years or so, they will have to be read in succession, creating an epic family saga spanning nearly 200 years. As long as she maintains her high level of Latina magical realism, I have no difficulties rating all of her books at least 4.5 stars.

This saga remains my measuring stick against which all of her other books are rated. Isabel fled Chile with her family and her writing has undergone changes since, depending on where she is on her life journey.

Trueba in his role as patriarch sees how the world has changed and holds his family together as Chile crashes around them. The country's hardships and successes mirror those of his own family as the Senator remains staunchly conservative even as the younger generations of his family opt for more liberal values. Reaching the ripe old age of ninety and telling this story alongside his grand-daughter Alba, Senator Trueba sees Chile rise, fall, and rise again. As the years pass, however, adhering to the higher class norms becomes harder as both family and society crumble around the Del Valle/Trueba clan.Īllende may be known for her feminist leanings, but she creates a strong, memorable male lead in Esteban Trueba. Each woman attempted to be as independent as her era allowed, yet falling for the society mores expected of an upper crust Chilean family. This is most evident as Allende uses the same name over again for all four women in the family: Nivea, Clara, Blanca, Alba. The opus detailed their family saga in both good times and bad, reflecting on how the same mistakes repeated themselves through the generations. La Casa de Los Espiritus is a sweeping epic that spans three generations of Chilean women- Clara, Blanca, and Alba Del Valle Trueba- from post World War I up until the Pinochet coup which overthrew the Allende government (Isabel's uncle) in 1973. Handed down this gift, Allende admits that she has had a number of meaningful dreams over the years that have influenced both her writing and family life. She reveals that Clara represents her own grandmother: she also had the gift of being clairvoyant and communicating with all the spirits that entered her home by way of a three-legged table and tarot cards. Recently, I completed Allende's memoir The Sum of Our Days. Allende's writing is exceptional in both languages.

In college, I was fortunate that La Casa de los Espiritus was required reading for one of my classes, so I read the prose a second time in Spanish. I remember how the first line "Barrabas came to us from the sea" left me captivated and eager to read on. House of the Spirits started my love affair with Isabel Allende's writing twenty years ago.