My thoughts on: La Casa de Los Espíritus by Isabel Allende

Format: Audiobook

Narrated by: Javiera Gazitua & Senén Arancibia

Language: Spanish

Released: October 30, 2014

Note: The version of the audiobook that I listened to is in Spanish. Despite the fact that I listened to it in Spanish the review will be written in English. This is not because I do not wish to write the review in the language I read the book in, but because my written English is better than my written Spanish. If I were to write in Spanish this review would be overwhelmingly misspelled and grammatically incorrect. I apologize for those looking for a review in Spanish. For those of you looking for the book translated to the English language; the title is The House of the Spirits.

Isabel Allende is a Chilean author who has written 21 books, of which 4 are nonfiction. La Casa de Los Espíritus was Allende’s debut novel in 1982. It started her career as an author and established her as a “feminist force in Latin America’s male-dominated literary world.” This book is full of spiritual realism, historical fiction, and parts of her life, since it did stem from letters that she wrote to her grandfather. “The novel details the lives of two families living in Chile from the 1920s to the country’s military coup in 1973, and has been described as both a family saga and a political testimony.”

Allende pulls no punches. She says it how it is/was and makes her views on the matters heard through her strong female characters. In this story we experience the world through three generations of strong women and a man with a terrible temperament and unyielding beliefs. The voices of this book are Alba and Esteban Trueba, who is Alba’s grandfather. Alba tells us the stories of her grandmother, Clara, and her mother, Blanca, by sharing the stories that she finds in her grandmother’s journals and letters that her grandmother and mother sent each other.  Clara, being a very spiritual person who moves objects with her mind and can sometimes see what will happen before it happens, starts documenting everything. She keeps journals of her and her family’s life story, so that these moments won’t end up lost through time. Esteban fills in his side of the stories by telling the reader and his granddaughter what was happening to him internally and externally during those times in the journals and letters.

“She did not believe that the world was a vale of tears but rather a joke that God had played and that it was idiotic to take it seriously.”

Through the wild and crazy stories of this family the reader is introduced to the class struggle of these times in Latin America, political upheaval, women’s roles and rights, and the power of writing. During this time there were 2 main social classes, the landed aristocracy and the peasants. The characters in this book are mainly from these two classes and inevitably conflicts arise between the two, mostly because the aristocratic population believes that they are above all others. Esteban Trueba wholeheartedly believes this. He thinks that he can do as he pleases with the peasants, since without him they would be their own ruin. Needless to say, the strong women around him disagree with him and think him terrible for his ways and distasteful temperament.

“Land is something one should never sell. It is the only thing left when all else is gone.”

This clash between the classes leads to political upheaval. One, which the aristocracy opposes so much so that without knowing they pave the way for a military dictatorship to take over their country. Trueba and his colleagues naively believe that it is just a temporary rule that will be given back to their political party, but this does not happen. Trueba’s naivety, hate, and political stance strips him of his son, daughter, and almost his granddaughter, whom he loves dearly.  

“Just as when we come into the world, when we die we are afraid of the unknown. But the fear is something from within us that has nothing to do with reality. Dying is like being born: just a change”

This is definitely a book filled with heavy topics. Through the stories of this unique and unusual family, the reader is introduced to many issues of this time and that are still prevalent today. Some may think that this book could have done without the spiritual realism, but I think that it makes it a bit more personal. This is because spirituality and superstition are major and very present parts of the Latin American culture. It is one of those things that European settlers were not able to stamp out of the native people in this part of the world. This book provided me with lots of food for thought and has enticed me to look for other books that took place during this political upheaval in Chile.

If you’re looking for a diverse book by a diverse female author that is set during a time of political upheaval, contains spiritual realism, emphasizes the importance of writing, and delves into women’s roles and rights, you should give this one a try, and let us know what you think. (For more about Allende and her books, visit isabelallende.com)

As always, you can also find me on:

Litsy: @TheBookAddict

Goodreads, Twitter, and Instagram: @ImTheBookAddict

Twitter and Instagram: @Bookishimpulses

Keep calm and read on!