Reading Habits/Review of "The House of the Spirits"

So, I read a lot and I read somewhere around 5 books at a time. During Christmas break, I brought home a bunch of books to read. For one of my classes, I was supposed to read 4 books. I made it through 2 all the way and the other 2 only half-way, so those two are on my reading list.



Today, I finished The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende. This book is about three generations of a family living in South America during a time of revolution. The spirit of the time is shown in the children that grew up during that time. This book incorporates magical realism to make it even more interesting. There are several mentions of spirits and other magical things happening. While I thought I wouldn't enjoy those parts, I ended up liking them the most.

The part that I didn't like, and that we actually discussed in class, was the character of Esteban, teh grandfather. He doesn't understand anything unless he is hit over the head with it. This makes all of the parts written by him very difficult to relate to. He is a hotheaded politician who doesn't notice anything around him unless he wants to. It isn't possible to sympathize with him at any part of the book, which is what I wanted to do. Each time I started to like him, he did something else to make me dislike him.

Overall, this book is a long read, but very interesting. It moves fast through all of the characters that are in the book and uses magical realism to make book even more interesting. I would strongly recommend it, as it was writted by a South American woman writer.