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.
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