AUTHOR: Isabel Allende
PUBLISHED: 1986 (in the US)
CATEGORY: Adult
GENRE: Historical Fiction, Magical Realism
PREMISE: The saga of a family in the Dominican Republic whose females inherit unusual gifts.
MY REVIEW: Somehow in all my book world wanderings I had never heard of Isabel Allende until last year. She is apparently a big thing in the literature world. Which...probably explains why I never heard of her, I haven't really been paying attention to those circles until the past year or so when I made the effort to get back into reading adult fiction.
Since this book has been out for quite some time and, like things such as A Fault in Our Stars, has had a lot of things said about it that are probably more relevant then anything I have to say...I'm not sure how review this one. I do know that for a magical realism book....I actually liked it. I know, you're all stunned, right? Well, unlike the magical realism books I keep running into...this one is well-written. Such beautiful prose. It's not really what I would call entertainment reading. There's some pretty heavy stuff in here (along with a rape so please watch out for that). It is however, a book that makes you think. The historical parts were the most interesting to me, mostly because again, this is a part of history I know very little about. Damn American based history teachers.
I think this is a book that will appeal to certain kinds of readers. If you're a reader who doesn't mind slow moving (but worth it) books, dense family sagas, and heavy stuff I whole-heartedly recommend this.
WHO SHOULD READ: magical realism fans, Isabel Allende fans, fans of family history books, Thornbirds fans
MY RATING: Four and a half out of Five family dramas
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