This post may contain affiliate links. Please check out my privacy policy and disclosure policy.
Summary
“During the biggest Brooklyn snowstorm in living memory, Richard Bowmaster, a lonely university professor in his sixties, hits the car of Evelyn Ortega, a young undocumented immigrant from Guatemala, and what at first seems an inconvenience takes a more serious turn when Evelyn comes to his house, seeking help. At a loss, the professor asks his tenant, Lucia Maraz, a fellow academic from Chile, for her advice.
As these three lives intertwine, each will discover truths about how they have been shaped by the tragedies they witnessed, and Richard and Lucia will find unexpected, long overdue love. Allende returns here to themes that have propelled some of her finest work: political injustice, the art of survival, and the essential nature of—and our need for—love.”
-From Amazon.com
Review
This was a book and an author that I have heard quite a lot about. I feel like I hear this name super often and people give such high praises. I’ve never read another book by Allende so I have zero comparison of this book to her more famous book The House of the Spirits. But for this book, honestly, I was kind of disappointed….
Lower Quality Writing?
I just felt like the writing was a little sub par. I will be transparent and say I was also read The Satanic Versus by Salman Rushdie at the same time which has very elite writing, so maybe my brain was confuddled, but, others who were reading this as part of my book club felt similar. The writing and story just felt, at a more in the weeds level, kind of below the quality that I was writing. The sentences and writing style was simple at the story just felt a little disjointed and all over the place.
Interesting Story with Potential
The story itself was quite interesting through. You had various stories going on with overlap and it wasn’t until the end that it all came together. You got to see characters change and see how they grew based on their previous life experiences. And the central event that held them all together through the story was interesting to see how it impacted the characters. So the story had such potential and overall as a read was certainly interesting.
But there was just parts of the story that felt a little strange or rushed. Like some of the relationship development felt almost comical, and not in a good way. The fact there was all this stuff going on in the story, in the middle of a huge snow storm…I don’t know it had this kind of Planes, Trains and Automobile kind of feeling to it. I can’t put my finger on exactly what I didn’t love as it wasn’t anything glaring.
A Representation of Latin American Struggles
I did love reading the stories from some of the characters past from Latin America. Hearing about Evelyn and what she had gone through really pulled at my heart. Just imagining someone going through what she went through and persevering and just being as strong as she was was beautiful. I did absolutely love the inclusion of that and how it was woven into the story and also kind of an integral part of the book. Also the little hits of magic realism, which while miniscule, did have a few moments.
Overall I think I would give this book 3 out of 5 teacups. It was definitely worth a read because of some of the characters personal stories but it definitely was not as good as I thought it was going to be due to all the hype, and I certainly wouldn’t buy it. This was a library book borrow for me.
If you have read this book, or other books by Allende, I’d love to hear your opinions because maybe this wasn’t her best piece of literature. I do want to give House of the Spirits a go when I can because I’ve heard a lot about that one too. And I’ll be very curious to hear from those in my book group (who have very diverse opinions) on what their thoughts were, and will be sure to update this post with some of their thoughts!
Happy Reading!
MyLibraryCardWoreOut is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. This in no way affects my opinion of the book(s) included in this post.
