The House of Spirits is a Latin American novel written by Isabel Allende.
I’m currently reading for my CI class. It’s quite an interesting read so far, mainly because of the structure. For whatever reason, it seems like every chapter is independent yet connected at the same time. There’s so much content packed in each one and each one focuses on one sort of mini story within this massive story, if that makes sense. Well, that’s how it seems to me anyway, but I like it.
One thing I will say though is that the writing is fascinating. One chapter can be both horribly dramatic and yet cartoonish, though at different points. For instance the part with the ants eating up everything. I just imagined them like termites destroying everything like in a cartoon. Because of this variety and unexpectedness, I find myself sucked in with the reading. Though past me would say no, that’s only because I often read this the night before the reading is due and find myself very tired and going “I have HOW many pages left?!”, but it’s still entertaining.
When it comes to the characters of this book, I can remember most of what they do but not the names. But that’s due to how I’m very bad with names. Esteban however, sticks out because of how much of a psychopath he is. And because the novel focuses on him a lot, but mainly because he’s so crazy. One day he’s building an economy, and the next he’s raping every woman in town. Never a dull moment with Esteban. The writer seems to have painted him in a very negative way, but I think he might be slowly redeeming himself. It’s hard to tell at this point where I’m at if he’ll become good again or not, but those few moments he has when he realizes his mistakes and sees how messed up he is, makes it feel like there might be some sort of redemption coming up. Then again it could be to just make him more human and show how even though he’s like this, and knows it’s bad, he can’t control himself because he’s gone mad. Hm. Whatever the case, I should get back to reading the book and find out what happens.
Lefteri's CI Blog 
I thought your blog post was really insightful, especially your focus on the structure of the novel. Structure can add a lot to the meaning of a story, but it’s not something a lot of people choose to pay attention to.
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This post seems a little more centered around you than the actual reading (I am not trying to be rude at all) but I like where you were going with your ideas. It’s a good idea to detach yourself from the article so that you can immerse the reader in your analysis of the story. I love that you started out looking at small details like the ants, and I think your post would be just as strong or stronger if you continued with those sorts of concepts instead of switching to Esteban at the end. Just make sure you know the overall purpose of your post and I think it would turn out really well because you had some neat ideas.
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Haha your post is very honest and funny at the beginning. And don’t worry too much about not remembering the names as long as you the gist of what they do you’ll be fine. Also, yes I agree with you that Esteban is trying to redeem himself because after he goes on his rampage of raping girls and women he tries to be a good guy again but fails. And can’t wait to see what you think of as the reading goes on.
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