≡ PDF Free Of Love and Shadows A Novel Isabel Allende 9780553383836 Books

Of Love and Shadows A Novel Isabel Allende 9780553383836 Books

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Of Love and Shadows A Novel Isabel Allende 9780553383836 Books

This is a narrative of the insidious effects of a military dictatorship taking over the lives of (largely) innocent citizens. In a fictional South American country, during an undisclosed era, a military coup against a "Marxist" government takes place -- that's not the end of the story, it is the beginning. The political implications are not imposed on the reader. Rather, it is the life under a repressive regime that makes the plot and the milieu for young love conquering apparent fate. The story is told with beautiful language and writing, making it difficult to believe that English is a second language for the author. Some scenes are brutal and difficult, but without a doubt, necessary to make it all believable.
It's a great read, and my only minor complaint is with the format, which is essentially non-stop words without chapters, which does not allow the reader to catch their breath.


Tags : Of Love and Shadows: A Novel [Isabel Allende] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Beautiful and headstrong, Irene Beltrán works as a magazine journalist—a profession that belies her privileged upbringing and her engagement to an army captain. Her investigative partner is photographer Francisco Leal,Isabel Allende,Of Love and Shadows: A Novel,Dial Press Trade Paperback,0553383833,Romance - General,Allende, Isabel - Prose & Criticism,Fiction,Fiction - General,Fiction Literary,Fiction Political,Fiction Romance General,Fiction Visionary & Metaphysical,General,Romance: Modern

Of Love and Shadows A Novel Isabel Allende 9780553383836 Books Reviews

I love the way she writes, but I thought the story was way too short....
Such a beautifully written story. I was captivated from the first words. Heartwrenching interesting wonderful storytelling. I loved it
This gripping story was told in a very lyrical language.The characters were well developed. It gave my a good understanding of the political struggle in some of the South-American countries.
I did not like the overly descriptive sex scenes; here the language seemed forced. I would highly recommend this book to any reader who values the use of language.
Yet another wonderful book by Isabel Allende!
A great follow up to House of the Spirits. Reminder of what it's like to live under military junta. Particularly pertinent at this juncture in American history.
This fine novel can be read on many levels. It contains a love story and a story of adventure. I think of it as a story of disillusion, of coming to recognize unpleasant truths.

It is set in an unnamed South American country whose elected government was recently overthrown by a right-wing coup. The story's background would be consistent with several dictatorships, but is most reminiscent of Chile after the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende was overthrown by General Pinochet in 1973. (Isabel Allende is a Chilean and a distant relative of Salvador Allende.)

The main character is a young woman, Irene, of the country's middle class. She is apolitical until she offers to help an acquaintance find out what happened to a daughter who was taken for questioning by the military. The military claimed to have released the daughter, but she was never seen again.

Irene works for a magazine and is accompanied in some of her inquiries
by a photographer, Francisco, with whom she gradually falls in love. Their search for the missing girl leads them to the discovery of her body in an abandoned mine, along with other bodies. This puts Irene and Francisco in danger, forcing them to flee the country through the Andean cordillera.

The book is very well written, and the English translation is fluent.
The sadness of living in a society in which there is a facade of decency, freedom, and justice without the substance is conveyed indirectly, but poignantly. Irene has a good life in the material sense, but can this be enjoyed when people whom the government considers suspicious sometimes "disappear"?

A natural human tendency in such situations is to look the other way, to deny the facts, or rationalize them by assuming that the "disappeared" must be some kind of undesirables (e.g., "communists" in an earlier day, or "terrorists" today). Irene does not take this route.

I think that almost anyone who accepts the possibility of the milieu in which the book is set would be moved by this book. But some, through
inexperience, may wonder if the milieu is overdrawn. If one can't accept the book's setting, then its story becomes a kind of escapist fairy tale, like a detective story.

I have lived in several South American dictatorships and happened to be in Santiago for a month preceding and (involuntarily) a month after the 1973 coup. In my experience, the milieu described in "Of Love and Shadows" is not overdrawn. If anything, it is underdrawn.

There are a few places in the book where I had to suspend disbelief (e.g., a poltergeist incident which plays a significant role in the plot's development), but the "feel" of the society in which the characters move is consistent with my experiences in such places.

Readers who have difficulty imagining a society in which people can simply "disappear", perhaps never to be seen again, or perhaps to show up mutilated in some morgue, might ponder the U.S. after the destruction of the World Trade Center. Innocent travelers have been known to "disappear" into secret prisons, never charged with any definite crime and released (perhaps) years later after mistreatment and without explanation or apology.

Most people, like Irene before her awakening, are not affected. Unlike Irene, many do not care, so long as they are not likely to be affected.
There is a great difference of degree between the post-9/11 milieu in the U.S. and that in which the book is set, but is there a real difference in kind? This book may cause some readers to ponder how they would act in Irene's circumstances.

[Note Many of Ms. Allende's books, such as "Eva Luna" and "The House of the Spirits", are written in the so-called "magical realism" style. "Of Love and Shadows" is not (though it does appear briefly in the poltergeist incident mentioned above). Readers who don't care for that style might still find value in "Of Love and Shadows". On the whole, it is completely different.

I couldn't get through "The House of the Spirits". I did get through "Eva Luna" but its cartoonish style left a bad aftertaste. After finishing it, I wondered why I had wasted my time.]
Isabel Allende does not disappoint! This is her second novel, following The House of the Spirits. It covers some of the same territory the military coup in Chile in the early/mid 1970s. The characters are well developed and the plot is suspenseful, with twists and turns. Her descriptions of city and country life in Chile is very detailed and evocative.
This is a narrative of the insidious effects of a military dictatorship taking over the lives of (largely) innocent citizens. In a fictional South American country, during an undisclosed era, a military coup against a "Marxist" government takes place -- that's not the end of the story, it is the beginning. The political implications are not imposed on the reader. Rather, it is the life under a repressive regime that makes the plot and the milieu for young love conquering apparent fate. The story is told with beautiful language and writing, making it difficult to believe that English is a second language for the author. Some scenes are brutal and difficult, but without a doubt, necessary to make it all believable.
It's a great read, and my only minor complaint is with the format, which is essentially non-stop words without chapters, which does not allow the reader to catch their breath.