Portrait in Sepia

Rating:
Summary: Better than most authors, but subpar for Allende...
Review:

I like Isabel Allende. And PORTRAIT IN SEPIA is a good story, well told, but sometimes I felt that Allende phoned this one it instead of really working on the characters.

I agree that the grandmother is the focal point of the story . . . I'm not sure that's what Allende intended, but you couldn't help but love the domineering, overbearing, bejeweled woman who paid to have a huge bed carted by the house of her husband's lover!

I wish Allende had spent more time with a few characters, rather than filling the pages with so many comings and goings. Some of the characters really intrigued me, but they almost disappeared into the plot.

I'll continue to read Allende because she's very gifted. I just hope she'll take more care of her craft in the future.

Enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable reading
Review: Although not as strong as Daughter of Fortune, this is still enjoyable reading. Allende has an easy style to her writing which makes reading a delight. The story is good and entertaining and worth the time with this novel.

Rating:
Summary: Maybe closer to 3 1/2 stars
Review: Although the book was the much awaited sequel to the masterpiece that is "Daughter of Fortune" it does not exactly pick up where the latter left off. It is still captivating and a pleasure to read, but as I said a little less satisfying to the senses of the reader. Still, a great read.

Rating:
Summary: memory and belief
Review: I admit I haven't read a book by Allende that I haven't liked. And this story held all the tragedy and romance that I expect and love in her work.

My favorite character in this book was Nivea. I loved how she just knew. And the way she believed things. And the way she loved her husband.

But the best part of the story was the way love was always portrayed as something that one fights for, fights to keep. That commitment is renewed each day, that it can not be taken for granted. Love isn't easy. That's the message that I took from this book, and I very much agree with that sentiment. The best things are never easy.

Aurora's passion for photography was wonderful to read about, and I related to a lot of what she felt throughout her story. Every word of her story felt like it was a struggle for her to write, and I appreciated her words. I appreciated the way she spoke of writing as that which would make the story more real. "Memory is fiction" and this is why we write our stories this way.

I quite liked this story.

Rating:
Summary: A Captivating Read
Review: I did not had the benefit (or is it handicap?) of reading any of Allende's work before I read this book. I thought that this was a fantastic read, one of the best books that I have read all year.

The story follows the life of Aurora de Valle, daughter of Lynn Sommers (granddaughter of Eliza Sommers, for those who have read Daughters of Fortune) and Matias De Valle. If you are looking for a book that has a definitive plot, you probably should not pick up this one. It is written in first person, memoir style, and follows the life of Aurora from her conception to the age of thirty.

Though there isn't a typical "climax", there is plenty to keep you interested. The characters are very vivid, especially Paulina de Valle, Aurora's paternal grandmother. By the end of the book, I felt like I knew Paulina de Valle.

This book was funny, and emotionally satistfying. I highly recommend it. In fact, I think I'll read more of her books as a consequence of picking up this one.

Rating:
Summary: Good and easy read
Review: I found this book very enjoyable, it was an easy read and even if there are facts that aren't totally accurate (as another reviewer points out) this is a novel, not a history book, so you should just relax and enjoy it! I recommend you read "Daughter of Fortune" first!! Even though you can read them independently, Daughter of Fortune precedes Portrait in Sepia.

Rating:
Summary: The title says it all
Review: I read this book at an extremely leisurely pace: a few pages at a time, over the course of weeks. Strangely enough, Allende's novel seems perfect for this kind of catch-as-catch-can type of reading. It doesn't have the narrative drive of a book you can't put down, but it has the characters and history to keep you returning.

In many ways, this novel is less of a story than a portrait of characters that have largely appeared elsewhere in her fiction, although it's not necessary to have read these other books. The emphasis is unequivocably on the del Valles, with Paulina del Valle the most memorable. Paulina is the glue that holds everything together. Other characters, equally well drawn, appear strongly in some sections, then vanish into the background, thus shifting the attention back to Paulina. Not surprisingly, the most elusive character is the narrator, Aurora, who is also the photographer, both literally and metaphorically. The story is filtered through her lens - her experience, perceptions, and ideas.

The "sepia" part of the title refers to the historical/nostalgic atmosphere of the novel. Allende takes her characters through the San Francisco of Gold Rush times and through turbulent times in Chile during war and the rise of women's rights. Here, everything is a memory.

The plot? The novel traces Aurora del Valle's life, from the times leading up to her conception to the moment when, as an adult, she is given back the crucial memory that has subconsciously defined her. You won't find a single driving conflict here; even Aurora's perplexity about her mysterious dream surfaces only now and then. Instead, you will find a family album, complete with the syphilitic uncle, the feminist aunt who is always pregnant, the gluttonous and proud matriarch, and the butler rumored to be a nobleman who scandalously marries into the family.

Allende writes with confidence and skill, sometimes overdoing the prose but quickly righting herself. Her circuitous approach to this story - attacking different moments and events from various directions, shifting in and out of times, mixing bits of stories from several characters - makes this novel one to sit with for a while. Fans of her early fiction will be disappointed about the lack of magic realism, but her hand with detail and characterization remains as steady as always.

I recommend this novel for Allende fans and readers of character-driven fiction. Readers who expect a driving narrative, however, will find this work lacking.

Rating:
Summary: Show Don't Tell
Review: I really liked the story this book told but I didn't like the fact that Allende chose to tell all of it rather than dramatizing it in scenes.

I didn't dislike the protagonist, Aurora del Valle, but I found it difficult to like her and sympathize with her. I found her to be far too passive in many situations, something could have probably been remedied had Allende "shown" us the story rather than "told" us.

The character who "stole the book" was definitely Aurora's grandmother, Paulina del Valle. Paulina was a larger-than-life character who added a much-needed note of humor to an otherwise flat and unemotional book.

The lack of emotion in this book was something I didn't understand. There were plenty of places for Allende to write rich, dramatic set-pieces yet, for some reason, she chose not to do so, much to the detriment of her story.

Bottomline: I enjoyed reading "Portrait in Sepia" but I would have enjoyed it a lot more had Allende followed the storyteller's maxim of "show, don't tell." This book could have been superlative. As it is, it is just okay.

Rating:
Summary: Subtle, Like a Watercolor
Review: Isabel Allende writes wonderful books that focus on women and their world without being in the slightest bit feminist. "Portrait in Sepia," one of Allende's finest works and my favorite, tells the story of Aurora del Valle, the daughter of a half-Chinese mother and a wealthy Chilean father. Although Aurora's selfish and self-indulgent father denied her existence, her mother did find true love, and a very brief marriage (she died in childbirth) with Aurora's father's cousin, Severo del Valle.

After her birth in San Francisco's Chinatown, Aurora was raised by her mother's parents until the death of her sweet and angelic grandfather, Tao Chi'en. Then her wealthy (and somewhat arrogant), "paternal" grandmother, Paulina del Valle steps in. (It is interesting to note that Aurora's maternal grandmother, Eliza Sommers, was the protagonist of a previous book by Allende, "Daughter of Fortune.")

Although the primary focus of this book is on Aurora, it is the widowed Paulina who is the most engaging and, in my opinion, the most lovable, character Allende has ever created. Paulina is certainly a character with a strong will and she usually accomplishes what she sets out to do.

After her husband's death, Paulina, seeing no reason to remain in San Francisco, packs up and moves her entire family back to Chile, Aurora included. She also marries her very own butler and, when back in Chile, she manages to pass him off as an impoverished British lord. Thus, rather then being ridiculed, Paulina becomes the object of envy instead. Williams (the butler), Aurora later tells us, spoke exactly four words of Spanish and so was, of necessity, rather silent and taciturn in Spanish-speaking Chile. His silence, however, was revered by the locals who saw him as wise and full of both pride and mystery.

Although it may not be apparent at first, Aurora and Paulina are a lot alike. They are both independent women who become trapped in very traditional, but loveless, marriages. Both women rebel in the sense that they seek to transcend their circumstances, something 19th century women, in San Francisco or in Chile, usually didn't do. Paulina becomes a shrewd businesswoman, while Aurora becomes a photographer. Both women, however, remain true to their cultural heritage and to Chile. Aurora seeks, through her art, to capture "the multifaceted and tormented face of Chile" on film. And, at the age of thirty, Aurora wants and needs to recapture the first five years of her life, the five years she spent in San Francisco with her maternal grandparents.

Part of the charm of this book is Allende's very skillful rendering of period detail. She makes both 19th century San Francisco and 19th Chile come alive. Although this isn't a historical or a political novel, (nor is it a feminist one), Allende does align her protagonists with the feminine side of political issues. This is not, however, a book that sacrifices story to social commentary. Allende is far too good a storyteller to let that happen and she possesses far too much restraint. Despite that restraint, this book is a sumptuous feast of a romance...high-spirited, lyrical, sensitive, melancholy, rapturous and exuberant. Don't let that put you off..."Portrait in Sepia" is definitely literature, not genre fiction.

I realize that Allende has been compared to Gabriel Garcia Marquez, but I believe that comparisons between these two great Latin American authors are supremely unfair. Each is wonderful is his or her own way. And Allende has come a long way from magic realism and "The House of the Spirits." While Garcia Marquez writes of characters in the subtropical jungles and rainforests of Colombia, Allende's characters are firmly rooted in Chile...a country that is more temperate and more unforgiving. And Allende writes more like a woman than a man; she is more of a romantic, more lyrical in her prose style. She lets us share in the emotional life of her characters more than does Garcia Marquez. They are different writers with different styles, and each one contributes something to his or her work that is lasting and beautiful.

Much of this book is "told" rather than "shown," i.e., dramatized in scenes. In the hands of a lesser writer, this could have been a huge mistake and could have resulted in a book that was dry and boring and without emotional depth. In the hands of a writer as skilled as Allende, however, this device creates a seamless fluidity that only makes the book grow lovlier and lovlier. And we do become involved with the characters, there can be no doubt about that, for they are anything and everything but ordinary.

I don't understand why so many readers didn't care for this book. Perhaps they were looking for something closer to the style of Garcia Marquez. Perhaps they were put off by the "memoir" style of the book and the fact that so much of it is told rather than shown. In my opinion, Allende wanted to keep some distance between the reader and some of the book's more tumultuous events lest the delicacy of the story be disturbed.

I loved the watercolor delicacy of this book and I think one has only to look at the epilogue to recognize that delicacy was part and parcel of this story. As Aurora, herself, says, "I live among duffuse shadings, veiled mysteries, uncertainties; the tone for telling my life is closer to that of a portrait in sepia."

I loved "Portrait in Sepia." I wish I could find more books out there like it.

Rating:
Summary: Well-written tale
Review: The story of Aurora and her ancestors is a great one. Isabel Allende divides the story between USA and South America, and there are great characters all the way through the book. Specially the female characters are strong, and it soon becomes clear, that Paulina del Valle in some ways is the true herion of this story. Portrait in Sepia is a story about love, hate, life, death, passion and all the other great emotions of life.