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Loading... Ines of My Soul: A Novelby Isabel Allende
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. siriaeve | Jun 12, 2009 |   The story is about a young Spanish woman who follows her husband when he goes off to the New World to make his fortune. The book seemed pretty interesting but there was one thing that turned me off and it happened so much that I just couldn't listen anymore. It's told from the point of view of a much older Ines telling about her younger self, which is fine. I've read lots of books that start in the future and then go back. However, she continually makes allusions to things that will happen later in the most annoying ways. "As you will see later," "As will be explained later," "Which would never come to pass," "If I had only known how it would turn out." These phrases are fairly irritating when used more than once. Yes, I believe you should only use this once in a book no matter how long that book is. It can make a certain impact when used correctly. If used too many times, it simply becomes irritating. If the book is 985 pages long, it should still only be used once. I listened to the audio book for an hour and she said it 10 times. I'm not sure how many chapters or pages that was but it wasn't very long of a time to have it said that many times! Just tell me the story as it happens. Quit telling me that something is going to happen or that I will see different results later. Just tell it and let it unfold naturally. So I wish I could tell you more about the book but I just got irritated and stopped listening. The book is already on it's way to it's new owner, care of Paperback Swap. I hope that person enjoys it more than me (  )TonyaSB | Mar 18, 2009 | Ines is so alluring, provocative, powerful, masterful and wise, yet fortune fated her to never have children. If Senora Suarez could found Chile with such grace, just imagine what women of her bloodline could accomplish in the modern age. She loves passionately yet wisely, and though she carried no bitterness toward de Valdivia towards the end, his fall was inevitable and justified. I wish I could have learned more of the sensible love between her and Rodrigo, after the fevered love of her younger days. Definitely a book for history-lovers and -haters alike! (  )MissTeacher | Jan 17, 2009 | Isabel Allende has a writing style that will always make you feel you're part of the story. Her description of characters, events and places is perfect, and she always manage to regal you with stories that may be based on real events but will look like the work of a very prodigal imagination.That being said, I expected Ines of my Soul to be more than just a History lesson. Do not misunderstand me, I love History, and reading this book taught me many things I didn't know about the conquest of Chile. However, this time Allende didn't manage to capture my heart, and the heroine of the story sometimes ended up being just another piece in the game.Maybe that's why it took me so long to finish this book. (  )betizuka | Jan 10, 2009 | This is a nice piece of historical fiction about a woman who moves to the new world following love. With her courage and love for a married man Ines helps found Chile and and create a strong country that stands many wars to name a few assaults. This is a wonderful account of the importance of women in history, their often unsung bravery and importance. (  )noodlejet22 | Dec 18, 2008 | 0.097 seconds to build listing  no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0061161535, Hardcover)Born into a poor family in Spain, Inés, a seamstress, finds herself condemned to a life of hard work without reward or hope for the future. It is the sixteenth century, the beginning of the Spanish conquest of the Americas, and when her shiftless husband disappears to the New World, Inés uses the opportunity to search for him as an excuse to flee her stifling homeland and seek adventure. After her treacherous journey takes her to Peru, she learns that her husband has died in battle. Soon she begins a fiery love affair with a man who will change the course of her life: Pedro de Valdivia, war hero and field marshal to the famed Francisco Pizarro. Valdivia's dream is to succeed where other Spaniards have failed: to become the conquerer of Chile. The natives of Chile are fearsome warriors, and the land is rumored to be barren of gold, but this suits Valdivia, who seeks only honor and glory. Together the lovers Inés Suárez and Pedro de Valdivia will build the new city of Santiago, and they will wage a bloody, ruthless war against the indigenous Chileans—the fierce local Indians led by the chief Michimalonko, and the even fiercer Mapuche from the south. The horrific struggle will change them forever, pulling each of them toward their separate destinies. Inés of My Soul is a work of breathtaking scope: meticulously researched, it engagingly dramatizes the known events of Inés Suárez's life, crafting them into a novel full of the narrative brilliance and passion readers have come to expect from Isabel Allende. (retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:09 -0400) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
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Allende sets about to retrieve Inéz Suárez from the historical obscurity which her gender and the centuries have given her, but the portrait she paints is a rather ill-defined one. There were some passages of prose that were truly luminous, even in translation, but I never felt that I got to know Inéz terribly well—nor did I feel that Allende truly got to grips with the problems of writing a (largely sympathetic) novel from the point of view of a group responsible for untold levels of cultural genocide. (