The House of Spirits - A Comparison to 100 Years of Solitude

After all of Angela's recommendations for Isabel Allende, it was great to be able to choose a book from this author for our book club with The House of the Spirits. We've already had the opportunity to read one book from the genre of magical realism, 100 Years of Solitude. Even though several months and pile of books separate my reading of these two books, I still noted some similarities between the two stories:

Touches of Magical Realism: The House of the Spirits seemed to have more muted elements of magical realism than 100 Years. If you missed one of these descriptive sentences, you may not catch on to the glimpse until later in The House of the Spirits. One of the more prominent cases that stood out to me was with Rosa the Beautiful and her white skin, yellow eyes and green hair. Clara's work with the paranormal was prominent throughout Spirits, but not as disruptive as other occurrences in the book.

Repetition of Names: For me, it was helpful to have the family tree printed out while reading 100 Years. Otherwise, it was nigh impossible to separate generations of Jose, Arcadio, Aureliano, Amaranta and Renata's. It was not nearly as complicated while reading The House of the Spirits. There was still the repetition of names, but using synonyms instead of repeating the names verbatim. Blanca and Alba are both terms for the color white, and I later found out that Nivea and Clara are synonyms as well. Clever, without being confusing!

Other Similarities:
Alchemy: much more prominent in 100 Years with Jose Arcadio and Melquiades, but still discussed in the first few chapters of Spirits.

Point of view: the narrator changes throughout the generations.

Latin American location

Political struggles: with ties to real world events and struggles the author embeds into the book.

Big homes: the families lived in rather large homes, often with multiple generations under one roof.

Magical visitors - Melquiades returns to the village of Macando to share fantastics stories, inventions and items for trade in 100 Years. Uncle Marco visits his family several times in Spirits, including the part of the story where he flies off into the mountains and returns several years later.