She doesn't rush the characters are clear and sharp there's style here but nothing self-conscious or pretentious. ("Thus the months went by, and it became clear to everyone, even Senator Trueba, that the military had seized power to keep it for themselves and not hand the country over to the politicians of the right who made the coup possible.") But there's a comfortable, appealing professionalism to Allende's narration, slowly turning the years through the Truebas' passions and secrets and fidelities. (Veteran readers of Latin American fiction have come to expect mysticism as part of the territory.) And the political sweep sometimes seems excessively insistent or obtrusive: even old Esteban recants from his reactionary ways at the end, when they seem to destroy his family. Allende handles the theosophical elements here matter-of-factly: the paranormal powers of the Trueba women have to be taken more or less on faith. And Alba, the last clairvoyant female of the lineage, will end the novel in a concentration camp of the Pinochet regime. Twin boys Jaime and Nicholas head off in different directions-one growing up to become a committed physician, the other a mystic/entrepreneur. Daughter Blanca ignores Class barriers to fall in love with-and bear a child by-the foreman's son, who will later become a famous leftwing troubadour (on the model of Victor Jara). So, with opposites attracting, the marriage of Esteban and Clara is inevitable-as is the succession of Clara-influenced children and grandchildren. until he falls under the spell of young Clara DelValle: mute for nine years after witnessing the gruesome autopsy of her equally delicate sister, Clara is capable of telekinesis and soothsaying she's a pure creature of the upper realms who has somehow dropped into crude daily life. Headstrong and conservative, Esteban is a piggish youth, mistreating his peons and casually raping his girl servants. Salvador Allende, an ill-fated socialist.) The Truebas are estate-owners of independent wealth, of whom only one-the eventual patriarch, Esteban-fully plays his class role. A strong, absorbing Chilean family chronicle, plushly upholstered-with mystical undercurrents (psychic phenomena) and a measure of leftward political commitment.
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