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| Phone: 845-679-1002 | | FAX: 845-679-1019 | | Email: | | [email protected] | | US Mail: | | PO Box 159 | | West Hurley, NY 12491 |  |
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| Daughter of Fortune: A Novel | | by Isabel Allende | | HarperTorch |  | | | | List Price: | $7.99 | | Our Price: | $7.99 | | You Save: | $0.00 | | | Release Date: | 30 October, 2001 | | Media: | Mass Market Paperback | | ISBN: | 038082101X | | | Availability: | Usually ships within 24 hours | | Average Review: |  Based on 335 reviews. |
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| | Description:
Oprah Book Club® Selection, February 2000: Until Isabel Allende burst onto the scene with her 1985 debut, The House of the Spirits, Latin American fiction was, for the most part, a boys' club comprising such heavy hitters as Gabriel García Márquez, Jorge Luis Borges, and Mario Vargas Llosa. But the Chilean Allende shouldered her way in with her magical realist multi-generational tale of the Trueba family, followed it up with four more novels and a spate of nonfiction, and has remained in a place of honor ever since. Her sixth work of fiction, Daughter of Fortune, shares some characteristics with her earlier works: the canvas is wide, the characters are multi-generational and multi-ethnic, and the protagonist is an unconventional woman who overcomes enormous obstacles to make her way in the world. Yet one cannot accuse Allende of telling the same story twice; set in the mid-1800s, this novel follows the fortunes of Eliza Sommers, Chilean by birth but adopted by a British spinster, Rose Sommers, and her bachelor brother, Jeremy, after she is abandoned on their doorstep. "You have English blood, like us," Miss Rose assured Eliza when she was old enough to understand. "Only someone from the British colony would have thought to leave you in a basket on the doorstep of the British Import and Export Company, Limited. I am sure they knew how good-hearted my brother Jeremy is, and felt sure he would take you in. In those days I was longing to have a child, and you fell into my arms, sent by God to be brought up in the solid principles of the Protestant faith and the English language." The family servant, Mama Fresia, has a different point of view, however: "You, English? Don't get any ideas, child. You have Indian hair, like mine." And certainly Eliza's almost mystical ability to recall all the events of her life would seem to stem more from the Indian than the Protestant side. As Eliza grows up, she becomes less tractable, and when she falls in love with Joachin Andieta, a clerk in Jeremy's firm, her adoptive family is horrified. They are even more so when a now-pregnant Eliza follows her lover to California where he has gone to make his fortune in the 1849 gold rush. Along the way Eliza meets Tao Chi'en, a Chinese doctor who saves her life and becomes her closest friend. What starts out as a search for a lost love becomes, over time, the discovery of self; and by the time Eliza finally catches up with the elusive Joachin, she is no longer sure she still wants what she once wished for. Allende peoples her novel with a host of colorful secondary characters. She even takes the narrative as far afield as China, providing an intimate portrait of Tao Chi'en's past before returning to 19th-century San Francisco, where he and Eliza eventually fetch up. Readers with a taste for the epic, the picaresque, and romance that is satisfyingly complex will find them all in Daughter of Fortune. --Margaret Prior | |  | | Similar Products
| | | | | | Customer Reviews
| | | Average Customer Review: Based on 335 reviews. | |  Beautifully written, historical tale which will delight you
I have just this minute finished reading it, and I loved it. I have heard it's not her best work, but I can't comment as I have only read one other, The Infinite Plan. The writing is beautiful, and she weaves her story so you are immersed in the world in wbich the characters live. I disagree with the reader from Australia who read Le Testament Francais and said that Allende doesn't write as well as Makine. I've read Testament too and Allende has a completely different style. She does write as well as Makine. The story is beautifully told and takes you to South America (Chile), China and California. I enjoyed the historical aspects of the novel, and I think Allende really brought these to life. If you want a good, intelligent read, you'll enjoy this book. I'm going to read the House Of Spirits now. Enjoy! | |  A novel of identity and deception
Daughter of Fortune is a fast and pleasant read -- it's a plot-driven novel in which all things are clearly spelled out for the reader. The two protagonists of the book are likable and well-developed. There's the young Chilean woman, Eliza, who flees her adoptive home for California to follow her first love, who has been lured there by the promises of riches in the Gold Rush. Then there's Tao Chi'en, a Chinese man who is part sailor, part doctor, and part sage. The adventures of the two up and down the California coast make for an enjoyable read, and the secondary characters give the novel some meat for its bones -- Eliza's adoptive mother Miss Rose, Joe Bonecrusher -- the cross-dressing madam of a traveling brothel, and Paulina -- the wife with business savvy who makes a fortune importing fresh produce packed on ice to California's starved population, all make for an intriguing read. Allende uses the juxtaposition of the Chinese, Chilean, and English cultures to unobtrusively remark on issues such as a woman's position in the world, and the theme of identity weighs in heavily. Fortune in this case can either be interpreted as fate or simply luck, but in either case, the characters seem to be unable to escape it for better or worse. Good summer reading -- a step up from mass market paperback fodder, but not too heavy and cumbersome. | | A Search for Identity
I was handed this book by an Allende fan who thought I would love it as well. Love is too strong a word, perhaps, but I was engaged and entertained throughout. This story is epic in scope and romantic in texture. As an historical fiction, it gives an enlightening view of settings that already interested me: 19th century Chile and California. Along the way Allende provides a glimpse of the prejudice and hatred felt toward the Chinese by aristocratic Chileans and white Americans, and a similar hatred toward Hispanics of all origins and cultures by gold-seeking white people caught up in the fever of anticipated wealth. Without really trying the author also handed us another injustice, the one that shows how women, especially Asian, were treated as just so much disposable merchandise by men who sought their wealth by servicing the sexual needs of those populating Central California during the Gold Rush of 1849 and beyond. Her language was beautiful at times, but tended to be flowery and of the romance novel genre. Her history was fascinating and enlightening. I will definitely read more Allende and already have "The House of Spirits" on my shelf. It will have wait a couple of months, however. |
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