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In typical Allende fashion, Portrait in Sepia is crammed with love, desire, tragedy, and dark family secrets, all played out against the dramatic backdrop of revolutionary Chile. Our heroine Aurora del Valle's mother is a Chilean-Chinese beauty, while her father is a dissolute scion of the wealthy and powerful del Valle family. At the heart of Aurora's slow, painful re-creation of her childhood towers one of Allende's greatest fictional creations, the heroine's grandmother, Paulina del Valle. An "astute, bewigged Amazon with a gluttonous appetite," Paulina holds both the del Valle family and Allende's novel together as she presides over Aurora's adolescence in a haze of pastries, taffeta, and overweening love.

One of the most interesting aspects of the novel is Allende's decision to turn her heroine into a photographer: "through photography and the written word I try desperately to conquer the transitory nature of my existence, to trap moments before they evanesce, to untangle the confusion of my past." There is little confusion in Allende's elegantly crafted and hugely enjoyable novel. --Jerry Brotton, Amazon.co.uk

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.

Fortunately, the book got better once the setting was moved to Chile. The characters became a little more realistic and the story became more interesting. It at first seemed that by returning the story to Chile, Allende found that emotional core which she needs to tap in order to write effectively. Yet, I soon realized that the reason why the story was better was not because she had found an emotional core. She had instead borrowed from her other books where that quality is present. For instance, the De Valle's are from The House of the Spirits. The theme of photography as a way to insure memory can be found in Of Love and Shadows, as well as in one of the stories in The Stories of Eva Luna. Using narrative to "show" a person's life can be found in Eva Luna. The result is like reading a "Greatest Hits" version of Allende's previous works. While that may sound attractive, it comes across as though she is out of ideas.

Portrait in Sepia provides the reader with glimpses that show Allende is still capable of strong writing. The book contains some vivid characters, employs narrative instead of dialogue to convey the story, and occasionally utilizes effective prose to portray powerful emotion. The problem is that the book doesn't have a subject which is capable of maximizing and focusing these strengths. Until Allende finds that subject, she will continue to diminish her standing as a talented author.