The House of the Spirits

I in no way understand why my mother recommended this. I also do not get why the rating of this book is so high by so many people. In the first chapter, there was already much unnecessary grossness and violence towards women. But in the second it was even worse, and it did not get better as the book went on. Call me crazy but I would rather not read a whole chapter about some racist, misogynistic, child-raping paedophile having a tirade about how much better he is than everyone else and trying to justify his slave-owning ass. 

I do not want to read about exploitation or rape. I do not give a shit about torture and the most dark psychological hellscape you can come up with. But just 500 pages of a garbage human ruining the lives of this magical family made me feel sick to my stomach. It's a fucking miracle I even finished this book although I am quite sure I was dissociated for the last 2 chapters at least. 

Reading Challenge category: a book in translation

Very, very, very good book. I'm a sucker for magical realist inter generational family dramas, and this didn't disappoint.

The section on the end of the Chilean coup was so heartbreaking.

Be warned of a lot of sexual violence. I ended up skipping the last chapter because it describes the torture and rape of one of the main characters. Important and realistic as it was, I couldn't stomach it.