Portrait in Sepia by Isabel Allende

A few weeks ago, my mom was cleaning and found this book stowed away at the bottom of some storage bin or another. Seeing as I thoroughly enjoyed Daughter of Fortune, the prequel to Portrait in Sepia, this immediately jumped to the top of my book queue.

The official Amazon.com review:

Isabel Allende has established herself as one of the most consummate of all modern storytellers, a reputation that is confirmed in her novel Portrait in Sepia. Allende offers a compelling saga of the turbulent history, lives, and loves of late 19th-century Chile, drawing on characters from her earlier novels, The House of Spirits and Daughter of Fortune.

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.

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.

Thank you, Amazon, I couldn't have said it better myself.

I was surprised by how much I loved this book. It was even better than Daughter of Fortune, which, in my opinion, had a slow build-up before it became interesting. This was totally not the case with the sequel! Perhaps it was becasue I was already familiar with the characters so there was no time wasted on introductions and descriptions, but this book hooked me from page one.

Aurora, the protagonist, experiences so many changes and tragedies throughout her life that it can, at times, become frustrating. Just when you think she's finally got it made, finally found her place, something happens that turns her life upside down. With the added bit of Chilean history to the mix in some gruesome descriptions of revolutionary battles, this novel is never boring.

The only derogatory remark I have to make about Allende's work is that sometimes it focused almost too much on the Chilean military enterprises. I found myself getting bored with all the descriptions of generals and colonols and battle tactics and troops and blah blah blah. That's just me though, factual shit like that tends to lose my interest unless it's a topic I find really interesting. Chilean history? Ehhh...no.

I agree with the review when it cites Aurora's portrayal as a photographer to be one of the most endearing features of this story. Aurora's love for her art and work really enhances her as a character and also takes the plot through some unexpected twists and turns...but you'll just have to read it if you want to know more. ;]

And to wrap up, a quote by the photographer and heroine herself speaking on her life as a whole...

Each of us chooses the tone for telling his or her own story; I would like to choose the durable clarity of a platinum print, but nothing in my destiny possesses that luminosity. I live among diffuse shadings, veiled mysteries, uncertainties; the tone for telling my life is closer to that of a portrait in sepia

Happy reading!