i saw the movie before i ever heard about the book, i thought it could
never live up to the movie but i was so wrong. the book told more than the
movie did and even though i some times love the movie more than the book
this time i have to say both are amazing. i have to say even though i read
and watch movies that have war and death in them i'm not a real fan but it
takes writers like isabel to change my mind. i especially love the part
where even though their dealing with death and war all around them irene
and francisco fall in love. i think every one should read this book, it
would change their lives......i know it's changed mine because before reading this book i never knew or even cared about what was going on in
countries like chile but now after reading this book i do and i think after other people read it they will too.

I loved this book. I think a lot of the low ratings are from people who are disappointed because they were expecting a magical realist novel. Allende's first novel, "The House of the Spirits," is a wonderful example of magical realism, but this is a completely different beast. While it contains a handful of supernatural events, most of them are one-liners, which I suspect may be throw-away references to other Latin American writers. There is one significant happening which can be seen as supernatural, but which can also be explained completely realistically.

I think this book should actually be read as a Greek tragedy. It comes complete with a chorus (the inhabitants of the old people's home), with a fatal flaw in the heroine's character (albeit one which would be a virtue in any reasonable society), and with a tragic ending. This book is amazingly poetic. It's about love, and living in a military dictatorship, and doing the right thing regardless. But it's not magical realism, and if that's what you're looking for, don't read it.

Of Love and Shadows was a great book. I have never been to South America or known the things that took place there under a dictatorship. I love the books becuase it helps me imagine in great detail where these events took place. It takes me to this place "Of Love and Shadows". I thought it was a great book.

I have read this book over and over again and I never get tired of it, it is Isabel's second novel and is written in a more journalisitic way than the others. The point of this novel is to understand the horrible crimes that were commited in latin america during a time when almost every country was under dictatorship. She is trying to prevent people from forgetting about the brutal represion of the people, the people who were killed, the people who dissapeared and the overall dispair of the population. I have to agree with another review that stated that there is no compairison at all betweet this book and Gabriel Garcýa Mýrquez's book "One Hundred Years of Solitude", but that is becuase the book that is frequently compared to it is Allende's first novel "The House of Spirits". I highly recomend this book and all others that Isabel Allende has written!