Anyone who has enjoyed the beautifully written Eleanor of Aquitaine by Historian Alison Weir will find this a painful and tiresome read. There are details that ring false, and after awhile it was hard to stay interested. After trudging through the Chilean deserts, almost dying of thirst, the troop still has wine to give their wounded warriors? In the springtime, she reports they at last have fruit to eat--what fruits ripen in the spring? An entire battalion of soldiers disguises themselves in sheets--where would there be that many precious and costly sheets in the 16th century? I suppose all of this can be attributed to poetic license or "magical realism" but it just rings false and silly. Perhaps teenage girls will enjoy it as a spicy fairy story.

This is one of the inferior novels that I have read of Isabel Allende. I could not finish it to the end. The protagonist is a strong female character set on an arduous journey with conquistadors and natives,from Peru to Chile. The part of coursing that distance was tedious reading which had to be skimmed.

Allende's imagination took incredible leaps based on non-historical documents to describe some South American early civilizations as extremely cruel and corrupt (Incas) while others were described as peaceful and loving (Mapuches). Probably untrue en both counts, based of textbooks. The book was wordy and tedious and could not even get to the end, somewhat boring.

Inés of My Soul is blandly written (or translated? or both? I'm not sure), and its plot extremely contrived. I enjoyed the history lesson, but that's not what you want your novel to feel like. And it suffers from that really obnoxious phenomenon where historical novels focus on ideas and details specifically of interest to and which reflect the values of the modern reader. Bleh.

I don't think I've had a book read to me since grammar school. I had resisted books on CD since I believed that I had an inadequate attention span, but a long commute and the expense of the Teaching Company classes made me reevaluate my stand. I decided to start with the "A"s, so picked up Ines of My Soul, written by Isabel Allende. And I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Ines Suarez is newly widowed and near death as she tells her story to her husband's daughter. A young woman in the early 16th century Spain, she follows her wastrel husband to the New World to find that he had already died. She initially settles in Peru, where she becomes the lover of the married Pedro de Valdivia. Ines accompanies Valdivia to Chile, which Valdivia hopes to conquer for Spain. However, the trip is perilous and the natives unwilling to allow the Spaniards to settle in their territory. The conquest led to years of brutal warfare between the peoples. In Santiago, Ines becomes a leading citizen as an advisor, nurse, and cook. She also knows how to use a sword, using one to great effect during an early battle with the Indians.

Ines of My Soul is historical fiction, based on the true story of the founding of Chile. The story was so engrossing that several times I found myself in the car, at home after a long day at work, unwilling to end the story. The characters were interesting and believable, such that I felt that I knew Ines and her family. Ines is more or less a true Spaniard, who believes that the Christianization of the Indians is essential, and she fails to see how the conquest of South America is disastrous to the native populations. That the natives are essentially enslaved to the Spaniards seems almost natural to her. That said, she is horrified by the treatment of the Indians by the conquistadors, who rape and murder Indians at will. Whether a reader should suspend moral judgment will, of course, be up to the reader. I found it hard at times to do so. It certainly inspired some contemplation about the conquest of the new world.

The book was read by Blair Brown, who did an excellent job of developing Ines' voice. I highly recommend the CD, and suspect that the book is also a great read.