Triple Edged Sword- Jamie Peters

       Let me start off this blog post by saying that this book is one of the wildest book I've ever read. There was so much in this that I was not expecting. I really need to start looking up summaries of these books before reading them!

       Titles of books are so important. Most of the time, they will tell you verbatim what the book is going to be about, like Survival in Auschwitz. In every title, however, there is a hidden meaning. Survival in Auschwitz wasn't just about surviving physically, but also about maintaining humanity in a place that was not suited for it. In The House of the Spirits, there is so much packed into that title that there isn't enough room in this blog to unpack it. 

       First, there is the literal sense of a house full of spirits. Clara is a clairvoyant, able to "pierce the veil", as it were, and communicate with the dead. She is also constantly surrounded by the dead throughout her life, and they are often seen messing with things in the house. The second layer of this title deals with the dead once more, but more specifically, all of the deaths that have occurred within or around the del Valle family. We have record of Clara's mother, father, uncle, sister, and dog all dying before she was married. Later, her nanny, sister-in-law, and in the future, her sons, all die. This is only the ones I can remember from reading the book once!!

       The last layer I will talk about here is the most important, and it also deals with death. Esteban Trueba is a man of dead relationships. He cannot keep one alive because of his temper and way of life. Up until this point, he has ruined his relationships with his mother, sister, daughter, sons, and (most devastatingly) his wife. This doesn't even cover all of the girls he has molested, tortured, and raped, even after his relationship with his wife.

       I apologize for the long blog post, but when you combine almost 300 pages of reading with an "extended spring break" (cough Corona Virus cough), everything spills out at once. What do you guys think are some more double meanings of the title?


I commented on Drew's and Caroline's posts.