Below is the chapter breakdown that will take us all the way to May 15th.  There’s only one more recap to go, which I’ll be doing on the 15th, and then I’ll do an overall review of the book on the 16th.

• April 6th – 12th: Chapters 1 and 2
• Apr. 13th – 19th: Chapters 3, 4, and 5
• Apr. 20th – 26th: Chapters 6 and 7
• Apr. 27th – May 3rd: Chapters 8 and 9
• May 4th – 10th: Chapters 10, 11, and 12
• May 11th – 15th: Chapter 13 to the end of the book

This week’s recap is for Chapters 10, 11, and 12.  If you’re a little behind, that’s ok!  I’ll clearly mark any spoilers.

This week’s chapters were a little better than last weeks.

*Spoilers* Esteban kicks Nicolás out of the house and Nicolás supposedly moves to North America.  Blanca continues to secretly see Pedro.  Alba is sent to a British style girl’s school, and after that, she continues on to university, where she meets and falls in love with Miguel.  The two of them join a protest that the police manage to break up, but not before Alba begins bleeding heavily, gets returned home, and Miguel finds out that she’s Esteban’s granddaughter.  Later, the Socialist party wins the election, and the country is thrown into chaos as those on the Conservative side believe that the Soviets are going to show up any minute.  They begin clearing out bank accounts and fleeing the country.  Esteban and several others begin planning ways to bring down the government, which eventually leads to them deciding to use military force.  Alba is told by one of the Mora sisters that she should escape the country in order survive violent events in the future. *End Spoilers*

I’m really beginning to wonder what the point or message of this book is unless Allende is trying to tell us that men during this time, except maybe Socialists like Pedro or Jaime, were horrible? I find any story that tries to imply that a particular belief system automatically makes someone better than another to be suspect at best, and blatant propaganda at its worst.  So, I’m really not sure how I feel about this book altogether, but as of right now, I’m a bit irritated.

What do you think of the story so far?  All comments about the book are welcome, but please mark any spoilers.