Isabel Allende is one of my favorite authors, but I just couldn't get into this book at all.

Leven van Gregory Reeves

The characters in Allende’s ”Den oändliga planen” are truly well portrayed. Also the time-spirit of California (40ies to 80ies) feels genuine. And maybe that is true for the story as well, but it doesn’t particularly attract me. We get to follow a number of characters through the years, especially close the poor boy Gregory – who grows up and matures and against all odds succeeds quite well.
But it is a bit obvious and fairly blunt. As is the language and the structure of the novel. Straight forward, just from A to B.
At the same time it is rather nice, no problems to take in and it has a fine stream. But one never gets surprised, never entertained.

I had hoped for more.
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Karaktärerna i Allendes "Den oändliga planen" är verkligt vältecknade. Även tidsandan i Kalifornien (40-tal till 80-tal) känns trovärdig. Och kanske gäller det för historien också, men den lockar inte mig speciellt. Vi får följa ett antal karaktärers liv genom åren, särskilt den fattige pojken Gregory - som växer upp och mognar och mot alla odds lyckas tämligen väl.
Men det är lite förutsägbart och ganska ospännande. Så är även språket och romanens struktur. Rakt fram, från A till B, bara.
Samtidigt är det ganska snyggt, inga svårigheter att ta till sig och det flyter bra. Men man blir aldrig överraskad, aldrig road.

Jag hade hoppats på mer. ( )

This book was written in 1991, a few years after Allende married her second husband, a San Francisco attorney. She mentioned in her memoir My Invented Country that The Infinite Plan was a story about her husband. There are some real life parallels: in this book, the main character, Gregory Reeves, fathers a daughter who later becomes a drug addict. In real life, Allende's husband's daughter dies from a drug overdose about the same time as Allende's daughter from her first marriage, Paula, dies from porphyria.

Greg attends Berkeley in the 60s, serves in Vietnam in the 70s, and becomes a successful lawyer in the 80s, and the novel reflects the excesses of these eras.

This was Allende’s first book set in the United States, and it is clear she did a lot of research on her new home. The weakest part are the events set in Vietnam; Greg’s ability to make friends with the villagers he is spying on does not ring true. I found her characterizations of the women in the book, particularly Carmen Morales, Greg’s childhood friend, and Olga, a part of his family from his itinerant childhood, to be stronger than any of the men. It’s an interesting book, but probably not one of Allende’s better ones. ( )

i'm generally a huge fan of allende, but gah! reading this book was a chore.