... be one of the products of a land rich in history and cultural connections. Alejo Carpentier first developed the term 'magic realism' to describe Latin America's fantastical writing styles. He felt that magical realism "was able to elude realism's insufficiency, in its inability to describe an ex-centric experience"1. In these two novels, "the strange is commonplace and always was commonplace"2 . Danow, a critic, describes magic realism presenting "a view of life that exudes a sense of energy and vitality in a world that promises not only joy, but a fair share of misery as well"3. In effect, the reader is rewarded with a perspective on the world that still includes much that has elsewhere been lost". As the years go by, the magic world in "The House of the Spirits" is lost and Alba says, "it is a delight for me to read [her] notebooks from those years, which ...

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