South American Magical Realism

I just finished reading Cellophane by Marie Arana. This is the story of a family paper business established on a Peruvian tributary to the Amazon River. Victor Sobrevilla, an engineer, established a paper mill in the rain forest. He continues to tinker, and eventually creates cellophane. But when he does, normal life changes. First, the members of his three generation household start telling secrets despite their intentions to not share these intimate secrets. Then the consequences follow. And for some people, the revelation of the secrets leads to a happier life, but not for others. Eventually, the government through a military general comes to take control of part of the estate, and a tribe of Indians comes to take back one of their own, and other forces all come clashing together in the final pages of the book. The family manages to board a barge and go up the river while their house and belongings are being destroyed by the workers.

I say this was magical realism because of it's similarity in some cases to the stories of Isabel Allende. The co-existence of Christian religion and the unexpected magic, but both are taken to be real.

Overall, this book took a while to get into. I actually started it a couple of weeks ago, and just got back into it the other day. But once I got about half way through, I became a lot more interested in finding out what happened. Although I am rather disappointed in knowing what happened to the family after they boarded the barge. Did they all manage to go after their true loves? Did they even survive? What happened?