Portrait in Sepia

2017 Reading Challenge (Central/South American book location or author

I didn't dislike this book, but because I read most of it in fits and starts I had a hard time staying focused on the book.  The novel takes place over about 50 years in the 1800s-1900s in San Francisco and Chile.  The characters are well developed as are the locations.  During this time Chile is involved in war and the war scenes are reminiscent of some well-written Civil War historical fiction books I've read.

While this was a sequel to Daughter of Fortune it really wasn't necessary to read that one first.  Portrait in Sepia continues with the story of a new generation so I found little lacking by not having read Daughter.  In time I may pick up Daughter, but I do not feel compelled to do so with any urgency.  

The narrator is Aurora, who tells her life story.  The majority of the book focuses on her childhood and the people in her life at that time.  There was a little bit of mystery; memories that she couldn't understand or explain.

I enjoyed the strong female characters and found myself marking some significant passages:

Quotes: "Tao believed that the soul makes its way toward heaven through compassion and suffering, overcoming obstacles with nobility and generosity, but if Lucky's road was easy all the way, what would he have to overcome?"

"Above all, she thought me not to believe anything blindly, to doubt, and to question even what seemed irrefutably true, such as man's superiority over woman, or one race or social class over another."

"Conceit is a privilege of the ignorant; the wise man is humble because he knows how little he knows."