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بنات جارسيا باللكنة الأمريكية
في عام 1960 يجد الدكتور جارسيا الطبيب والمعارض السياسي من جهورية الدومينيكان نفسه مضطرًا للجوء إلى الولايات المتحدة هربًا من سلطات الديكتاتور تروخيو في بلاده. وبصحبة زوجته وبناته الأربعة كان عليه أن يبدأ من الصفر في نيويورك.
وعلى الرغم من انتماء عائلة جارسيا إلى الطبقة الأرستقراطية وإلى العرق الأبيض الأوروبي في الجزيرة التي يغلب على سكّانها الطابع الأفريقي والخلاسي، تجد الأسرة نفسها على هامش المجتمع الأمريكي، مجرد مهاجرين فقراء من أمريكا اللاتينية لا يحسنون نطق الإنجليزية ولا تشفع لهم بشرتهم البيضاء ولا أصولهم التي تنتمي لسلالة الغزاة الإسبان.
وعلى لسان الفتيات الأربعة تسرد جوليا ألفاريز سيرة العائلة وبناتها في الرحلة من قصور أرستقراطية الدومينيكان إلى ضواحي المهاجرين الفقراء في نيويورك، ومحاولاتهن للتأقلم مع الثقافة الأمريكيةـ، ثم مسار كلّ منهن في الحياة وتنقلاتهن بين الولايات المختلفة، ورحلاتهن المتكررة بعد ذلك إلى بلدهن الأم بعد استقرار الأحوال السياسية، وبعد أن صرن “جرينجاس� أي أمريكيات في مصطح أهل أمريكا الوسطى والجنوبية. مع التركيز على مسار حياة الابنة الثانية “يولاندا� التي تحترف الكتابة عندما تكبر، والتي يُلمح النقاد إلى أنها قد تكون قناعًا للمؤلفة نفسها، وهو ما قد يستشعره القارئ أيضًا. وفي خلفية الأحداث نرى فصولا من الاضطرابات السياسية في بلدان أمريكا اللاتينية وديكتاتورياتها العسكرية.
وعلى الرغم من انتماء عائلة جارسيا إلى الطبقة الأرستقراطية وإلى العرق الأبيض الأوروبي في الجزيرة التي يغلب على سكّانها الطابع الأفريقي والخلاسي، تجد الأسرة نفسها على هامش المجتمع الأمريكي، مجرد مهاجرين فقراء من أمريكا اللاتينية لا يحسنون نطق الإنجليزية ولا تشفع لهم بشرتهم البيضاء ولا أصولهم التي تنتمي لسلالة الغزاة الإسبان.
وعلى لسان الفتيات الأربعة تسرد جوليا ألفاريز سيرة العائلة وبناتها في الرحلة من قصور أرستقراطية الدومينيكان إلى ضواحي المهاجرين الفقراء في نيويورك، ومحاولاتهن للتأقلم مع الثقافة الأمريكيةـ، ثم مسار كلّ منهن في الحياة وتنقلاتهن بين الولايات المختلفة، ورحلاتهن المتكررة بعد ذلك إلى بلدهن الأم بعد استقرار الأحوال السياسية، وبعد أن صرن “جرينجاس� أي أمريكيات في مصطح أهل أمريكا الوسطى والجنوبية. مع التركيز على مسار حياة الابنة الثانية “يولاندا� التي تحترف الكتابة عندما تكبر، والتي يُلمح النقاد إلى أنها قد تكون قناعًا للمؤلفة نفسها، وهو ما قد يستشعره القارئ أيضًا. وفي خلفية الأحداث نرى فصولا من الاضطرابات السياسية في بلدان أمريكا اللاتينية وديكتاتورياتها العسكرية.
326 pages, Paperback
First published January 4, 1991
1,954 people are currently reading
35.2k people want to read
About the author
Julia Alvarez
86books3,806followersJulia Alvarez left the Dominican Republic for the United States in 1960 at the age of ten. She is the author of six novels, three books of nonfiction, three collections of poetry, and eleven books for children and young adults. She has taught and mentored writers in schools and communities across America and, until her retirement in 2016, was a writer-in-residence at Middlebury College. Her work has garnered wide recognition, including a Latina Leader Award in Literature from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, the Hispanic Heritage Award in Literature, the Woman of the Year by Latina magazine, and inclusion in the New York Public Library’s program “The Hand of the Poet: Original Manuscripts by 100 Masters, from John Donne to Julia Alvarez.� In the Time of the Butterflies, with over one million copies in print, was selected by the National Endowment for the Arts for its national Big Read program, and in 2013 President Obama awarded Alvarez the National Medal of Arts in recognition of her extraordinary storytelling.
Photo copyright by Brandon Cruz González
EL VOCERO DE PUERTO RICO
Photo copyright by Brandon Cruz González
EL VOCERO DE PUERTO RICO
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 2,534 reviews
May 5, 2017
How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accent is Julia Alvarez fictionalized account of her childhood when she moved with her family from the Dominican Republic to New York following the 1960 Trujillo revolution. Her story is told in alternating chapters through the eyes of the four Garcia sisters- Carla, Sandi, Yolanda, and Sofia (Fifi) and follows them in reverse chronological order from adulthood to early childhood. Alvarez displays the Garcia de la Torre clan's love for the island on their path to becoming Americans. I read this as a reread for a comfort read for myself as Alvarez is one of my favorite authors, and I rate the Garcia's story 4.5 stars.
I fell in love with Julia Alvarez' writing when I was in high school and college studying Latin American culture. Alvarez along with Allende and Cristina Garcia helped forge my love for Latin America that has shaped my entire life. Her writing is a mix of true stories, humor, and the angst the immigrant experience that has me reaching for her books every few years. The Garcia Girls is a fictionalized autobiography with Yolanda, the third daughter, being Alvarez' persona. Like Alvarez, Yolanda is a writer who begged for her own typewriter, studied literature in boarding school and college, and eventually became a literature professor at a myriad of colleges. Yet, like her true counterpart, Yolanda still yearns for the island. A first generation immigrant, she straddles two countries. This is the life that the sisters faced in New York while also dealing with parents who still clung to old world ideals. Alvarez paints a picture of a coming of age that was stressful for the girls as they had the added element of parents not used to the new culture which they were living in. This leads to memorable dialogues among the characters, especially the two parents.
One of my favorite sections of the narrative is when an adult Yolanda returns to the Dominican Republic and asks her aunts where she can find guavas. Her aunts and cousins take guavas and other tropical fruits for granted living on an island. Yet, it is these little things that the Garcias miss the most having grown up in New York. Guavas, native flora and fauna, a compound of extended family. Yolanda eventually goes on an adventure to procure guavas, showing her independent American spirit. All the girls attend boarding school to learn to be Americans, and wow their cousins with the new found culture that they obtain. Yet this dual culture comes at a price- when the girls come to visit the Dominican Republic, they always are excited to return to the States.
Other than poetry anthologies, this was Alvarez first full length novel. It is evident as her writing is not as polished as with some of her later writing. I have read her later works as well and her voice is better established in her later writings. Once she gained tenure in college her books take on a more relaxed tone and in two of her later nonfiction accounts I found myself laughing throughout the text. Yet, the Garcia Girls is what put Alvarez on the Latin American writing stage. It is a poignant work that addresses the Latin American immigrant experience, that I highly recommend to all.
I fell in love with Julia Alvarez' writing when I was in high school and college studying Latin American culture. Alvarez along with Allende and Cristina Garcia helped forge my love for Latin America that has shaped my entire life. Her writing is a mix of true stories, humor, and the angst the immigrant experience that has me reaching for her books every few years. The Garcia Girls is a fictionalized autobiography with Yolanda, the third daughter, being Alvarez' persona. Like Alvarez, Yolanda is a writer who begged for her own typewriter, studied literature in boarding school and college, and eventually became a literature professor at a myriad of colleges. Yet, like her true counterpart, Yolanda still yearns for the island. A first generation immigrant, she straddles two countries. This is the life that the sisters faced in New York while also dealing with parents who still clung to old world ideals. Alvarez paints a picture of a coming of age that was stressful for the girls as they had the added element of parents not used to the new culture which they were living in. This leads to memorable dialogues among the characters, especially the two parents.
One of my favorite sections of the narrative is when an adult Yolanda returns to the Dominican Republic and asks her aunts where she can find guavas. Her aunts and cousins take guavas and other tropical fruits for granted living on an island. Yet, it is these little things that the Garcias miss the most having grown up in New York. Guavas, native flora and fauna, a compound of extended family. Yolanda eventually goes on an adventure to procure guavas, showing her independent American spirit. All the girls attend boarding school to learn to be Americans, and wow their cousins with the new found culture that they obtain. Yet this dual culture comes at a price- when the girls come to visit the Dominican Republic, they always are excited to return to the States.
Other than poetry anthologies, this was Alvarez first full length novel. It is evident as her writing is not as polished as with some of her later writing. I have read her later works as well and her voice is better established in her later writings. Once she gained tenure in college her books take on a more relaxed tone and in two of her later nonfiction accounts I found myself laughing throughout the text. Yet, the Garcia Girls is what put Alvarez on the Latin American writing stage. It is a poignant work that addresses the Latin American immigrant experience, that I highly recommend to all.
March 16, 2008
I was so intrigued by the title that I kept it on my to-read list for years, but when I finally settled down to read it, I didn't fall immediately in love. I felt the "voices" of the various sisters were too similar, and all of them seemed quite shallow.
However, it is not without its merits. The book moves backwards in time, and the younger the girls got, the more interested I became in their characters. I especially liked reading about their lives before they moved to the States. My favorite part was the description of their family as a shared community: "We lived in each other’s houses, staying for meals at whatever table we were closest to when dinner was put out, heading home only to take our baths and go to bed�"
Favorite Quotes:
(about childhood)
…the wonder of the world seizing me with such fury at times that I had to touch forbidden china cups or throttle a little cousin or pet a dog’s head so strenuously that he looked as if he were coming out of the birth canal�
The Catholic sisters at Our Lady of Perpetual Sorrows Convent School were teaching me to sort the world like laundry into what was wrong and right�
…three black cars idling in the driveway like great, nervous, snorting horses.
However, it is not without its merits. The book moves backwards in time, and the younger the girls got, the more interested I became in their characters. I especially liked reading about their lives before they moved to the States. My favorite part was the description of their family as a shared community: "We lived in each other’s houses, staying for meals at whatever table we were closest to when dinner was put out, heading home only to take our baths and go to bed�"
Favorite Quotes:
(about childhood)
…the wonder of the world seizing me with such fury at times that I had to touch forbidden china cups or throttle a little cousin or pet a dog’s head so strenuously that he looked as if he were coming out of the birth canal�
The Catholic sisters at Our Lady of Perpetual Sorrows Convent School were teaching me to sort the world like laundry into what was wrong and right�
…three black cars idling in the driveway like great, nervous, snorting horses.
January 27, 2010
I had high hopes for How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez. These hopes continued to grow after reading the two short stories “The Kiss� and “The Rudy Elmenhurst Story.� These were both two very well written, expressive, and generally entertaining stories that did well in holding the reader’s attention and delivered strong, powerful endings.
However, as I read on I could not get myself to distinguish between the four Garcia girls: Carla, Sophia, Sandra, and Yolanda. Although some stories were more centered on certain characters, I still found that all of the girls just blended together into one. After reading most of the book I was still unable to tell one girl from the others.
Also, I thought that the sequence of the stories was very hard to follow. The combination of switching between characters and settings makes it hard for the reader to see any link between most of the stories. For example, the story “Trespass,� a tail of Carla’s run in with a pedophile, is directly followed by “Snow,� a two page story of Yolanda performing the ‘duck and cover� drill in school. This leaves the reader with no possible connections between stories. When a man with no pants telling Carla to “C’moninere� is followed by radioactivity causing “the bones in our arms to go soft� with no transition between the two, the reader loses the fact that the stories are supposed to be connected. The stories just don’t mix well.
Individually, there are stories that have great merit as I stated earlier. But I feel that as a whole, the book does not do the proper job of personifying every character of the story well enough to satisfy the reader, and it needs to organize the stories or creating some sort of transition between them.
However, as I read on I could not get myself to distinguish between the four Garcia girls: Carla, Sophia, Sandra, and Yolanda. Although some stories were more centered on certain characters, I still found that all of the girls just blended together into one. After reading most of the book I was still unable to tell one girl from the others.
Also, I thought that the sequence of the stories was very hard to follow. The combination of switching between characters and settings makes it hard for the reader to see any link between most of the stories. For example, the story “Trespass,� a tail of Carla’s run in with a pedophile, is directly followed by “Snow,� a two page story of Yolanda performing the ‘duck and cover� drill in school. This leaves the reader with no possible connections between stories. When a man with no pants telling Carla to “C’moninere� is followed by radioactivity causing “the bones in our arms to go soft� with no transition between the two, the reader loses the fact that the stories are supposed to be connected. The stories just don’t mix well.
Individually, there are stories that have great merit as I stated earlier. But I feel that as a whole, the book does not do the proper job of personifying every character of the story well enough to satisfy the reader, and it needs to organize the stories or creating some sort of transition between them.
August 15, 2024
Note- This was a 2014 review that has somehow found its way into a feed where everyone is reading this review. I am glad!
A couple of years ago, I finished reading Julia Alvarez’s “In the time of the Butterflies� for my students in the plan of giving them something modern to read, because the 10th grade curriculum’s made up of classic and predominantly male oriented writers and works- namely at our school, Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar�, Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart� and Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men�.
I wanted to throw in a female writer in the mix- a novel worthy as a companion to Sophocles� “Antigone�. When I finished the “Butterflies� text, I felt Ms. Alvarez had crafted an earnestly genuine and straightforward “imagined� history- the histories and lives of the assassinated Mirabal sisters of the Dominican Republic; victimized by their botched attempt to assassinate General Rafe Trujillo during the late 1950s. The book and it’s shifting points of view built a crescendo into a devastating and dreadful end.
But this year, in trying to come up for an additional text to possibly teach, I finished reading due to a suggestion by a colleague, “How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents�, Ms. Alvarez’s first and semi-autobiographical novel about four sisters (coincidentally like their actual Mirabal counterparts) assimilating themselves in The Bronx and Long Island, NY after their own father, a former Dominican doctor, tries to assassinate El Jefe Trujillo himself; and they must escape the DR and leave behind their lush, and pampered lifestyle for the urban, cold and concrete world of New York City, through the help of a corrupt CIA operative named Victor Hubbard.
It was a pleasure reading this novel. This time, Ms. Alvarez’s earnest writing is at ease- less controlled than “Butterflies� (which was her second book). The book is reminiscent of Sandra Cisneros� “The House on Mango Street� and Junot Diaz’s “Drown� in the sense that there is a predominant voice and narrator- Yolanda Garcia, the third sister and alter ego of Ms. Alvarez’s herself; just like Esperanza and Yunior. With biting humor, and simple, straightforward sentences, the characters jump the page and you experience what they’re experiencing firsthand: the universal pangs of life, coming of age, and the stresses of assimilation and caught between old world traditions, and new world ideas. I find that it would appeal to young teenagers as well- and hopefully, young girls and women who might be drawn into a sharp narrative and good writing.
The book is not written in chronological order- but it shifts backwards from 1989 to the past. It begins in adulthood, and ends in childhood. The best vignettes are “The Kiss�- which is about the strained relationship between Dr. Garcia and his daughter, Fifi and his brief arousal, after she kisses him blindfolded at his 70th birthday party; “Joe� and “The Rudy Elmenhurst Story� are Yolanda’s adventures with two failed relationships- her ex husband, John who forces her to question her Dominican heritage as well as a play on variations of her name “Joe� is pronounced as the prefix to “Yolanda�; and her prudish nature towards casual sex and dating, as seen from her dalliance with Mr. Elmenhurst, also displaced from Germany; “A Regular Revolution� in which the sisters intervene on Sofia’s affair with a cousin during a visit back in the motherland. “Trespass� is a terrifying story of Carla being bullied at school by boys who make fun of her changing body during puberty and meeting a pedophile who exposes himself to her.
But the two most affecting stories are “Floor Show� and “The Drum�. “Floor Show� is told through Sandi’s point of view about witnessing her father’s brush with infidelity outside a restaurant bathroom with Mrs. Fanning; an American friend, and “The Drum� is Yolanda cruelly taking a kitten away from its mother, only to injure the kitten and for it to disappear forever, haunting her in her dreams.
I found myself haunted by the experiences of Dr. Carlos and Laura Garcia; their daughters- Carla and Yolanda; Fifi and Sandi. There is nothing new under the sun, with this assimilation novel; but what sets it apart from other coming of age/old world/new world tradition texts is that each chapter is written with a wry, witty and tender voice that is altogether human and enriching with joy mixed with sadness.
A couple of years ago, I finished reading Julia Alvarez’s “In the time of the Butterflies� for my students in the plan of giving them something modern to read, because the 10th grade curriculum’s made up of classic and predominantly male oriented writers and works- namely at our school, Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar�, Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart� and Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men�.
I wanted to throw in a female writer in the mix- a novel worthy as a companion to Sophocles� “Antigone�. When I finished the “Butterflies� text, I felt Ms. Alvarez had crafted an earnestly genuine and straightforward “imagined� history- the histories and lives of the assassinated Mirabal sisters of the Dominican Republic; victimized by their botched attempt to assassinate General Rafe Trujillo during the late 1950s. The book and it’s shifting points of view built a crescendo into a devastating and dreadful end.
But this year, in trying to come up for an additional text to possibly teach, I finished reading due to a suggestion by a colleague, “How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents�, Ms. Alvarez’s first and semi-autobiographical novel about four sisters (coincidentally like their actual Mirabal counterparts) assimilating themselves in The Bronx and Long Island, NY after their own father, a former Dominican doctor, tries to assassinate El Jefe Trujillo himself; and they must escape the DR and leave behind their lush, and pampered lifestyle for the urban, cold and concrete world of New York City, through the help of a corrupt CIA operative named Victor Hubbard.
It was a pleasure reading this novel. This time, Ms. Alvarez’s earnest writing is at ease- less controlled than “Butterflies� (which was her second book). The book is reminiscent of Sandra Cisneros� “The House on Mango Street� and Junot Diaz’s “Drown� in the sense that there is a predominant voice and narrator- Yolanda Garcia, the third sister and alter ego of Ms. Alvarez’s herself; just like Esperanza and Yunior. With biting humor, and simple, straightforward sentences, the characters jump the page and you experience what they’re experiencing firsthand: the universal pangs of life, coming of age, and the stresses of assimilation and caught between old world traditions, and new world ideas. I find that it would appeal to young teenagers as well- and hopefully, young girls and women who might be drawn into a sharp narrative and good writing.
The book is not written in chronological order- but it shifts backwards from 1989 to the past. It begins in adulthood, and ends in childhood. The best vignettes are “The Kiss�- which is about the strained relationship between Dr. Garcia and his daughter, Fifi and his brief arousal, after she kisses him blindfolded at his 70th birthday party; “Joe� and “The Rudy Elmenhurst Story� are Yolanda’s adventures with two failed relationships- her ex husband, John who forces her to question her Dominican heritage as well as a play on variations of her name “Joe� is pronounced as the prefix to “Yolanda�; and her prudish nature towards casual sex and dating, as seen from her dalliance with Mr. Elmenhurst, also displaced from Germany; “A Regular Revolution� in which the sisters intervene on Sofia’s affair with a cousin during a visit back in the motherland. “Trespass� is a terrifying story of Carla being bullied at school by boys who make fun of her changing body during puberty and meeting a pedophile who exposes himself to her.
But the two most affecting stories are “Floor Show� and “The Drum�. “Floor Show� is told through Sandi’s point of view about witnessing her father’s brush with infidelity outside a restaurant bathroom with Mrs. Fanning; an American friend, and “The Drum� is Yolanda cruelly taking a kitten away from its mother, only to injure the kitten and for it to disappear forever, haunting her in her dreams.
I found myself haunted by the experiences of Dr. Carlos and Laura Garcia; their daughters- Carla and Yolanda; Fifi and Sandi. There is nothing new under the sun, with this assimilation novel; but what sets it apart from other coming of age/old world/new world tradition texts is that each chapter is written with a wry, witty and tender voice that is altogether human and enriching with joy mixed with sadness.
September 29, 2017
I enjoyed this quite a lot, but I really think it should have been marketed as a book of short stories. Instead it's a book of short stories that is called a novel, yet has none of the cohesion or overarching plot required of a novel, though the stories are all about the same four women. It's also very obvious that many of these stories were originally published separately, as there's a lot of repeated background info, introducing characters as if we've never met them before when it's the fifth time they've appeared, etc. There are also a handful of stories in first person, when the majority are third person, and that kind of makes it feel patched together, too. (There was also one very bizarre story where it was first person, except all the girls were named in third person. So even though the narrator was saying I and we and us in reference to the four sisters, it sounded like there was a mysterious fifth sister doing the narration because she attributed actions and dialogue to all four in third person. I...have never seen a story written like that before and hope never to do so again. It was disconcerting and a very strange choice.)[return][return]Anyway, I really did enjoy the individual stories quite a lot, and found the book hard to put down. I just am kind of annoyed with it for saying it's a novel when it's not, as that made me keep expecting things that it never delivered.
May 27, 2015
This is a beautifully written book. But it's one of those works of fiction that isn't really about anything in particular. Readers spend time with alternating Garcia girls in random order throughout a portion of their lives. There is no plot to speak of. The chapters are connected by the fact that one or more Garcia girl is featured in each of them, but you could read them in any order you wanted without impacting the reading experience. The chapters/scenes hold your attention in standalone fashion as well as loosely connecting with the others. I didn't grow attached to anyone in particular. I cared about what was happening when it was happening and then the book moved on to something else. How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents is a well written series of scattered moments in the lives of girls who become women who become the memory of a book you once read.
March 20, 2008
Julia Alvarez wrote one of my favorite essays in "Why I'm Still Married" so I was really excited when I found a copy of this book for $0.50 at tha library book sale. I read it on my way to Tucson last week, so I already latin food and culture on my mind!
I really liked the way this book moved backwards in time, working its way from Yolanda's trip back to the Dominican Republic in the 1990's to her childhood on the island in the 1960's. For the most part, I enjoyed the book, but I thought it lacked detail and development for a few of the characters. I didn't understand why Sandi developed an eating disorder later in life, why most of the girls had bad marriages or why Yolanda had a nervous breakdown. I would have preferred the book to focus solely on Yolanda and be told entirely from her perspective. That would have made the lack of detail a little more acceptable. For the most part, the voices of the four girls were very similar, making it difficult to fall in love with or hate any one of them. I was neither attached nor angry, which makes for a pretty mediocre read.
Still, I would like to read more of Alvarez's work and have added "In the Time of Butterflies" to my "to read" list. Of course as soon as I finished I had to pull out my old journal from 1999 and re-read my entries from the time I spent in the Dominican. Presidente, beans and rice, the little girl who loved my barettes, Mariella and her gorgeous family, and creepy old men who wanted to dance the merengue with us... What memories!
I really liked the way this book moved backwards in time, working its way from Yolanda's trip back to the Dominican Republic in the 1990's to her childhood on the island in the 1960's. For the most part, I enjoyed the book, but I thought it lacked detail and development for a few of the characters. I didn't understand why Sandi developed an eating disorder later in life, why most of the girls had bad marriages or why Yolanda had a nervous breakdown. I would have preferred the book to focus solely on Yolanda and be told entirely from her perspective. That would have made the lack of detail a little more acceptable. For the most part, the voices of the four girls were very similar, making it difficult to fall in love with or hate any one of them. I was neither attached nor angry, which makes for a pretty mediocre read.
Still, I would like to read more of Alvarez's work and have added "In the Time of Butterflies" to my "to read" list. Of course as soon as I finished I had to pull out my old journal from 1999 and re-read my entries from the time I spent in the Dominican. Presidente, beans and rice, the little girl who loved my barettes, Mariella and her gorgeous family, and creepy old men who wanted to dance the merengue with us... What memories!
October 20, 2023
اشعر دوما أن من يترك وطنه الأم لا يشعر بالراحة ابدا ويظل ممزقا بين الحنين إلى وطنه وتأقلمه مع مجتمعه الجديد، حتى عندما يعود احيانا إلى بلاده يلازمه هذا الشعور فلا يستطيع الفكاك منه فهو غريب في وطنه وغريب خارج وطنه.
لقطات ومشاهد لحياة عائلة دومينيكية ارستقراطية انتقلت إلى أمريكا بسبب اشتراك الأب في معارضة النظام الديكتاتوري في الستينات.
الرواية تسير بشكل زمني عكسي مما سبب لي بعض الحيرة في البداية.
تتناول الرواية مشاعر الاغتراب والحنين للوطن والتأقلم مع البلد الجديد لتلك العائلة التي تغيرت حياتها من عائلة ثرية تعيش في قصر وتخدمها الخادمات إلى عائلة تعيش بالكاد في ظروف مادية سيئة في امريكا بالإضافة إلى مشاكل التنمر التي تتعرض لها الفتيات.
العائلة مكونة من أب طبيب وام وأربع بنات صغيرات في أعمار متقاربة، تحكي كلا منهم بعض الأحداث من وجهة نظرها.
للأم دور كبير في الرواية ذكرني بالأمهات في الأفلام المصرية القديمة 😄😄😄.
عندما أقرأ روايات امريكا اللاتينية لا اشعر بالغربة بل اشعر بانهم يشبهوننا كثيرا، العادات والتقاليد الخوف على البنات، الرهبة من العيش في المجتمع الامريكي المفتوح والرعب من ضياع وانفلات البنات.
تحكي البنات عن طفولتهن حكايات طريفة ذكرتني بطفولتي الساذجة.
لقطات ومشاهد لحياة عائلة دومينيكية ارستقراطية انتقلت إلى أمريكا بسبب اشتراك الأب في معارضة النظام الديكتاتوري في الستينات.
الرواية تسير بشكل زمني عكسي مما سبب لي بعض الحيرة في البداية.
تتناول الرواية مشاعر الاغتراب والحنين للوطن والتأقلم مع البلد الجديد لتلك العائلة التي تغيرت حياتها من عائلة ثرية تعيش في قصر وتخدمها الخادمات إلى عائلة تعيش بالكاد في ظروف مادية سيئة في امريكا بالإضافة إلى مشاكل التنمر التي تتعرض لها الفتيات.
العائلة مكونة من أب طبيب وام وأربع بنات صغيرات في أعمار متقاربة، تحكي كلا منهم بعض الأحداث من وجهة نظرها.
للأم دور كبير في الرواية ذكرني بالأمهات في الأفلام المصرية القديمة 😄😄😄.
عندما أقرأ روايات امريكا اللاتينية لا اشعر بالغربة بل اشعر بانهم يشبهوننا كثيرا، العادات والتقاليد الخوف على البنات، الرهبة من العيش في المجتمع الامريكي المفتوح والرعب من ضياع وانفلات البنات.
تحكي البنات عن طفولتهن حكايات طريفة ذكرتني بطفولتي الساذجة.
April 23, 2020
How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez is a beautiful book written with lyrical and descriptive prose. This fictional novel of four sisters is said to be a very autobiographical account of Alvarez's early childhood in the Dominican Republic and later emigrating to New York when they are forced to flee the dictatorship of Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina. This is a delightful and gripping tale of the four Garcia sisters - Carla, Sandra, Yolanda, and Sofia - told in alternating chapters by each sister and in reverse chronological order. The book is divided into three parts, the first part focusing on the adult lives of the sisters between 1989 and 1972. The second section of the book from 1970 and 1960 tells the struggles of their immigration experience in the United States, while the last section between 1960 and 1956 in the Dominican Republic where their father becomes involved in a plot to remove Trujillo from power and its attendant consequences. This is a study in the immigrant experience for young children and their parents in coming to such a different culture and country and the struggles to assimilate into that new culture. I am working my way through the works of Julia Alvarez and enjoying the experience since I am drawn to books portraying the Latin American culture.
"The late sun sifts through the bougainvillea trained to climb the walls of the patio, to thread across the trellis roof, to pour down magenta and purple blossoms."
"All around her are the foothills, a dark enormous green, the sky more a brightness than a color. A breeze blows through the palms below, rustling their branches, so they whisper like voices. Here and there a braid of smoke rises up from a hillside--a campesino and his family living out their solitary life. This is what she has been missing all of these years without really knowing she has been missing it. Standing here in the quiet, she believes she has never felt at home in the States, never."
"I would never find someone who would understand the peculiar mix of Catholicism and agnosticism, Hispanic and American styles."
"I grew up, a curious woman, a woman of story ghosts and story devils, a woman prone to bad dreams and bad insomnia. There are still times I wake up three o'clock in the morning and peer into the darkness. At that hour and in that loneliness, I hear her, a black furred thing lurking in the corners of my life, her magenta mouth opening, wailing over some violation that lies at the center of my art."
"The late sun sifts through the bougainvillea trained to climb the walls of the patio, to thread across the trellis roof, to pour down magenta and purple blossoms."
"All around her are the foothills, a dark enormous green, the sky more a brightness than a color. A breeze blows through the palms below, rustling their branches, so they whisper like voices. Here and there a braid of smoke rises up from a hillside--a campesino and his family living out their solitary life. This is what she has been missing all of these years without really knowing she has been missing it. Standing here in the quiet, she believes she has never felt at home in the States, never."
"I would never find someone who would understand the peculiar mix of Catholicism and agnosticism, Hispanic and American styles."
"I grew up, a curious woman, a woman of story ghosts and story devils, a woman prone to bad dreams and bad insomnia. There are still times I wake up three o'clock in the morning and peer into the darkness. At that hour and in that loneliness, I hear her, a black furred thing lurking in the corners of my life, her magenta mouth opening, wailing over some violation that lies at the center of my art."
April 4, 2024
Cómo las chicas García perdieron sus acentos, traducción literal del título de la novela, empieza con el regreso de Yolanda a su isla natal, Republica Dominicada, a los treinta y nueve, después de cinco años de no pisarla. Sus tías la obligan a hablar en español, aunque parece que se le han ido olvidando las palabras y lo único que quiere es ir al campo a comer guayabas, ella sola, en un carro y sin chaperón, lo que resulta un escándalo entre su familia. De allí, empezamos a ir para atrás. Las chicas García ya no tienen sus acentos, más bien su español se ha vuelto diferente, pero el libro nos va condiciendo hacia atrás, hasta antes de que se fueran a vivir a Estados Unidos, obligadas por una situación política en la que su padre se veía amenazado y vamos desentrañando sus vidas.
Este libro es la vida de Julia Álvarez ficcionalizada. Ella es Yolanda, Yo, Yolo, Joe en los Estados Unidos. Poeta que ha dejado de escribir para frustración de su madre y se ha convertido en maestra, aunque su madre rogaba porque ella fuera la famosa de la familia y dejara el nombre de los García de la Torre en alto. Durante todo el libro, tenemos historias de las cuatro hermanas: el matrimonio de Sofría, Fifi, que hizo enojar a su padre y con el que apenas se está reconciliando después, de, cómo no, darle a su primer nieto varón; los problemas de Sandi, Sandra, que estuvo internada en un psiquiátrico después de una decepción; de como Yolanda se siente extremadamente liberal dentro de su familia, pero frente a la libertad estadounidense sigue siendo más conservadora y finalmente de Carla y los zapatos rojos.
Latinoamérica es increíblemente diferente entre sí. Diferentes costumbres, diferentes héroes, diferentes fechas. Republica Dominicana tiene una historia particularmente complicada. Pero en esencia, todas las familias latinoamericanas del siglo pasado se parecen un poco. Al menos en los libros. Se nota el contraste de la liberación femenina, al menos entre Yolanda y sus hermanas, que son feministas pero no pueden lograr que nadie en la isla se una a su causa, en especial sus tías mayores, porque creen que no es femenino andar rogando por sus derechos (sí, ese es un argumento normal) y sólo se preocupan por buscarles marido. La dualidad entre su identidad ―estadounidenses y dominicanas a la vez� se hace notar sobre todo en Mundín, su primo, que mientras está en Estados Unidos es parte de ellas, un compañero, pero cuando vuelve a Republica Dominicana cada verano se vuelve un macho de nuevo, intentando encajar.
A pesar de que el libro va hacia atrás, narrando desde el presente donde Yolanda vuelve a la isla hacia el pasado, cuando se acustumbraban a vivir en los Estados Unidos o aun estaban en Republica Dominicana, no es difícil de seguir. La narración es muy simple y eso ayuda, además de que a pesar de que ya sabemos cómo termina la historia de las chicas García (sin sus acentos), lo de antes es nuevo y es una narración que se spoilea poco a sí misma. Como cualquier libro latino de un descendiente de latinos o inmigrante, está plagado de expresiones en español en todas partes y de modismos en los dos idiomas que lo hacen sentir más cercano.
De entre los personajes, todos se sienten humanos, con sus contradicciones y esa crisis de identidad que las hace debatirse entre dos países. Como decía la sinopsis atrás de mi ejemplar (escaneado para la OpenLibrary): se rebelan quitándose los chinos, planchándose el pelo, pero vuelven a sus raíces por la fruta, la comida y cada año, volviendo sin sus maridos, al cumpleaños a de su padre, que parece que no le importa tener cuatro hijas mujeres, como insiste en aparentar, pero que sólo accede a reconciliarse con Fifi cuando tiene un hijo varón. Su madre las protege y las defiende de su padre, pero aún así fue criada con otros valores y las aleja de las escuelas públicas para meterlas en internados católicos, donde sabe que sus hijas estarán bien cuidadas.
Respecto a la trama, tengo que decir que no hay un núcleo fuerte en el libro, lamentablemente, a pesar de lo bien unidas que están las escenas. Es un libro sobre todo de identidad, pero no se concentra en eso, sino en problemas varios. A veces no consigue abarcarlos todos, lo cual es una lástima y deja con dudas y ese regusto a que estamos viendo un montón e historias pequeñitas que se escapan y dicen que les toca ser contadas en otra ocasión, así a lo Ende. Es el único punto malo que le puedo ver al libro y pasa con muchos libros de este tipo. Realmente es una lástima porque el libro es precioso.
¿Lo recomiendo? Por supuesto que sí. Es un libro muy interesante si les gustan estos temas, aunque está algo complicado de conseguir. Ojala, si lo leen, les guste.
March 17, 2022
Alvarez's debut novel How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents was published in 1991. It tells the story of a wealthy family forced to leave the Dominican Republic because of the father's involvement in a plan to overthrow Rafael Trujillo and how they adjust to life in New York City.
Written almost as fifteen short stories, the tale is told through the points of view of the four sisters: Carla, Sandi, Yolanda, and Sofia. Of her unusual choice to tell the story in reverse chronological order Alvarez says, "I want the reader to be thinking like an immigrant, always going back to where we came from; instead of progress toward a climax, a return to a homeland." I feel that this structure adds to the story, seeing how their adult identities are crafted through their deconstruction.
Like most immigrants, the Garcias experience conflict between their desire to retain the culture of their homeland and their need to change in order to adapt to life in America. They have to overcome the barriers of language, skin color, and class. Because of their class, the Garcia girls have access to predominantly upper-middle class, white schools. Due to this privilege they don't make connections with other Dominican immigrants and feel isolated in navigating the assimilation process all the while experiencing racism.
My paternal grandparents came to this country as children, and I grew up hearing stories of their challenges merging cultures. I have a good friend who came here from Hong Kong to attend university. By the time she was in graduate school she frequently lamented, "I'm too American for most Chinese, and too Chinese for most Americans." as she struggled to build community for herself.
Like many of us, these girls/woman are just surviving in some ways; and in other ways they are thriving, as they balance who they are and what they want with who their society and culture wants and expects them to be. And it's lovely to read a book where the siblings love and care for each other.
I read this novel for my local book club. Overall, it was a good read; and I did need to ask about some of the symbolism that was opaque to me. Alvarez's prose is beautiful in places and she clearly evokes atmosphere in each of her scenes.
Written almost as fifteen short stories, the tale is told through the points of view of the four sisters: Carla, Sandi, Yolanda, and Sofia. Of her unusual choice to tell the story in reverse chronological order Alvarez says, "I want the reader to be thinking like an immigrant, always going back to where we came from; instead of progress toward a climax, a return to a homeland." I feel that this structure adds to the story, seeing how their adult identities are crafted through their deconstruction.
Like most immigrants, the Garcias experience conflict between their desire to retain the culture of their homeland and their need to change in order to adapt to life in America. They have to overcome the barriers of language, skin color, and class. Because of their class, the Garcia girls have access to predominantly upper-middle class, white schools. Due to this privilege they don't make connections with other Dominican immigrants and feel isolated in navigating the assimilation process all the while experiencing racism.
My paternal grandparents came to this country as children, and I grew up hearing stories of their challenges merging cultures. I have a good friend who came here from Hong Kong to attend university. By the time she was in graduate school she frequently lamented, "I'm too American for most Chinese, and too Chinese for most Americans." as she struggled to build community for herself.
Like many of us, these girls/woman are just surviving in some ways; and in other ways they are thriving, as they balance who they are and what they want with who their society and culture wants and expects them to be. And it's lovely to read a book where the siblings love and care for each other.
I read this novel for my local book club. Overall, it was a good read; and I did need to ask about some of the symbolism that was opaque to me. Alvarez's prose is beautiful in places and she clearly evokes atmosphere in each of her scenes.
March 15, 2019
The García family flees the Dominican Republic for the United States amid political unrest. The four sisters � Carla, Sandra, Yolanda, and Sofia � find 1960s New York City very different from the upper-middle-class life they knew “back home.� Absent their maids and extended family, the García girls do their best to assimilate into the mainstream; they iron their hair, forget their Spanish, and meet (and date) boys without chaperones.
This is a wonderfully entertaining look at the immigrant experience and at the strong family ties that see these sisters (and their parents) through a tumultuous adolescence and young adulthood. The novel is told in alternating perspectives, focusing on a different sister in each chapter, and also moving back in time, from 1989 to 1956.
When exploring their childhood in the DR, Alvarez allows the innocence of youth to be apparent. Children may sense that something isn’t quite right, but they typically don’t know the realities facing their parents. The family’s sudden departure for the United States is at first a great adventure, but the reality of reduced circumstances and cramped city apartments (instead of a large family compound with gardens and servants) quickly makes the girls homesick. Once assured that there is no going back, they struggle to fit in with their peers at school. They don’t want to stick out due to dress, language, food, or customs. With their assimilation, however, comes a greater clash between the girls and their parents� “old world� values.
The use of multiple narrators and non-linear time line, however, made for an uneven reading experience. I would be invested in one sister’s story, and then jerked to a different time and place and narrator with little or no warning. Some members of my F2F book club found this so distracting that they lowered their ratings significantly. But for me the “confusion� is indicative of the immigrant experience. Each immigrant ultimately has to choose the extent to which she will adopt the customs, foods, dress of her new environment, and how much of her native customs, foods, dress to keep and share with her new neighbors. The García girls draw comfort from their deep roots in the Dominican Republic while bravely and enthusiastically facing and embracing their future as Americans.
This is a wonderfully entertaining look at the immigrant experience and at the strong family ties that see these sisters (and their parents) through a tumultuous adolescence and young adulthood. The novel is told in alternating perspectives, focusing on a different sister in each chapter, and also moving back in time, from 1989 to 1956.
When exploring their childhood in the DR, Alvarez allows the innocence of youth to be apparent. Children may sense that something isn’t quite right, but they typically don’t know the realities facing their parents. The family’s sudden departure for the United States is at first a great adventure, but the reality of reduced circumstances and cramped city apartments (instead of a large family compound with gardens and servants) quickly makes the girls homesick. Once assured that there is no going back, they struggle to fit in with their peers at school. They don’t want to stick out due to dress, language, food, or customs. With their assimilation, however, comes a greater clash between the girls and their parents� “old world� values.
The use of multiple narrators and non-linear time line, however, made for an uneven reading experience. I would be invested in one sister’s story, and then jerked to a different time and place and narrator with little or no warning. Some members of my F2F book club found this so distracting that they lowered their ratings significantly. But for me the “confusion� is indicative of the immigrant experience. Each immigrant ultimately has to choose the extent to which she will adopt the customs, foods, dress of her new environment, and how much of her native customs, foods, dress to keep and share with her new neighbors. The García girls draw comfort from their deep roots in the Dominican Republic while bravely and enthusiastically facing and embracing their future as Americans.
January 16, 2022
I loved the author's In the Time of the Butterflies, and so I added other of her titles to my TBR. This book's premise was promising and it started out well, with the rotating voices of sisters telling us about their life in the DR and their emigration to New York. But then it just sort of frittered off into a nothing tale of women we end up not really caring much about. Disappointing.
February 4, 2017
I think this is a great read if you want to learn about the immigrant experience. If you'd like to see how subtly machismo and anti-blackness enters the daily lives of latinx families but how powerful they are, this would also be a good read.
September 10, 2017
Maybe 3.5 stars. It was told in reverse chronological order, by a few different viewpoints, which got a bit confusing. Interesting novel about four sisters who grew up in the Dominican Republic and New York, and how their lives change because of that.
June 2, 2011
First off, the reverse chronological thing just threw me. I had a hard time understanding who was crazy when and when they were crazy, if it was really crazy or just stream of consciousness writing. And as with a lot of minority authors, I don’t see why they have to focus on only negative experiences. I’m sure the Garcia girls had a lot of good experiences which shaped them, but Alvarez chose only to focus on the negative. There was so much sexual content in this book, I’d almost feel uncomfortable classifying it as a young adult novel � which is what our library classifies it as. The book is set in the 60′s and 70′s, so there was rampant sex and drug use throughout the book. Every other story was about someone’s first time having sex or someone being molested � it got very old after a while.
One thing I did appreciate was how distinct each of the girls� voices were. Even without being told who was talking, I probably could have picked out which daughter was telling which story. Even Chucha and Laura were distinct from all the rest. And Alvarez did a wonderful job of evolving the girls� voices as they grew older. There was no doubt when a daughter was 10 as compared to when she was 25. I don’t think I would recommend this book to anyone but it wasn’t a horrible read.
One thing I did appreciate was how distinct each of the girls� voices were. Even without being told who was talking, I probably could have picked out which daughter was telling which story. Even Chucha and Laura were distinct from all the rest. And Alvarez did a wonderful job of evolving the girls� voices as they grew older. There was no doubt when a daughter was 10 as compared to when she was 25. I don’t think I would recommend this book to anyone but it wasn’t a horrible read.
September 16, 2019
It was an entertaining, funny read about a family of six that escapes the Dominican Republic for a life in the United States in New York. The four girls, mother and father, left not by choice but because the dictator Trujillo was spying and trying to catch Carlos, who was a doctor and the father, in a compromising act against the government to jail him. They were also considered wealthy in the DR yet employment for Carlos was difficult in the US at first.
All the stories were good but they were not cohesive. Every story was a new memory for one of the new girls sometimes talking in the present and then all of a sudden you were reading it in the past. Sometimes the author went from speaking in third person to first person. It would have been better, for me, to have made this into short stories with each girls perspective of their lives in the DR and after in the US.
I'm not familiar with life or people in the Dominican Republic but it seems to have the same feel as living like any other Latin person with their superstitions and their silly yet lovable family life.
All the stories were good but they were not cohesive. Every story was a new memory for one of the new girls sometimes talking in the present and then all of a sudden you were reading it in the past. Sometimes the author went from speaking in third person to first person. It would have been better, for me, to have made this into short stories with each girls perspective of their lives in the DR and after in the US.
I'm not familiar with life or people in the Dominican Republic but it seems to have the same feel as living like any other Latin person with their superstitions and their silly yet lovable family life.
January 13, 2022
four sisters and NONE of them are even a little bit gay? but one dates a first cousin? 🤔🤔🤔🤔
it was interesting to structure this novel in reverse chronological order; the later years seem to be alvarez' favorite section, though i found the middle chapters most vivid and interesting, and found the childhood ones quite uncompelling, especially in the lack of differentiation between the girls' voices - as well as, of course, a couple instances of quite shocking anti-Black and colorist descriptions of servants that were wholly unnecessary. It was cool to read this because I suddenly remembered that I'd read "in the time of the butterflies" back in middle school and now, perhaps 10 years later, have found my way back to this author. Ultimately, i think this book should have been much longer. I would have been interested for a deeper and more nuanced exploration of the sisters' relationships; a much more thorough investigation of class, especially how the mother dealt with the dramatic change in their circumstances when emigrating; and for a book that centers on family, connection, identity, and heritage, i felt it odd that the girls basically don't interact with any other non-white people outside of their own family throughout their whole time in america. it would have been interesting to contrast their own very specific classed experience, for instance, with another perspective, perhaps that of someone who was never taught to 'lose their accent'. anyway, overall, i appreciate having had the opportunity to read this.
thank you laura for the rec!
it was interesting to structure this novel in reverse chronological order; the later years seem to be alvarez' favorite section, though i found the middle chapters most vivid and interesting, and found the childhood ones quite uncompelling, especially in the lack of differentiation between the girls' voices - as well as, of course, a couple instances of quite shocking anti-Black and colorist descriptions of servants that were wholly unnecessary. It was cool to read this because I suddenly remembered that I'd read "in the time of the butterflies" back in middle school and now, perhaps 10 years later, have found my way back to this author. Ultimately, i think this book should have been much longer. I would have been interested for a deeper and more nuanced exploration of the sisters' relationships; a much more thorough investigation of class, especially how the mother dealt with the dramatic change in their circumstances when emigrating; and for a book that centers on family, connection, identity, and heritage, i felt it odd that the girls basically don't interact with any other non-white people outside of their own family throughout their whole time in america. it would have been interesting to contrast their own very specific classed experience, for instance, with another perspective, perhaps that of someone who was never taught to 'lose their accent'. anyway, overall, i appreciate having had the opportunity to read this.
thank you laura for the rec!
August 10, 2019
This book is possibly one of the most boring, brain-numbing, soul sucking stories I have ever read. I absolutely hate it. In fact, I made this account specifically to write a review on this garbage. If you can even give it the privilege of being called that. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, but in this case one man’s trash makes another man brain dead. I’m only 177 pages into this 313 page train wreck, and every fiber of my being is already cold with apathy. Reading this book is equivalent to being locked in a sensory deprivation tank and having your vocal cords ripped out so you can’t even hear the sound of your own empty voice. You know when you’re just beginning to watch a movie and you keep thinking “when is the actual story gonna begin�? That’s what this book is except it’s throughout the entire thing. The level of monotony and pure filler this book offers is enough to make listening to TV static sound exciting. If I could go back in time, I would keep my parents from screwing so I wouldn’t have to be born and therefore wouldn’t have to experience reading this terrible novel. The title is pretty much the whole book. If you read the title, you already know what it’s about, where it happens, and how it unfolds. It’s cliché to the bone. The characters are so unlikeable and shallow, and even they don’t do this story any justice. In conclusion, this book is the opposite of a suicide hotline, and should not be read by anyone with a will to live. Screw you Ms. Bright for making me endure this hellscape and screw the government for allowing what is essentially a torture device to be published and sold all around the country.
November 16, 2022
I have no idea why so many people call this a novel when it is a group of connected short stories. In fact, right near the beginning it notes that some of the stories had appeared before, slightly different, etc. This is why there isn't a plot or story line the same way there is in a novel.
I am not a fan of short stories, but Alvarez is a strong writer. I read this because I needed to read a book of short stories, and love the title and the description. However, I personally first got it because I thought it was a novel and if it hadn't been for that short stories need, I probably wouldn't have read this book, but found something else by Alvarez instead.
The other thing, which I am sure works on some levels, is that it goes roughly backward in time. There are three sections spanning year ranges that go backward. I didn't care too much for that. Also, it's short stories so felt choppy because that's how connected short stories tend to feel for me.
In short, great writing in and of itself, but don't like this format or how it was set up.
I am not a fan of short stories, but Alvarez is a strong writer. I read this because I needed to read a book of short stories, and love the title and the description. However, I personally first got it because I thought it was a novel and if it hadn't been for that short stories need, I probably wouldn't have read this book, but found something else by Alvarez instead.
The other thing, which I am sure works on some levels, is that it goes roughly backward in time. There are three sections spanning year ranges that go backward. I didn't care too much for that. Also, it's short stories so felt choppy because that's how connected short stories tend to feel for me.
In short, great writing in and of itself, but don't like this format or how it was set up.
February 25, 2020
I absolutely loved this book. It's set up like a series of short stories about the family told in reverse chronological order. Here's why I loved it:
1. Even as a second-generation Latino immigrant the stories resonated strongly with me. She perfectly captures that feeling of being between cultures.
2. It was refreshing to see a loving father in the Latin-American genre. I feel like the few books that I've read always have either an absent or deadbeat dad figure.
3 It had a wonderful cast of four sisters who manage to be strong independent women even in difficult circumstances, like a country and family with old-fashioned customs and beliefs.
4. I thought the writing was beautiful and paced evenly.
1. Even as a second-generation Latino immigrant the stories resonated strongly with me. She perfectly captures that feeling of being between cultures.
2. It was refreshing to see a loving father in the Latin-American genre. I feel like the few books that I've read always have either an absent or deadbeat dad figure.
3 It had a wonderful cast of four sisters who manage to be strong independent women even in difficult circumstances, like a country and family with old-fashioned customs and beliefs.
4. I thought the writing was beautiful and paced evenly.
February 11, 2021
La historia está relatada en la época de la dictadura de Trujillo. La familia García era prestigiosa y adinerada por lo que atrajo la atención del dictado, era un clima de tensión y con estrictas vigilancias; los personajes principales son las cuatro hermanas García: Carla, Sandra, Yolanda, y Sofía. Por la posición social que tenía la familia y la atención que provocó en Trujillo, la familia García abandona su hogar en Rep. Dominicana y emigran a estados unidos, allí afrontan todas las dificultades de ser emigrantes, el cambio radical de costumbres, idioma etc, acostumbrados a un cierto estatus, fue difícil para todos; luego de 9 años de exilio Yolanda regresa a la isla, y es donde inicia la historia en el libro, Yolanda nos cuenta sus historias de niña en Rep. Dominicana hasta el traslado a los Estados Unidos.
Me gusto mucho la historia, es una de las más comunes de República Dominicana, pues muchas familias tuvieron que prácticamente huir del país en la época de la dictadura de Trujillo. Un libro fácil de leer, sencilla y fluida. 3 1/2 ⭐️
Me gusto mucho la historia, es una de las más comunes de República Dominicana, pues muchas familias tuvieron que prácticamente huir del país en la época de la dictadura de Trujillo. Un libro fácil de leer, sencilla y fluida. 3 1/2 ⭐️
January 4, 2025
Wow I was under-impressed. This is the story of sisters who were born into the lap of luxury in South America and then were forced to migrate to North America for political reasons.
But this is not the story of a family who had to struggle in America, it is the story of four girls, who even uprooted were never in a state of poverty and yet at some point in the novel each of the four girls gets looney and has to spend time either with a shrink or in a facility.
While the family was forced to flee due to political turmoil, the girls were sheltered by their parents. They had a wealthy family who continued to want them and support them and welcome them on their return visits. Nothing actually happened to these girls that were not of their own making or in their own minds.
I was grossly disappointed in this book and would not recommend it.
But this is not the story of a family who had to struggle in America, it is the story of four girls, who even uprooted were never in a state of poverty and yet at some point in the novel each of the four girls gets looney and has to spend time either with a shrink or in a facility.
While the family was forced to flee due to political turmoil, the girls were sheltered by their parents. They had a wealthy family who continued to want them and support them and welcome them on their return visits. Nothing actually happened to these girls that were not of their own making or in their own minds.
I was grossly disappointed in this book and would not recommend it.
March 29, 2017
I read a little more than half and realized I'd rather be doing absolutely anything else. I was excited by the title and all the potential for eye-opening cultural conflict, but it was chapter after chapter of privileged girls who attend boarding school and spend their summers in South America; they fight each other using psychological babble and have nervous breakdowns while quoting classic literature.
Gag.
They love and divorce and have babies and feelings and blah,blah, blah, who cares? They're two-demential and un-relatable.
If you like reading for the sake of reading, here's the book for you. If you prefer your literature to be life-changing, perspective-expanding, or entertaining, then save yourself the trouble.
Gag.
They love and divorce and have babies and feelings and blah,blah, blah, who cares? They're two-demential and un-relatable.
If you like reading for the sake of reading, here's the book for you. If you prefer your literature to be life-changing, perspective-expanding, or entertaining, then save yourself the trouble.
January 27, 2010
Personally, I believe “How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents� by Julia Alvarez is a pretty weak book. Her inspiration from the book came from real life experiences as she lived in the Dominican Republic the first ten years of her life until she had to flee due to her Father’s participation in a political rebellion. Although this book depicts her real life quite well, I don’t feel Julia does such a great job of getting her true emotions across by jumping from one story to another. Also, I find it hard to separate the characters from one another.
Jumping from story to story in my opinion isn’t as good as one fluent story. For example, I felt tempted to jump around and read “The Rudy Elmenhurst Story� first. “When I went to college, my vivaciousness ultimately worked against me� (87). I feel Alvarez developed her characters well in this story but soon the story was over and I had to readjust to a new setting and story line.
The four girls are four different individuals, but throughout this book I constantly feel I can tell who is who. Sure they are different, but they were brought up in such a way it almost seems like they are one in the same. “Each of the four girls had the same party dress, school clothes, underwear, toothbrush, bedspread, nightgown…� (41). Uniqueness is a sparkling star in the world and that is ripped away from the characters many times in this book. This really agitated me. Although it sets up rebellion and they are different, I would just rather the four girls break apart more than they did.
Although, “How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents� was not terrible to read by any means and did get a somewhat entertaining story across, I feel the writing style of short stories didn’t portray their stories quite as well as a novel would have. I also believe if the characters were more easily separated from one another this book would have gained.
March 1, 2009
As the title suggests, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, is about four Dominican girls who moves to America and adjusting to the American culture, in terms of language, academics, and living standards. Back in the Dominican Republic, the four girls, Carla, Sandra, Yolanda and Sofia all lives extravagant lives with their father. All four girls can be described as extremely rebellious again their family and traditional values, where there are sex, drugs, and criminal actions were involoves, such as stealing. Although, the actions taken by the girls seem to be immoral, unlawful and strictly against family and their cultural values and norms, they seem to all express their feelings, thoughts and identity and many different, yet rebellious, ways. For example, Yolanda is one of the daughters who is commonly associated with sex, nudity and boys, while Sofia is known for the marijuana. Moreover, after their life in the Dominican Republic, they were sent to America because of the issues their father was coming across with the federal government.
In America, the girls struggled to adjust to the new society, especially since they were put into the middle class once they moved to New York City. They were being picked on and also molested by boys in school. As a result, this new American life for the Garcia girls helped them see how important it is to never forget their tradition and family values. In America, because they were obligated to speak English, for communication reasons, they seem to have lost a part of their culture, their native language. In other words, this is where the significance of the title comes into play; language, one's native language plays a huge role in one's identity. All in all, this was a very interesting story because it conveyed an unique theme, instead of the original and traditional themes of love, friendship and family.
In America, the girls struggled to adjust to the new society, especially since they were put into the middle class once they moved to New York City. They were being picked on and also molested by boys in school. As a result, this new American life for the Garcia girls helped them see how important it is to never forget their tradition and family values. In America, because they were obligated to speak English, for communication reasons, they seem to have lost a part of their culture, their native language. In other words, this is where the significance of the title comes into play; language, one's native language plays a huge role in one's identity. All in all, this was a very interesting story because it conveyed an unique theme, instead of the original and traditional themes of love, friendship and family.
August 12, 2020
Julia Alvarez’s “How the García Girls Lost Their Accents� has spent many years on my bookshelf before I decided to reach for it while staying for one July week at my parents. It’s a hilarious story of four girls and their parents, who emigrated from Dominican Republic to the United States in 1960. The story is told in the reverse chronological order and starts with the girls already married.
I have a soft spot for immigrant stories and have read a fair number of them, especially about immigration to the US which used to hold special allure for people from repressive regimes in previous decades (though, not surprisingly, nearly all stories address disappointment with the new homeland). García girls moved from the place of privilege, wealth and culture, where however due to the Trujillo’s dictatorship their very existence and domestic bliss were precarious. The new home meant lack of acceptance by others, relative poverty and sacrifice but for teenage girls it was also characterised by freedom of expression and release from the shackles of Dominican stifling social pressure.
I adored how well painted Alvarez’s characters are, how full of life, especially girls� parents. The novel is brimming with anecdotes which bond the family but as with many immigrant (and not only) families one may quickly see that the bond is too strong and is the cause of a lot of drama. Alvarez described ordeals of immigrants very well, but I found the book a bit unbalanced. It was funny to the point of being flippant; a little bit of gravitas would make it more nuanced (and one anecdote leading to the family leaving Santo Domingo doesn’t do the trick). In the end, it was more interesting as a light coming-of-age novel than a work dealing with immigrants� uprootedness.
I have a soft spot for immigrant stories and have read a fair number of them, especially about immigration to the US which used to hold special allure for people from repressive regimes in previous decades (though, not surprisingly, nearly all stories address disappointment with the new homeland). García girls moved from the place of privilege, wealth and culture, where however due to the Trujillo’s dictatorship their very existence and domestic bliss were precarious. The new home meant lack of acceptance by others, relative poverty and sacrifice but for teenage girls it was also characterised by freedom of expression and release from the shackles of Dominican stifling social pressure.
I adored how well painted Alvarez’s characters are, how full of life, especially girls� parents. The novel is brimming with anecdotes which bond the family but as with many immigrant (and not only) families one may quickly see that the bond is too strong and is the cause of a lot of drama. Alvarez described ordeals of immigrants very well, but I found the book a bit unbalanced. It was funny to the point of being flippant; a little bit of gravitas would make it more nuanced (and one anecdote leading to the family leaving Santo Domingo doesn’t do the trick). In the end, it was more interesting as a light coming-of-age novel than a work dealing with immigrants� uprootedness.
December 14, 2024
Any amazing portrayal about a family from the Dominican Republic moving to New York. One great part about this book is that it isn't from only one person's perspective. It details the POV of daughters and parents, because they each had a different experience. Some wanted to quickly become as American as possible, some wanted to hold strongly to their Dominican roots. I love the way it is told via vignettes (great for my short attention span!). But my favorite aspect is how the story is told backwards, so that once you reach the end (and sometimes even the next chapter), you better understand one of the preceding stories. Some people might like to know this information up front, to understand a character's life chronologically. But you know what? That is not how life is. When we as citizens/legal residents meet immigrants, we form prejudices and opinions about them...because we know nothing about them, only what we want to believe. Only once we start getting to know them and their past do we understand them and what prompted them to come to our great country. And this is the experience the reader encounters in this book. I know it only received average ratings on this website, but I think it is amazing.
March 12, 2018
"How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents" is a novel about four girls Carla, Sophia, Sandra, and Yolanda who had to flee their home in Dominica to go to the US after their father was involved in a political coup. The book follows the lives of the four girls and their parents as they each get accustomed to life in New York.
While I liked the premise, I was a bit disappointed in the plot and character development. The book felt disjointed, it read more like a collection of short stories than an overall book. At the end of the book, I could hardly remember one specific thing about each Garcia girl as they all seemed to be one entity.
However, if you, like me, have an affinity for books that explores the immigrant experience, especially the experience of a Caribbean National then you might want to give this book a read.
While I liked the premise, I was a bit disappointed in the plot and character development. The book felt disjointed, it read more like a collection of short stories than an overall book. At the end of the book, I could hardly remember one specific thing about each Garcia girl as they all seemed to be one entity.
However, if you, like me, have an affinity for books that explores the immigrant experience, especially the experience of a Caribbean National then you might want to give this book a read.
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May 13, 2021Habe das Buch für die Uni gelesen und ich war die meiste Zeit total verwirrt. Auch wenn am Anfang der Kapitel immer stand, wer ungefähr im Mittelpunkt stehen würde, wusste ich manchmal nicht genau, wer denn jetzt der Erzähler ist... Die Themen, die das Buch behandelt waren eigentlich wirklich sehr interessant, aber irgendwie konnte es mich nicht so sehr begeistern... Da mochte ich Alburquerque tatsächlich mehr. (Wobei so sehr kann man die Bücher nicht vergleichen, die haben 0,00% was gemeinsam inhaltlich, dennoch war Letzteres spannender meiner Meinung nach!)
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