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Travis's Reviews > How the García Girls Lost Their Accents

How the García Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez
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bookshelves: 2008, young-adult

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.
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Reading Progress

Started Reading
December 1, 2008 – Finished Reading
January 6, 2011 – Shelved as: 2008
January 6, 2011 – Shelved
January 23, 2018 – Shelved as: young-adult

Comments Showing 1-3 of 3 (3 new)

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Maureen Agreed!


Demetria Hmm. Thanks. I just finished reading it on audio and I should have waited a while to rate it. I'll lower it from 5 to 4 stars. You absolutely right.


Ashley I definitely respect your opinion but I think that there are many ways a novel can be a novel. To me, it seems that a novel can be made up of many short stories, but I think in this book there is a cohesion that brings the stories together. When I first saw this title, the first thing I thought the book would be about would be how the four sisters lost their accents. Then after reading the book, I find out how they did. I think it's especially interesting that the book is written "backward", from adulthood and childhood, kind of answering the question posed in the title of what I believe to be a novel. In a way, through creating a storyline like this, a different perspective is formed where you see through many small windows of their lives which eventually shaped them.

And yes, I do see the "strange" perspective when first person was used yet third person was still used to refer to all four authors. But I am a strong believer that the author chose to do everything with a purpose and we can only imagine and interpret what she meant like that.

Of course, I say all this with great acknowledgement to your feelings and opinions about the book as well. I just wanted to include my perspective on things. Have a good day.


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