Customer Reviews

How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents

5 star:		(52)
4 star:		(65)
3 star:		(22)
2 star:		(22)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

Characteristic of the immigrant novel looking back upon one's beginnings, Julia Alvarez' novel begins in a reverse chronological order. The story introduces 39 year old Yolanda returning to her home in the Dominican Republic after an absence of five years. She is greeted by her extended family of aunts and cousins who still live a well to do lifestyle in a junta regime. It was the same Trujillo regime that caused Yolanda's parents and three sisters to flee their homeland in the early 1960's to the U.S. The story returns through a series of vignettes to the girls experiences and customs in a more genteel era. Where maids and chauffeurs were the order of the day, it lays the foundation for the sense of disillusionment and deprivation the girls feel in the United States where confrontations with schoolmates and unsavory exhibitionists only fuel their resilience. In addition to the normal difficulties associated with growing up, the girls contend with the confusion of having to forsake their native land with its Latin culture, tropical environment, extended family life, for a struggle with a strange language and even stranger culture. While in the Dominican Republic their mother, Laura, feeds the need in the "four girls" to seek their individuality by dressing them in identical outfits which differ only in color for each girl. The traditions and customs of the old both identify and isolate the girls in their new environment. The stories weave a tapestry of familial love, honor, confusion and tension. The girls are forever caught between who they were and where they came from, but never lose sight of who they have become. The author has presented a colorful tale in a semi-autobiographical work. Julia Alvarez had experienced being a minority living in the United States as a small child of 10 when she left the Dominican Republic. She touches the themes of minorities living in American society, the conflict of tradition versus change, and the role of the artist within society. It is an engaging and entertaining read, never boring, just like the Garcia girls.

There is a point on the first chapter when Yolanda's husband ask her what language did she love in. This was the point I knew this book was going to be a very personal experience. Coming from a Hispanic country to worked in the United States, it never ocurred to me that to live and love was also going to be part of the experience. Reading this book was like talking to the friend that went on the same trip as you, only the week before.

Amazing how looking into somebody's soul can help you understand your own...

I was first drawn to this book because the author is a female Latin-American writer. I have read some male authors (Marquez for one) and was completely swept away. But still I wished for a female perspective.

It would be unfair to compare "How the Garcia Girls.." with "A Thousand Years of Solitude" head to head because Ms. Alvarez is not attempting to write a saga or a great(long) novel here. Her stories are to be eaten like M&M's, singly or in a hnadful.

Ms. Alvarez's style is emminently readable. And the stories are quite engaging. I think it is a mistake to ask this to be a "novel" in the traditional sense. Many of the chapters first appeared as short stories and stand on their own. As a collection, they are like thumbing backwards through a photo album where we stop and relive/experience the story behind a moment.

If I have any criticism of this book is that I didn't feel I got to know each sister equally well, or rather, as well as I would have liked. But all in all I felt for the sisters, especially as they grew younger and relished the details of place and custom and family. It seems so personal I felt it must be somewhat autobiographical.

I recommend this highly.

Maybe it's because I'm neither Hispanic nor am I a woman nor am I an immigrant of any kind, but "Garcia Girls" did not speak to me in the way I think the author intended. Alvarez did succeed in helping me to understand the hardships that the Garcia girls went through as they attempted to be accepted by American society and revel in American ways yet at the same time hold on to their Latin American roots (and please their family by doing so). Alvarez does make it clear to the readers that, emotionally, this is not easy task. Although I understand intellectually how difficult it is to find a balance for the Garcia sisters, Alvarez does not make me understand emotionally, which I believe was her intention. If I may take this opportunity to voice one criticism of the book. The device Alvarez employs of holding out a series of anectodes about the Garcias, from the most recent to the oldest is rather confusing. Perhaps it would have been easier for the reader if she would start at the oldest and worked toward the most recent. Take that criticism for what you will as it is more a matter of personal preference than of any "mistake" on the part of Julia Alvarez. Alvarez does provide us with a good overall read.

What a disappointment! Halfway through, I considered quitting, although that would have been a mistake, since the novel does get better. It's just that it never becomes good. I understand the concept of inter-related stories forming a novel, but in this case, I suspect that Alvaraz was using this techniques as a shortcut. It seems that at the time that she wrote this book, she didn't have either the stamina or the skill to craft a true novel.
Technique aside, the story itself was lacking. I don't think Alvaraz understood what her story was. She touches on a lot of deep and fascinating subjects, and even has a few stories that showcase those subjects, but for the most part, she seems to miss her own point. The novel gets boring. One reason I suspected that she used the short stories as a shortcut is that the separate stories are supposed to be told from the point of view of the different sisters, but separate voices never emerge. There are differences that we are told about the sisters, but their own supposed voices never suggest those differences. (By contrast, think of the Poisonwood Bible, where each character has an unmistakable voice!) Also, since the characters are basically spoiled girly-girls, despite the contrast between them and their even more girly cousins, they're not that interesting in the first place.
Another complaint is that there are topics that glare in the book, but Alvaraz ignores. For example, the family is hurt and confused by the treatment they receive as Latinos in America, but it's clear that they've participated in thier own social crimes in the Dominican Republic, i.e. elitism and bigotry. It's hard to feel a lot of sympathy for them.
This just wasn't a very good book. I can't decide if it was really a waste of time, because as I said, Alvaraz touches on some fascinating subjects, i.e. the political situation in the Dominican Republic, of which I previously knew nothing, so this was somewhat enlightening. But another theme was feminism, and Alvaraz treated that in a most elementary way. There was no interesing discussion of what feminism really means to a modern Latina, or even what feminism is to anyone. She was very cliche.

This book will appeal to people of all ages. While some of the men in my book club didn't find the subject matter interesting, I think most women will enjoy the book. It tells stories of their childhood in the Carribbean, and then growing up to adulthood in the U.S. Readers of Amy Tan will enjoy this book, with similar themes but with a Hispanic touch.

Thoroughly enjoyable, I did not have to struggle through any part of the book. It is also an easy and quick read.

I first read one of the short stories in this book, "Daughter of Invention," in an anthology called GROWING UP LATINO. I found the short story so humorous, touching and sensitive I wanted to read the book that it originally came from.

What I admire about Julia Alvarez is her subtlety as a writer. I found myself chuckling to myself throughout the book, as well as learning more about her experience as a Dominicana told through the eyes of the four fictionalized daughters and the parents who raised them in a time of great political unrest. This was during the time of Trujillo, when their father got in trouble politically for attempting to overthrow his dictatorship. Hence, the reason for their exile to the Bronx, and the circular visits taken by the daughters returning from their schools in the U.S. back to the Dominican Republic.

What I admire about this story (or series of short stories) that discuss and illustrate the challenge of assimilation, racism and identity, is that Julia Alvarez's characters are identifiable with anyone who had has to immigrate and assimilate to a new set of social expectations and assume a bicultural/biracial identity. I think specifically of all the different Latinos from all corners who immigrated here, fleeing social and political unrest, and other groups of people of color who came to this country seeking a better life for themselves and their families.

I am also a great fan of Sandra Cisneros, the lively and biting Chicana writer based in Texas. I have to say that to compare Alvarez's work to Cisneros is impossible because the styles are so different. But, in all honesty, I found Alvarez less hard-edged and more accessible. I highly reccomend this novel as an introduction to a wonderful, vibrant and insightful Latina writer. I want to thank Julia Alvarez for sharing the experience of assimilation and adversity with us, her humble readers.

After meeting Ms. Alvarez at a writer's conference, I was intrigued by her charismatic stories and decided to start by reading "Garcia Girls." I found it to be an extremely well written, poetic novel wrought with poingnant symbolism, especially in the last sections. I found the reverse-chronology to be very creative and effective. The one thing that sometimes confused me and keeps me from giving this five stars is that the chapters seem like related short stories rather than one completely congruous novel. But, it works if you read carefully. I would highly recommend this book for its honest, relatable narrative and poetic quality.

Julia Alvarez's "How The Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents" is a wistful, charming and beautifully written novel of how the Garcia family defected from the Dominican Republic in the 60s to settle in the Land of the Free. Consisting of anecdotes whose central focus rotate among the four Garcia sisters, their story is told backwards. Unfortunately, the use of reverse chronology as a narrative technique produces an oddly unsettling effect, depriving the novel of its natural flow and feel. There are some truly memorable episodes in there which stick in your mind (eg, the adult Yolanda's yearning for the taste of the guava fruit on her return to "the Island", young Carla's encounter with the sex pervert in the car, and Papi's narrow escape from his political enemies, etc) but unexceptional fillers occupy almost as much space. I found the last third of the novel, especially the ending, disappointing. Alvarez was working with excellent material but somehow didn't fully succeed with her characterisation. I never felt I understood or cared for the characters. Her shorthanded treatment of the politics of the times in "the Island" was also an error of judgement. Lacking a profound undertow, the story of the Garcia sisters remained....a story. Alaverez's novel would have been that much stronger had she used a longhanded approach in explaining the political backdrop against which the family lived their lives. All in all, an enjoyable read, but not the best among its genre. I much preferred Christina Garcia's "Dreaming In Cuban".

and for the record I'm not a kid I'm doing an english minor in college and had to read this and it's one of the best. Yolanda is very likeable and her sisters and parents are also unique in their own way. It's a perfect blend of culture and identity and how hard it is to immigrate to a new country and experience a culture shock and having to choose between your roots and western culture.