Customer Reviews

In the Name of Salome

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

In recent years, literary authors and publishing houses have published dozens of fictionalized accounts of historical figures, with Joyce Carol Oates' BLONDE (Marilyn Monroe) and Russell Banks' CLOUDSPLITTER (John Brown) being prime examples of this genre. Because I'm tiring of such fiction, I never would have bought IN THE NAME OF SALOME if I had known Alvarez had joined this literary trend - and I would have missed out on a fabulous book as a result. Yes, this may not be Alvarez's best work, but the literary standards and emotional impact are still higher than most novels published today. This deeply imaginative portrait of the Dominican poet Salome Urena and her daughter Camila captures the people behind the revolutions in the Dominican Republic and Cuba without idealizing them, without relegating them to mouths spouting political dogma. As Salome says to her young husband when he chides her for writing a non-revolutionary poem, "I am a woman as well as a poet." This is exactly what Alvarez accomplishes: an adept melding of the public and private sides of her characters to give her book real heart.

This novel spans over a hundred years, from the 1850's (the beginning of Salome's story) to the 1970's (the end of Camila's story.) Because the two stories are interspersed and are not told chronologically, the time and place can sometimes be confusing despite the chapter headings meant to give the reader his bearings. Don't let this frustrate you; the story is well worth this flaw. My advice is just to give yourself up to Alvarez's skill and let her take you where she wants.

I think most of Alvarez's fans will not be disappointed, and I believe she will gain a few more with this novel, perhaps enticing these newcomers to read her earlier work.

No sabía que Julia Alvarez había escrito este libro hasta que me encontré con él en la Feria de Libro que recién finalizó aquí en la República Dominicana. Pensé en un inicio que sería una biografía más, sólo con "nació, fue poeta nacional y murió", sin embargo, al leer el resumen del libro y al pasar unas paginas me percaté que no era así, debo admitir que me impresionaron las primeras 5 líneas del 1er. capítulo.

Compré el libro sin saber que los cápítulos interactuaban uno con el otro de manera tal que logran que el mismo sea todavía más fascinante. Me encantó leer la vida de Salomé Ureña según iba creciendo y luego ver la vida de Camila, su hija, desde su vejez hasta su niñez. Fue sencillamente EXITANTE!!!! no podía dejar de leer, terminaba un capítulo y no podía esperar para empezar el otro.

Me sorprendieron muchos detalles de la vida de Salomé que desconocía aún siendo dominicana, pero más grato fue conocer la vida de Camila de la cual no sabía nada. (Aún cuando sé que hay aspectos de la vida de ambas que son producto de la imaginación de la autora).

Ahora bien, recomiendo que antes de leer "En el nombre de Salomé" adquieran los poemas de Salomé Ureña, para así leer cada uno de ellos según son mencionados en el libro y así entender mucho más esta magnífica obra y la grandiosa vida de esta poeta.

In the Name of Salome: A Novel is a good book, and by other author's standards could even be considered excellent, but I do not think it is as inspiring as Alvarez usually is. It is interesting to learn about a famous poet from the D.R., but I could not connect with the characters and they lacked the approachability that "les Mariposas" had in In the Time of the Butterflies. The plot is a little sketchy, and it jumps in time periods so it is hard to figure out what is going on all of the time. However, it captures the feeling of the woman who has lost her mother at such a young age and has had to live with the her oppressive legend for her whole life. I would recommend it, but it is not one of Alvarez's better endeavors, and for the first time reader of her, I would suggest they choose another book.

I judge a good book by whether, and to what extent, I think about the book after I've finished reading. Needless to say, nearly two weeks after finishing this book, its passages and characters have stayed with me. Alvarez's writing is simply beautiful, much more like poetry than prose. The "historical" background on political strife in the Dominican Republic was insightful, and I found the characters to be quite complex and interesting. This is the first book I've read by Julia Alvarez, and now I'm eager to delve into her other works.

This is an historical novel about two people - a mother and daughter. The mother was Salomé Ureña, the poet laureate of the Dominican Republic. She wrote patriotic poems that inspired her country to rebel against Spain and she founded a school for girls at a time when girls were encouraged not to learn to read or write. She married Francisco Henríquez y Carvajal, with whom she had three sons and a daughter Camila, who was born three years before Salomé died of tuberculous in 1897. Camila was raised by her father and her stepmother Natividad Lauranzón. She became a professor of Spanish at Vassar University, from which she retired in 1960 - and went to Cuba to join Fidel Castro's revolution. She left Cuba at her youngest half-brother's insistence and died in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, on September 12, 1973, being buried beside her parents. It was a very interesting book about revolution, the causes, and the idealism - as well as the disappointments and heartbreak of the idealists when they realize reality conflicts with idealism.

I liked this book very much, it transported me to a time in my country that i didn't know anything. Julia made a great job showing me how was Salome's life not as a poet, as a woman...

This book is wonderful...wow. I was immediately drawn to it since i knew that Julia Alvarez wrote it but once i started reading i fell in a trance. I sat and read it from finish to end without stopping. The way Julia picked each word and made it rhyme with the flow of the story was simply beautiful. I loved this book so much that it is my favorite book. I have read it at least 5 times both in English and Spanish and each time I am deeply moved with it.

The book is about two women, mother and daughter. Each chapter changes from the mothers perspective when she was alive and the daughters perspective now that she is trying to bring out the bits of her mom that are in her.

The whole book is simply remarkable! What can be more beautiful than a daughter struggling to be the Woman her mother was.

A truly amazing book, one of the best I've read in a long time. The way the past and present are combined so perfectly makes for a great story I couldn't put down.
Buy it. It's worth it.

I have read almost all of Julia Alvarez's works and found this one to be best!! I think she is brilliant in interweaving fiction and history. In Salome, she not only weaves fiction and history, but she also transcends time by moving back and forth between Salome's life and Camila's. Through this work of fiction you can truly appreciate one country's fight for independence.

Let me start by saying that I love Ms. Alvarez's work. I read all of her books as soon as they were published. This was an interesting book, but it was not up to par with her other books, my favorite being In the Time of the Butterflies. If you are new to this author, read any of her other works first. If you are a long time fan, do not expect too much, and you will enjoy it.