How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents

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Summary: A great read for a person trying a new sort of literature!
Review: This book was an inquisitive look on moving from one culture to another. This shows an interesting look at American culture as a new, undiscovered place. While moving backward in time, it shows that people can adjust to a new culture. While doing this, the book shows that even as children, people can learn to adjust to great change in their lifestyles. I suggest this book to people who are trying any sort of new literature!

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Summary: A Remarkable story of Culture and Values
Review: The book How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents was a very remarkable story. It was a story about four girls and their struggles when they went from their homeland to America. This book symbolizes the tragedy and heartwarming stories people go through when they switch their country and heritage. The four girls change dramatically in this story. They rebel against everything that society has taught them, and that there parents had taught them, they started to embrace America and everything it has to offer. Julia Alvarex shows each of the pro's and con's of America and the Dominican Republic. Julia Alvarez also shows the gender roles and how they are important in the book, also the gender roles change when they were in one country to the next. Julia Alvarex wrote this book to reflect her own expierences. She shows how being "Americanized" can be both good and bad. This is a great book and helps people understand the culture that exists between 2 different countries.:-)

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Summary: It was a pretty good book.
Review: I thought the book was pretty good. The reason it is not great is that the author starts from the beginning and works her way backwards, which makes it a little confusing. The reason it was good was main characters Carla, Sandi, Yolanda, and Fifi were very believable in the way they act in the book. I thought the pertrail of the girls from the Dominacan Republic to New York city was well thought out by the author.

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Summary: Easy-to-read, but not as good as "Butterflies"
Review: After happening upon "In the Time of the Butterflies", I was delighted to find another Latin author who could mesmerize me as Gabriel Garcia Marquez had continued to do over the past 25 years. But after finally pulling this book off my shelf, I soon learned it could not hold a candle to "Butterflies" in its character development and story thread. I found the characters all blurred together and failed to distinguish themselves from one another and although the backward development of the story was unique, it was a bit confusing if I put the book down with more than a few days in between. All-in-all, I enjoyed this book, but encourage readers to continue on with "Butterflies" for a real treat.

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Summary: It is a great story of immigrants liveing in America.
Review: How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents by Julia Alvaraz If books that reflect on human life and reality seem to lure you, grab this book and relive the life of a family of immigrants as they barely sneak past the guards that were running the island they came from in How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents. This book takes you back from when one of the daughters visits the island, through adjusting to their new life, new language, and new customs, all the way back to their last days on the island. Sandi is institutionalized and falls in love with her doctor, Yolanda turns into a poet and a teacher, and almost gets her father killed back on the island, Carla was almost sexually molested and became a psychiatrist, and Fifi runs away to marry Otto, a German scientist, and tries to repair her relationship with her father. To experience the life of immigrants trying to make it in America, look in the bookstores for How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents by Julia Alvaraz

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Summary: A heart warming family novel.
Review: The novel "How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents," by Julia Alvarez is a truely remarkable story. The novel contains the life stories of four sisters (Carla, Yolanda, Sandra, and Sofia) and their parents struggle with their Hispanic heritage in the United States. There is plenty of tragedy, heart warming, and humorous stories that involve the sisters and their parents. This novel is a lot like the novel "Joy Luck Club," by Amy Tan. But, unlike the Joy Luck Club, Alvarez's novel is much easier to follow. So to conclude my review I totally enjoyed reading this book and I would definitely recommend other people to read this truely enjoyable novel.

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Summary: great job!
Review: I've enjoyed this novel as far as I can; J.Alvarez is simply great on her narrative, the story of a migration for political reasons, the realistic family matters, the magic on her own voice, and the "unique" way that she have to involve every single reader are some of the reasons to read it. She make the voice of so many people that migrate for non-economical reasons, their families,relations , new friends, and the past of a wealthy life. "Enriquece la nueva literatura hispano-americana"

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Summary: De otra manera
Review: Resulta grandioso ver como J. Alvarez logra adentrarnos en lo magico que guarda cada nucleo familiar, en sus verdaderas historias, en las que todos y todas nos reflejamos de alguna manera; es poderosa la fuerza de sus palabras y el sentimiento compartido de educacion en dos culturas. definitivamente sienta un precedente como parte de la nueva literatura hispano-americana.

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Summary: Fun-loving and moving;the author brings word to life
Review: Julia Alverez created a moving, truthful and spiritful tale of love, growing up and the experiences brought with it. Once I started the book, I could not put it back down. I highly recommend it. It not only pulled you into it's pages but got you laughing and crying along with it's characters. Two thumbs way up!

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Summary: Novel producing negative cultural stigma on Latinos.
Review: Since this book is categorized as a multicultural novel, it is included on required reading lists for high school children in numerous school systems, including Philadelphia. Although this novel won critical acclaim, the book is brimming with graphic, profane language describing illicit sexual encounters, drug use, child molestation, and many negative social promiscuity's. The plot is weak and only seems to thread through the smut. A poor example of exemplar prose. Alvarez describes situations in the Latino community that place a negative cultural stigma on Latinos. Totally undermining to parental influence, it is a far cry from the excellence of "Joy Luck Club," and "Angela's Ashes." School Districts need to reevaluate required selections with an eye toward classic literature.