How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents

Rating:
Summary: delightful
Review: I think that this is a very well written book. The descriptions of the four Garcia girls is so intricate that I could picture each girl vividly. The story is written differently than other books I've read in that it doesn't go from their childhood to adulthood, but vice versa. This just added to my interest in the story. It was somewhat difficult to keep each of the girls straight at times. Each chapter is like a short story, and I confused some details after awhile. I think if I had a more thorough understanding of the Dominican Republic history, I may have understood things on a different level. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and would definately recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Very entertaining
Review: I was very impressed with this book. It is about the 4 de la Torre girls who talk about their experiences with their family and the United States. The gilrs were sent to the United States for school and there they had to deal with prejudice and trying to live in in both the US culture and their home culture. The girls would spendd the school year in the States and the summer back home on the island with their cousins. Instead of starting from when the girls were younger, it starts out in the present and works it's way backward in time. At first this type of format seemed odd to me, but you read about what they are doing as adults and find out later why they turned out the way they did. During the entire book, I was engrossed in the story because Alvarez does a very excellent job of describing the family. I really enjoyed this book.

Rating:
Summary: It's worth your time
Review: I read, "How the Garcia Girls lost their accents" for my " Women of Latin America" class. This book was very interesting. This book is nothing like anything that I have read before, but I was still able to gain something from reading it. This is a wonderful story of how the Garcia de la Torre girls acclimate themselves to a new way of life when they are abruptly uprooted from their home. The United States and its culture are difficult for the girls to understand. The book takes us in to their lives and tells of the trials and tribulations of starting over. The best thing about this book is how the author is able to write the girls so accurately. I have two sisters, and I felt as if the things that the Garcia girls did were things that I can remember, or picture my sisters and I doing. The book is very easy reading and it is worth your time.

Rating:
Summary: I was dissapointed
Review: I devoted myself to this book, beginning to end. However, when it came to the end, i said "that's it?" I expected much more from the book. I think that Alvarez is a talented writer, for she did a great job with illustrating each one of the stories. I was on the edge of my seat just waiting for the climax. I feel, however, that there was no climax. Each story had it's rising moments, but there was no climax. You're left wondering what happened and by the end you feel as if you went nowhere. It was a little hard to follow who the speaker was throughout the novel yet it kept me attatched. I just feel that there should have been more resolvement or more understanding of what happened with the Garcia family. Or, at least, each character's stories should have tied together somehow.

Rating:
Summary: Abstract, but personal and relative
Review: I thought that "How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents" was a great story. The depth of each character made me empathise with them. However, the way the book was written was distracting at times. It starts in recent times and then as the book progresses, the time for the Garcias degresses. This was very interesting, but confusing at first. I thought that the cultural detail was also very interesting. I have never taken Spanish and was still able to understand the whole book and relate to girls in the book. I would definatly recommed this to anyone who is able to think abstractly about time.

Rating:
Summary: Good, but not great.
Review: I agree with many of the reviewers here: Alvarez's writing style is talented and beautiful. My only problem with the book is that it feels more like a collection of short stories. The chapters are sometimes disjointed and unresolved in a way that feels not artistic, but incomplete. Yolanda, the sister we get to know the most, returns to her homeland at the beginning of the novel, yearning to remain there the rest of her life. But what changed her mind after being in the U.S. so long is unclear. We are shown that she is too strong of a woman to run away from her romance troubles, so I never understood exactly what the draw back home was. The author's tendency to jump narrators from chapter to chapter was fresh and illuminated different perspectives; but at the same time, it led to no one character being fully explored. This book was a solid read from start to finish, and Alvarez did a marvelous job painting the setting. It's a sensual experience - by that I mean I could see, hear, feel and taste the Caribbean-ness of it. Just don't expect any new revelations on this theme.

Rating:
Summary: Dominican Sisters in America growing up
Review: I really enjoyed this book. I could not put it down and was able to finish it in a week. I love the way Julia Alvarez had each chapter move backwards in time. The time factor gave a twist to the tale. You know how the sisters came out in the future but you were wondering how they had gotten there. I had to keep reading to see what happened to them in there lives to put them where they ended up.
This book is set primarily in after 1960 when the Garcia family immigrated to New York City. It is about how four sisters dealt with the life of growing up in America after a childhood in the Dominican Republic. You get to know each of the sisters throughout the novel and understand their problems understanding the American culture. The main characters of the book are of course each sister and the book goes into how each is different today as they where during childhood. It is a very enjoyable book and one that I was able to read a a very quick pace

Rating:
Summary: I love, love, love this book
Review: I love this book so much. It is about four sisters who move to New York City with their family from the Dominican Republic in 1961, and the story moves backwards in time, each chapter in the point of view of a different sister. Julia Alvarez is an excellent writer, injecting emotion, humour and excitement in every page. I also recommend the sequel, "Yo", which is also a very good book.

Rating:
Summary: Required reading for writers
Review: Anyone aspiring to be a writer should read this book. I read it as a requirement for a creative writing class and was pleasantly surprised by how much I really enjoyed it. Alvarez has a unigue style that is simple, yet subtle and powerful, obvious and opaque. Definitely a good read and a good source for literary techniques.

Rating:
Summary: Misrepresented
Review: Perhaps this is a story of sisterhood or identifiable more to a female reader, but in no way can these be represented as indicative of the experiences shared by Hispanic immigrants to the United States and specifically those from the Dominican Republic. Coming from a Dominican family that made this transition at approximately the same time (c. 1960) I was intrigued by this book but found it hollow; barely scratching the surface of the fears facing displaced children and extremely shallow in regards to the conflict Latin women faced (and still face) within the context of their own society let alone adjusting to a new one. Moreover, portraying the privileged Garcia family, albeit victim of sinister political intrigue, as representative of Dominican immigrants is insulting to the majority of hard working peasants that came here simply to be able to provide food and educations for their children. Certainly, the author's intentions are noble, but the results are thin and off the mark.