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Summary: The book with it's own mind
Review: This book is awesome, it starts out as they are in the future, and ends when they are young. This book is full of exciting events, and different problems. Its about a family and four girls. These girls have all their own problems, and a lto of problems with guys, and gifts. The book is all about how the girls lot theri accents, and trust me you can;t put the book down. They also get caught with frugs, put on the spot with sex, and even go to dance shows. Read this book and you will love the layout, and all the interesting facts abotu these girls. They all learn from their experioences in their own way. So I rat e this a 4 star, b/c to me it's a fun book to read, and I would say anyone from middleschool and up could read this, so go out and read this book today its a good one.
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Summary: I dunno about this book
Review: Well.... I read this book as a indidviual choose in my Honors English class.... I was really disappointed in how the book ended. I think that the most irritating thing was that I hated was just ending with a pointless story that didnt even end the book. I guess I was looking for more closure to this book that was so strongly opioniated towards the american race and religion. At the beginning of the book; the stories were really grabbing my attention. Then as the story progressed, the stories went back to when they were younger and confused me on what the story was actually striving for.
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Summary: I have read Esmeralda, Isabel & Cristina. Julia is my voice.
Review: 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...
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Summary: wonderful, and delightful piece of work
Review: the novel was set up in a backtrack type of way. the way ms. alvarez set up the book was wonderful and deserves all the praises.
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Summary: An entertaining series of vignettes, ala "feminist Latina"
Review: 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.
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Summary: An excellent portrayal of a Dominican family in the Bronx
Review: A Carribbean family makes an exodus from the Dominican Republic to the Bronx. Dr. Carlos participated in a coup that failed and now the family is in exile. His four daughters are torn between the culture if the island and their parents pressure to maintain the moors of their homeland, on one hand, and the desire to fit in as teenage Americans. This book is likely to be censored due to explicit sexual content, but a mature audience will glean much from reading it. Readers will experience every human emotion while their hearts are captured by this book. The story is told from many perspectives and the reader sees the girls as adults first. This raises many questions in the reader's mind that are answered as Alvarez takes us backwards through time to reveal each girl's experience.
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Summary: A truly enjoyable book - fun!
Review: 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.
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Summary: definately mixed feelings on this one
Review: Although the writing was excellant, I had some problems with this one. First of all, I didn't like starting in the present and moving backward in time. Also the stories themselves seemed rather disconnected and contrived at times. It seemed to me to be more of a collection of connected short stories rather than a novel. Overall I guess it worked but not as well as it might have. Much of the writing was first rate and many of the stories were excellant. I guess it all depends on what the reader prefers.
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Summary: Merging into a different culture
Review: This book presents the experiences of four hispanic sisters as they try to adapt to life in the United States. They soon realize much of what they knew and believed is no longer existent. Since the book is divided in several small stories that go from present time to the past, it does not really provide a clear picture of the different characters. The message is nonetheless conveyed, as one can integrate and recognize the experiences of the sisters as those of the hispanic collective in the States.
Rating:
Summary: A great story
Review: Good jo
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