<![CDATA[Saving the World]]>

false <![CDATA[Saving the World]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172276275m/159084.jpg 159084 7 Julia Alvarez is the author of five works of fiction, among them In the Time of the Butterflies and How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, books for children, essays, and poetry. Saving the World is an unfocused attempt to make a statement about the haves and the have-nots and the people who try to improve the lot of those who have never had a real chance in life: those people who try to save the world. Unfortunately, it does not bridge the chasm between authentic high-mindedness and sentimental twaddle. There are two stories intertwined in the novel: one of Alma, a self-centered depressive author and the other of Isabel, a no-centered Spanish rectoress who, in 1803, with her 23 orphan boys, joins Dr. Balmis on a ship bound for the new world destined to save the world from smallpox. The boys are to be carriers; each of them vaccinated with cowpox and then, when the vesicles fill with fluid, it will be harvested to vaccinate others. This part is, basically, a true story. Alma has a contract to write a book, gets stuck, and becomes enamored of Isabel's story instead. She starts to write, and her husband, Richard, is called away on a project to the Dominican Republic, Alma's native country, to establish a "green" zone. Another world-saving project in theory, it turns out not to be as advertised. Alma sends him off alone, telling him that she is going to work on the book--some book, anyway--and then wool-gathers about why. Isabel constantly asks herself if she has done the right thing by exposing the boys to the rigors of sea travel, the dangers of ailments other than smallpox, and will she ever have a husband and babies of her own? These two women are portrayed as having remarkably little self-knowledge, despite their concentration on taking their own emotional temperature hourly. A red-herring sub-plot is that Alma's close neighbor and "good friend," whom she seldom sees until she finds out she's dying, has a crazy son who has a crazy wife. They come to visit as Richard is leaving. Their threats to Alma and to the world at large are described by the two loonies as "ethical terrorism." This nonsense gains Alma's sympathy and she ends up protecting and defending them, spouting poetic aphorisms as reasons. The other loose cannon in the tale is Tera, Alma's one-dimensional firebrand friend who is saving the world from everything you can mention, according to her own lights. She is tedious in her extremism, and especially annoying to Alma when Alma needs attention, which is all the time. All manner of dreadful things take place in this truly messy book. Alma and Isabel cry a lot, everyone gets to act out and then we go around again. Unfortunately, this story trivializes the world-saving work of the Spanish Royal Philanthropic Expedition, which was an around-the-world voyage of the smallpox vaccine and really did prevent outbreaks in the New World. Now that is a fascinating story. --Valerie Ryan 3140688 2006 Saving the World total:901|5:2|4:5|3:5|2:2|1:1| 901 2961 1280 210 1 1 true false Sun Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu Jul 12 06:22:49 -0700 2007 Thu Aug 02 07:04:43 -0700 2007
Previously I had said:
I've only just begun this book, so it's hard to say how good it will end up being.

T...more...]]> 4 1 false false Fri Nov 02 13:20:07 -0700 2007 Thu Aug 23 12:13:38 -0700 2007 Fri Sep 21 12:08:02 -0700 2007 more...]]> 2 1 false false Sat Oct 13 16:42:30 -0700 2007 Sat Sep 15 09:56:15 -0700 2007 Sat Sep 15 09:56:15 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Jan 05 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 05 08:25:13 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 05 08:41:27 -0800 2009 more...]]> 2 0 false false Fri Jul 10 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 14 20:47:17 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 14 20:57:40 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 1 false false Mon May 25 11:46:36 -0700 2009 Mon May 25 12:17:46 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Jan 03 20:59:11 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 03 21:07:27 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 2 false false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Aug 20 08:18:55 -0700 2007 Tue Aug 21 07:42:50 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 1 false false Wed Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Apr 25 22:59:49 -0700 2009 Sat May 02 11:12:09 -0700 2009 Smallpox-AIDS
Alma (woman touched by idealistic man in today's world)-Isabel (woman touched by idealistic man in yesterday's world)
Richard (idealistic man today)-Francisco Balmis (idealistic man yesterday)

Bas...more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun Sep 06 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Aug 23 13:43:08 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 07 01:13:27 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Mar 12 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Mar 03 11:15:47 -0800 2009 Thu Mar 12 18:03:15 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 07 12:16:05 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 07 12:23:33 -0700 2009 This beautifully written novel weaves together the stories of two women. One is a present-day novelist (Alma) grappling with writer's block and life changes, while the other women (Isabel) left her life as a nun in an orphanage in the early 1800s to voyage around the wor...more...]]> 0 0 false false Thu Feb 05 09:47:12 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 05 09:47:12 -0800 2009 A warm, if not quite glowing, reception greets Julia Alvarez's fifth novel. Moving away from her accomplished family sagas like In the Time of the Butterflies and How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, Alvarez takes up the humanitarian mantle to explore the enduring chasm between the first and thi...

more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Jul 23 15:07:31 -0700 2009 Sat Aug 22 11:54:37 -0700 2009
Very interesting!...more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri Jul 10 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 31 13:55:24 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 31 14:16:16 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 01 04:09:45 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 01 04:12:55 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Jul 27 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 27 12:52:18 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 27 12:57:57 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri Mar 21 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Mar 21 14:06:04 -0700 2008 Fri Mar 21 14:24:54 -0700 2008 more...]]> 1 0 false false Wed Mar 19 13:41:28 -0700 2008 Fri Mar 28 06:13:02 -0700 2008
Alma's story, the best told of the two tales might h...more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Fri Jun 22 06:21:33 -0700 2007 Fri Jun 29 10:51:56 -0700 2007 In the Time of Butterflies which takes place in the Dominican Republic. After having been to that country twice, I was very interested in reading something by a Dominican author. Saving th...more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=159084