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In the Time of the Butterflies

Julia Alvarez

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Caribbean

Recommendation
By Janice · 5 posts · 52 views

last updated Jan 26, 2018 01:55PM

Dominican Republic
By Chel · 4 posts · 41 views

last updated Dec 26, 2017 06:16AM

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Jun 11, 2013 Lisa (Harmonybites) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013-around-the-world, fiction, novels, literary-fiction

In her Postscript, Alvarez wrote that she wanted the book to "immerse my readers in an epoch in the life of the Dominican Republic." I think she succeeded magnificently. She tells the story of the Trujillo era, when the small island republic was under the heel of one of the more notorious dictators of Latin America. She tells it by giving us a fictionalized account of the Mirabel sisters, known as the "Mariposas" (butterflies) who are national heroes.

If you'd have described this book to me, I'd In her Postscript, Alvarez wrote that she wanted the book to "immerse my readers in an epoch in the life of the Dominican Republic." I think she succeeded magnificently. She tells the story of the Trujillo era, when the small island republic was under the heel of one of the more notorious dictators of Latin America. She tells it by giving us a fictionalized account of the Mirabel sisters, known as the "Mariposas" (butterflies) who are national heroes.

If you'd have described this book to me, I'd have thought this would not likely be a book I'd like, let alone love. A book centered on a cell of communist revolutionaries involved in bomb-making who name their children after Che Guevera? NO! And this has these little quirks of literary fiction that often seem so artificial to me: shifts in narrative from present to past tense, from first to third person, portions in diary format, jumps in time. And I'm suspicious of works of "creative non-fiction" that blur the distinction between fact and fiction. Well, to take these things in reverse order, this isn't creative non-fiction. As Alvarez wrote in her postscript, the Mirabel sisters of this story are her invention, her creation. This is a novel, not fictionalized non-fiction--that's apparent from the start and I think made the story all the more powerful--she's not afraid to entirely inhabit her characters. Second, she's a master storyteller who kept me riveted from beginning to end--and this despite that she opens the novel with the surviving sister being visited by someone researching the story of the Mirabel sisters--so we know they're doomed from the start. Which lends only poignancy--and strangely suspense--to what follows. I was never jarred by the shifts in time, tense, point-of-view and narrative technique--Alvarez is that good.

And yes, I did care about the sisters. I didn't care for the one novel by Isabel Allende I'd tried, a celebrated Latin American author--Allende's novel seemed such naked Marxist propaganda to me. I never felt that way about In the Time of the Butterflies. Alvarez's novel is not polemic. It's a very personal, intimate story of four sisters and she's great at making them all very different from each other. I never had a problem keeping Patria, Dede, Minerva, and Maria Teresa apart--they all had such different voices, dreams and motivations. It was easy to identify with them and understand their choices. And it probably helped that I felt at home with her characters. My mother is Puerto Rican--it's not so different in culture to the Dominican Republic, and there were little phrases and details throughout where I felt a little shock of recognition. Alvarez evoked her time and place so well I felt I had visited there. It's hard to think of a higher compliment to give a novelist. ...more

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Feb 28, 2019 GoBeIt rated it liked it · review of another edition

I wanted to love this book, especially because the story is so incredible, but my opinion of it suffered because of how hard it is to discern what is fact and what is fiction. I think I would have been satisfied with an extensive bibliography, but without it I’m left wondering about so many things. On one hand, that’s great because it has inspired me to research, but some questions are unanswerable, like how the surviving family members feel about how they all are portrayed in the novel. 3.5 sta ...more

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Jul 03, 2024 Julia rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Great topic, could have been a fascinating read. Unfortunately, the delivery was so full of dull clichés, I had to abandon the book about two thirds in.
I had started dreading picking it up as none of the many characters came to life or made me emphasise.
Lots of telling instead of showing. Weird portrayal of relationships and sex, felt more like a YA-romance with some historical background thrown in. Loads of detail which adds neither to the plot nor the atmosphere, just makes the story drag on f ...more

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Nov 15, 2013 Natasha rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

A story of four Mirabal sisters, three of whom rebel against the dictator Trujillo's regime, only to meet the same fate as other rebels that dared to cross Trujillo's path. Each has her own reasons and each finds strength in sources different than the other. It was interesting to find that women, married women with children, also dare to join revolutions without fear. Although deep within they are as ordinary as any other woman worrying about her kids and husband. ...more

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