The Read Around The World Book Club discussion
Feb 2018 - Dominican Republic
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Part 1 (Chapter 1 to 4)
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Melanie
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Jan 29, 2018 12:29AM
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I got my copy last night! Has anyone started reading yet? I’ll be starting tonight.
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This is a re-read for me, but looking forward to reading it again and hearing what others think.
I checked out my library copy this evening. It's the Dutch translation. I hope that will work. That In memoriam on the first page is foreboding!
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I am really enjoying it so far! There is a depth of character that I’m drawn to, and a humor that lightens the intense mood of the topic.
Loving this, so well written, love the mix of humour in there too to break up the tough topics, feel like I have learned loads already 😀
I'm going to read/audio-read it in Spanish. I have already started with the audio and I am fully hooked, too!
I will admit to struggling with the first few perspectives but when the narrative got to Patria things smoothed out for me completely. I have no idea why, her voice just hooked me.
I really am enjoying this book. I love a coming of age story. Of course I am wondering what happened to the sisters. I wonder if there will be any overlap with The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, also based some in the DR? How can you tell a story and not speak of Trujillo? Interesting that in The Golden Age both children are inspired by the revolution and involve their Mom and in this book one of the sisters also gets intrigued and it permeates through the family.
Having finished the first chapter I liked especially how the culture of remembrance is presented with all its problems/questions/delicacies that the surviving people are faced with some decades after the dreadful events. I also like how the narration makes it clear in a subtle way that below this apparently humorous and "everyday life" surface there is this abyss Dedé is still trapped in due to what happened in the past.
Just finished Chapter 3 and I love this book already. I like the way each sister gets her own voice and tells her story from a different perspective. Dede, as an older woman, is looking back and concentrates on an evening which took place almost fifty years earlier. For her that's the evening "the future began". Minerva's account is that of an outspoken girl growing into a young women with firm opinions. Maria Theresa's diary is clearly written by a child who has to act as an grown up very quickly. What was at first innocent babbling about shoes, clothes and boys changes into a narrative about death, arrests and danger. Patria's story is the chapter that I will read this evening. I believe when she tells it she is already a married woman and a mother. Should be interesting. The author is a great storyteller. She uses al kinds of methods to keep the reader interested. Poetic language, humour, dialogues... She sets the scene perfectly.
I'm enjoying this so far. I agree that Patria's chapter is what hooked me in. I didn't care for Maria Teresa's chapter, but that's just because I am personally not a fan of child narrators. I did like how her voice matured throughout her chapter.
Just finished reading this first section, and I enjoyed it. The different voices of the sisters are interesting. As some other commentators, I didn't care that much for the diary-sections, not a big of these kind of 'tricks' to get a child's perspective across.
I finally started today with the audio book. It is nice that they chose different narrators for each main character. So far I like it, but don't love it, which right now is mainly because I just finished Patria's section and I am kind of weary when women are only defined by their role as mother and wife. Since she was disillusioned at the end this might change, I sure hope so.
