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The Read Around The World Book Club discussion
Feb 2018 - Dominican Republic
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Melanie
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Jan 29, 2018 12:30AM
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I did enjoy this books in place but I feel this section of the book dragged a little bit, I ended up giving it 3 stars but more like 3.5 my main issue was after reading up on the sister online there seemed to be a lot glossed over or missed out that to me was important to the story...what do you guys think?
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Finished the book today. I really enjoyed the writing and found the story very easy to read.
I agree with the other comments that this was a light read which was surprising based on the subject matter. It does make you want to read more about these brave and interesting women which I plan to do.
Overall it was a good book and I enjoyed it but I think it missed an opportunity to be so much more.
I finished the novel yesterday and I agree with most of you that it is written beautifully. It reads like a train and the author uses her imaginaton to the fullest to bring "The Butterflies" alive again. She turns them into real but fictional people. Julia Alvarez weaves a story about love, friendship and togetherness and at te same time gives us some insight in the Dominican Republic and what happened there during Trujillo's dictatorship. And then there are those interesting questions. Should a novel that touches on such a dreadful chapter in the history of the world be a light read? Is it disrespectful to the people who lived through that period to turn them into fictional characters? Is it a problem the reader misses out on all the facts?
Since I have no conclusive answers to offer I I'm sticking to jotting down some ideas.
It all depends on what you are aiming for as an author. I believe Julia Alvarez stated somewhere that her main goal was to try to understand why the sisters showed so much courage and did what they did. I think she does that very well by giving each sister her own character, perspective and livestory. By letting them search for love, worry about their babies, buying expensive handbags ...the author describes women of flesh-and-blood showing people aren't born as heroes but become them due to circumstances and by making choices. That makes us all responsible for the way we choose to act. In my book an important message that should reach as many people as possible (trough an easy read?)
In telling the story the way she does, she kind of reminds me of my grandfather talking about World War Two. He used to turn what happened into one big adventure. No mean feat, if you know my grandmother was of Jewish descent and she, my mother and her family were in real danger. Some of them didn't survive! Still underlying these 'stories', you could feel the seriousness, the pain, the sorrow and the warning. I sort of get the same vibe from this novel. BTW while I'm typing this I'm listening to an old reggae song playing on the radio: happy music that urges you to dance while singing about hunger, misery and slavery. Is that disrespectful? I don't know. Still sitting on the fence. I will up my rating from three to fours stars though. The more I think about this novel, the more I like it.
Vera's comments express what I was thinking. They were real, ordinary women living in extraordinary times. I don't think their story would have been so touching and beautiful if it had been too severely dramatic.
I've finished reading yesterday and I'm not quite as positive as the rest. I liked it ok & I'm glad I read it, mainly because I thought the topic was very interesting. But as a novel the book didn't quite convince me. I especially thought that the structure was 'forced' and felt unnatural (for instance: what did we need the jounalist for? And if we needed her, where did she go?). And I had the same with the diaries (as a child and then in prison, no less...). It all felt as if I could constantly see the author doing structural 'tricks' to help her get the various voices across.
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I had similar feelings
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yeah, it is an odd one
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I really enjoyed the writing and found the story very easy to read.
I agree with the other comments that this was a light read which was surprising based on the subject ma..."
Definitely a missed opportunity.
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So glad you liked it Vera
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Yeah, I found it a bit odd. And the longer I think about it, the less I like it.
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Yes, that's what I take from it too: I learned something I had no idea about.
I agree with Vera. I enjoyed the story and after reading the author’s thoughts at the end of the book I think she was successful in her goal. It isn’t non-fiction. Without this book I would have never even known about the Mirabal Sisters. Personally I liked this book even more than The Brief Life of Oscar Wao (what do others think of the contrast?)To say that there wasn’t some problems with the story of course wouldn’t be true. I’m not sure I believe in perfection anyways and maybe I just don’t have a critical eye. However, I “enjoyed” reading this book if you can put it that way, learning about this amazing family and wanting to know the ending even when I knew it wasn’t going to be happy.
I’m very glad this book was chosen for this month.
I finished this book a few days ago and have been thinking about it ever since. Like others, I am happy to have been introduced to this family's story of incredible courage, and I would very much like to find a nonfiction account of the lives of the Mirabel sisters. That being said, I am struggling with the fact that I did not really enjoy this book very much. I think the issue is that it seems to diminish the enormity of the lives and sacrifices of these women to create a fictionalized account of their lives. I am a little reluctant to say this, but it almost seems presumptuous on the part of the author to create entire personalities for these women which may not be an accurate reflection of who they really were. This has actually been a problem for me with other authors who have taken this approach.
It may be for this reason that I enjoyed the Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. It explored many of the same themes, but I found it much more compelling.
I'm certainly not unhappy to have read In the Time of the Butterflies. It not only brought the story of the Mirabel sisters to my attention but helped clarify my reading taste.
I seem to be a minority. I appreciated her approach. She made a difficult topic accessible. I suppose she could have shared more gruesome details, or she could have taken a darker tone. One of the reasons I enjoyed the novel, in addition to her beautiful writing that left me with a unique feeling, is that I could combine the love of reading with learning that didn’t slap me in the face. This is a historical fiction, not nonfiction. I loved it and will definitely read more of her work!
Candace wrote: "I agree with Vera. I enjoyed the story and after reading the author’s thoughts at the end of the book I think she was successful in her goal. It isn’t non-fiction. Without this book I would have ne..."I agree. I just read your comment after writing mine, and I think there may be some misunderstanding that it is a historical fiction not a nonfiction. I feel like if we deem this a light book then that labels all historical fiction as light, which in a way I suppose it is, it makes topics like the atrocities of WWII accessible.
I just finished the audio book and overall I enjoyed listening to it. It wasn't without issues though. The last third or so felt frivolous to me, especially in light of how serious the situation was.
This thread has cheered me up! I did enjoy reading it but felt I was missing something throughout. I didn’t find it overly compelling but it did make me go and read more about the sisters. I also felt it was a slow read in places.It introduced me to an episode of history that I knew nothing about. I agree with Margaret’s sentiment that it diminished the reality somewhat.
I liked the book and appreciated the author’s tone. It reminded me a bit of Corrie ten Boom’s The Hiding Place, which is also about a difficult subject (ten Boom and her sister were imprisoned in a concentration camp because they hid Jews during WW2), but tended to focus more on the passion of the mission and to carry a hopefulness, than to get deep into the darker experiences that the sisters surely had. I found the account of their time in prison particularly harrowing, especially the last diary entry which had been censored. However, I think if the author has delved further into the torture and other hardships of being imprisoned, it would have made me, the reader, develop a hopelessness FOR the sisters; instead, I found myself admiring their tenacity and mentally rooting for their success.
I will admit to having a heavy feeling in the pit of my stomach as the three “butterflies” faced their trip down the mountain. I can’t imagine their thoughts as they realized they weren’t safe after all. And I think Dede finally found her own courage and passion after her sisters’ death, which was kind of inspirational to me, because I’d have had such an immense case of survivor’s guilt that I’d have just gone to bed for 40 years.
