How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents
Julia Alvarez, Author Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill $18.95 (308p) ISBN 978-0-945575-57-3
The chronicle of a family in exile that is forced to find a new identity in a new land, these 15 short tales, grouped into three sections, form a rich, novel-like mosaic. Alvarez, whose first fiction this is, has an ear for the dialogue of non-natives, and the strong flavors of Dominican syntax and cultural values permeate these pages. Many parallels may be drawn between these stories and Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club. Central to both are young, first generation American females in rebellion against their immigrant elders, and in both books the stories pile up with layers of multiple points of view and overlapping experiences, building to a sense of family myths in the making. The four Garcia daughters, whom we meet as adults but then re-encounter as children as the narrative flows backward in time, are accustomed to a prestigious perch in Spanish Caribbean society. But political upheavals force Papi and Mami to seek refuge in a more modest way of life in the Bronx, and their little girls become transplants who thrive and desire a far bigger embrace of this new world than the elder Garcias can contemplate or accept. This is an account of parallel odysseys, as each of the four daughters adapts in her own way, and a large part of Alvarez's Gar cia's accomplishment is the complexity with which these vivid characters are rendered. (May)
Details
Reviewed on: 01/01/1991
Release date: 01/01/1991
Genre: Fiction
Hardcover - 290 pages - 9780945575573
Prebound-Other - 290 pages - 9780613032117
Paperback - 311 pages - 9781565129757
Prebound-Sewn - 311 pages - 9781606868386
Prebound-Glued - 307 pages - 9780606234702
Open Ebook - 250 pages - 9781616200985
Paperback - 290 pages - 9780452268067
Paperback - 320 pages - 9780747572657
Paperback - 286 pages - 9780452287075
Prebound-Sewn - 304 pages - 9781417753994
Compact Disc - 8 pages - 9781419377952