How the García Girls Lost Their Accents [B1594]

1992 PB with minor wear. This YA novel was named A Great American Novel by The Atlantic. Acclaimed writer Julia Alvarez's beloved first novel gives voice to four sisters as they grow up in two cultures in the 1960s. The García sisters-Carla, Sandra, Yolanda, and Sofía-and their family must flee their home in the Dominican Republic after their father's role in an attempt to overthrow brutal dictator Rafael Trujillo is discovered. They arrive in New York City in 1960 to a life far removed from their existence in the Caribbean. In the wondrous but not always welcoming U.S.A., their parents try to hold on to their old ways as the girls try to find new lives: by straightening their hair and wearing American fashions, and by forgetting their Spanish. For them, it is at once liberating and excruciating to be caught between the old world and the new. Here they tell their stories about being at home-and not at home-in America.

Caution: an animal cruelty incident near the end soured the book for some readers.

From recent Amazon/GoodReads reviews: "Interconnected stories told in reverse chronological order, beginning when the girls are adults and acclimatized to the USA and ending with them still children in the Dominican Republic. This is an enjoyable little-used method that allows the reader to see where the women ended up before they see where they came from and what shaped them."; "The stories are symbolically rich and touch on a lot of interesting themes, especially with regards to cultural norms and assimilation."; "Super solid."; "Every so often I make an effort to break out from my reading genre ruts, to try something completely outside my usual interests. This is what brought me to Julia Alvarez's book. The very novelty to me of her account of four sisters growing up in the twin worlds of postwar New York and the Trujillo-era Dominican Republic was interesting enough for me to give it a try. And it wasn't long before I was drawn in to her stories of the family navigating between them, finding their place amidst large island families and concrete canyons. The author's gifts as a storyteller make these tales all surprisingly relatable to someone like me, who never experienced the worlds she describes."; "I too came from a Latino family and even though my parents' roots went back to when Texas was part of Mexico and Spain, I related to the Garcia girls' need to be more than the patriarchal view Latinos imposed on daughters. I never had to leave my country, but I understood the need for connection with members of the Anglo community who didn't always want a bi-lingual girl in their homes. However, the love of customs and family connections resonates with most families, especially in the close-knit community of Latinos and their families."