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3.78 AVERAGE
3.78 AVERAGE
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The book started off slower and it didn’t grab my attention enough. I’d like to come back to it at some point, maybe when there aren’t as many distractions pulling my attention.
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
An overall calming novel to read cover to cover. I had such a sense of peace while reading, despite the flashbacks to the characters in peril. The author was such a wonderful storyteller.
3.5
“And if you could hear other people’s stories all the time, what then? Would you understand them better? Would you forgive them?”
“And if you could hear other people’s stories all the time, what then? Would you understand them better? Would you forgive them?”
I forever and always love everything that Julia Alvarez writes! This new novel of hers did not disappoint. The set up is this: a novelist decides to retire to the Dominican Republic (where her family is from) and bury all unfinished drafts of her novels in a Cemetery for Untold Stories. But the stories will not be silenced, for either the living or the dead.
Not only is this a beautiful collage of the stories that make us who we are, but it’s a commentary on narratives themselves. What makes a story? What happens if they go untold? Does the telling unleash something in the teller, the audience? Is it our duty to release some and to keep some buried?
I love these questions and the way they are dearly held. I also love the many Julia Alvarez Easter eggs that are packed into the telling: the semi-autobiographical elements woven into the tales, the main character (a proxy for Alvarez) being named Alma like the narrator in Alvarez’s novel Saving the World, the last line of How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents being held up and examined as commentary about Alma’s craft. And probably many more.
My critiques are few and far between: I thought the frame of the story (the set up of the cemetery) took up more space than it deserved at the beginning. I also wanted the book to end with Alma’s walk in the evening instead of with the future of the cemetery, which felt a little too forced.
But these are minor quips for an otherwise masterpiece of story. I’m grateful for it.
Not only is this a beautiful collage of the stories that make us who we are, but it’s a commentary on narratives themselves. What makes a story? What happens if they go untold? Does the telling unleash something in the teller, the audience? Is it our duty to release some and to keep some buried?
I love these questions and the way they are dearly held. I also love the many Julia Alvarez Easter eggs that are packed into the telling: the semi-autobiographical elements woven into the tales, the main character (a proxy for Alvarez) being named Alma like the narrator in Alvarez’s novel Saving the World, the last line of How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents being held up and examined as commentary about Alma’s craft. And probably many more.
My critiques are few and far between: I thought the frame of the story (the set up of the cemetery) took up more space than it deserved at the beginning. I also wanted the book to end with Alma’s walk in the evening instead of with the future of the cemetery, which felt a little too forced.
But these are minor quips for an otherwise masterpiece of story. I’m grateful for it.