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4.16 AVERAGE
4.16 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
inspiring
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:
Complicated
I’m not going to lie, the first couple of chapters can be quite boring; however, I believe that’s what made the book overall better. In her afterword, Julia Alvarez discusses why she created this fictionalized account of the Mirabal sisters, and I think the mundaneness of those first chapters really shows the sisters’ humanity. They weren’t superheroes; they were four brave sisters. I could relate to them. I saw myself in them. I saw my family and friends in them. So by the time I reached those last few chapters, I was bawling my eyes out. I felt like I knew them. I also love that it not only talks about the bravery of Minerva, Mate, and Patria, but also Dede’s bravery. As a Dominican, we always hear of the three who had their lives taken, but rarely the life Dede also lost in their death and how she had to continue to live without them, how she raised their children, and how she spent her life passing on their legacy. This was a beautiful way to honor all four of them.
read it in spanish, so i'm pretty sure i missed at least 20%. oops.
Feels a little YA in style and tone, even as the subject matter gets very heavy, but since the narration shifts among different characters at different points in their lives, it works.
An intimate look at the progress of lives that shape ordinary people into saints and martyrs.
An intimate look at the progress of lives that shape ordinary people into saints and martyrs.
‘In the Time of the Butterflies' by Julia Alvarez is primarily a domestic fiction. I am not a fan of the genre of domestic fictions normally, but this book is one that is exceptional for a couple of reasons.
One, the characters are based on real people who are still considered heroes and freedom fighters who were murdered by a dictator in 1960. Two, the writing captures the imagined environment of the Dominican Republic and its people from 1938 to the 1960's with realistic and well-researched detail. There are alternating chapters taking place in 1994 which are narrated by a surviving family member of Dominican Republic revolutionaries. She is a fictional character remembering the past, reflecting on the nature of Fame, fans, and heroes - but this character is based on a real-life woman who was actually interviewed by the author.
Alvarez has written a fascinating book imagining what the "Maribel Butterflies" - the nickname of the real women made over as characters in this novel - were like as children and how they must have grown up. She imagines what it was like to run afoul of any employees or military thugs in the Rafael Trujillo dictatorship. She concentrates on their supposed domestic concerns, humanizing these now real-life mythological goddesses. She interviewed surviving family members and researched the Rafael Trujillo dictatorship. Out of the necessary requirements of a fiction novel, she fills in the blanks where facts are not available. Alvarez also messed around with historical timelines as well as used composite characters from many real-life people. As she herself explains, "I believe in the power of stories to change the world."
The story of the Maribels has changed the world! Even though most Americans have never heard of them. There have been plays, movies, other books and works of art based on the Maribel "Girls." The United Nations established November 25 as an international day of recognition of the need to eliminate all violence against women, specifically created because of what happened to the Maribels. November 25 is the day the women were murdered.
The author lived in the Dominican Republic for the first ten years of her life, and she frequently returns for extended visits. Her parents fled for their lives to New York City to escape the dictator Rafael Trujillo who ruled the DR for thirty-one years. The novel takes place during Trujillo's criminal reign of terror.
As usual for dictators, Trujillo demanded kowtowing respect and pissing-themselves fear of every citizen in his police state. If he didn't get it from a person, he condemned that person and sometimes their entire families to prison where they were tortured and killed. Their properties were confiscated, so if nonpolitical members of the families escaped being sent to prison, they were still made impoverished. But like people everywhere, those folks who live under a cruel police state socialize and marry, start businesses, send their kids to school if they can, and hope for the best. Some families were wealthy in the Dominican Republic, even under Trujillo, and were locally respected. They owned land, and sent their kids to the best schools - those run by the Catholic Church.
The Maribel family was a well-off family. They owned a farm and had a store. Papa and Mama had four girls. The first three, who came quick one after the other, in order were Patria, Dedé, and Minerva. Nine years later came Maria (Mate). They each had distinct personalities - Patria was very religious, Dedé was good at math and a 'good girl', and Minerva was a rebel, very straightforward and open. Mate was frivolous. They grew up under the care of their conservative parents and of the conservative expectations of their religion and society. But somehow, three of the "Maribel Girls" - the Butterflies - became revolutionaries, following the lead of Minerva, despite marriage and children. They left behind toddlers after their murders. They had spent time in prison but had been released after seven months of hell. Their husbands also served time in prison, but after the murders of their wives in a "car accident" set up by military thugs and quickly disputed by witnesses, the condemning eyes of the world were on Trujillo. He apparently could not kill the husbands as freely as he had their wives.
These are the minimal facts of the real-life Maribel sisters, their parents, and their husbands. But how did such women become revolutionaries? How is it each of their husbands followed their wives into becoming freedom fighters? They all primarily followed Minerva's lead into attending secret meetings. How did respectable Latino Catholic girls become women who acquired and hid weapons, set up cells of resistance fighters, and helped in the plotting of a coup? The women have been mythologized, but they were also wives and mothers. The author had the same question we readers do. Who WERE these Maribel Butterflies who continue to be admired as inspirations to most people of the Dominican Republic and other places around the world? The author emphasizes their roles as human beings who married and had children, and who loved their flawed spouses and parents. She definitely succeeds in humanizing the heroic 'butterflies' as people.
The story is told in alternating character narratives, and chapters, by each sister. One sister writes her story in a journal, while the others tell the story as they live it.
Below is a link to a biography of the dictator Rafael Trujillo:
https://www.history.com/topics/1960s/rafael-trujillo
Below is a link to how the real-life murder of the Maribel women led to the downfall of the Trujillo regime:
https://www.history.com/news/mirabal-sisters-trujillo-dictator
Many readers may not know this, but in certain eras of human history, real-life local Church officials sometimes were political radicals, particularly in Central and South America and nearby Caribbean islands. The injustice, poverty and arbitrary punishments against Latin people by police and the elite and many governments in Twentieth-century Central and South American dictatorships compelled some Church officials to support revolutions, either secretly or from the pulpit - despite severe consequences given out from the Vatican or corrupt dictatorial and democratic governments. These radical Catholics supported revolutions and revolutionaries, pushing democratic governments and organizations to intervene in a country where Latin citizens were being terrorized. As a result, sometimes they were murdered and raped. Sometimes radicalized nuns and priests who teach students in schools would secretly and discreetly nurture those students who seem to be outraged by dictator cruelties. Perhaps that is, maybe, partially, how the real-life radical, Minerva Mirabel, became a freedom fighter. Maybe a nun or two gave the charismatic, intelligent and easily outraged-by-injustices Minerva a smuggled-in "educational" political science or history book. My guess, that's all I've got, gentle reader.
Link to Liberation theology, which was embraced by some in the Catholic Church in South America:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberation_theology
One, the characters are based on real people who are still considered heroes and freedom fighters who were murdered by a dictator in 1960. Two, the writing captures the imagined environment of the Dominican Republic and its people from 1938 to the 1960's with realistic and well-researched detail. There are alternating chapters taking place in 1994 which are narrated by a surviving family member of Dominican Republic revolutionaries. She is a fictional character remembering the past, reflecting on the nature of Fame, fans, and heroes - but this character is based on a real-life woman who was actually interviewed by the author.
Alvarez has written a fascinating book imagining what the "Maribel Butterflies" - the nickname of the real women made over as characters in this novel - were like as children and how they must have grown up. She imagines what it was like to run afoul of any employees or military thugs in the Rafael Trujillo dictatorship. She concentrates on their supposed domestic concerns, humanizing these now real-life mythological goddesses. She interviewed surviving family members and researched the Rafael Trujillo dictatorship. Out of the necessary requirements of a fiction novel, she fills in the blanks where facts are not available. Alvarez also messed around with historical timelines as well as used composite characters from many real-life people. As she herself explains, "I believe in the power of stories to change the world."
The story of the Maribels has changed the world! Even though most Americans have never heard of them. There have been plays, movies, other books and works of art based on the Maribel "Girls." The United Nations established November 25 as an international day of recognition of the need to eliminate all violence against women, specifically created because of what happened to the Maribels. November 25 is the day the women were murdered.
The author lived in the Dominican Republic for the first ten years of her life, and she frequently returns for extended visits. Her parents fled for their lives to New York City to escape the dictator Rafael Trujillo who ruled the DR for thirty-one years. The novel takes place during Trujillo's criminal reign of terror.
As usual for dictators, Trujillo demanded kowtowing respect and pissing-themselves fear of every citizen in his police state. If he didn't get it from a person, he condemned that person and sometimes their entire families to prison where they were tortured and killed. Their properties were confiscated, so if nonpolitical members of the families escaped being sent to prison, they were still made impoverished. But like people everywhere, those folks who live under a cruel police state socialize and marry, start businesses, send their kids to school if they can, and hope for the best. Some families were wealthy in the Dominican Republic, even under Trujillo, and were locally respected. They owned land, and sent their kids to the best schools - those run by the Catholic Church.
The Maribel family was a well-off family. They owned a farm and had a store. Papa and Mama had four girls. The first three, who came quick one after the other, in order were Patria, Dedé, and Minerva. Nine years later came Maria (Mate). They each had distinct personalities - Patria was very religious, Dedé was good at math and a 'good girl', and Minerva was a rebel, very straightforward and open. Mate was frivolous. They grew up under the care of their conservative parents and of the conservative expectations of their religion and society. But somehow, three of the "Maribel Girls" - the Butterflies - became revolutionaries, following the lead of Minerva, despite marriage and children. They left behind toddlers after their murders. They had spent time in prison but had been released after seven months of hell. Their husbands also served time in prison, but after the murders of their wives in a "car accident" set up by military thugs and quickly disputed by witnesses, the condemning eyes of the world were on Trujillo. He apparently could not kill the husbands as freely as he had their wives.
These are the minimal facts of the real-life Maribel sisters, their parents, and their husbands. But how did such women become revolutionaries? How is it each of their husbands followed their wives into becoming freedom fighters? They all primarily followed Minerva's lead into attending secret meetings. How did respectable Latino Catholic girls become women who acquired and hid weapons, set up cells of resistance fighters, and helped in the plotting of a coup? The women have been mythologized, but they were also wives and mothers. The author had the same question we readers do. Who WERE these Maribel Butterflies who continue to be admired as inspirations to most people of the Dominican Republic and other places around the world? The author emphasizes their roles as human beings who married and had children, and who loved their flawed spouses and parents. She definitely succeeds in humanizing the heroic 'butterflies' as people.
The story is told in alternating character narratives, and chapters, by each sister. One sister writes her story in a journal, while the others tell the story as they live it.
Below is a link to a biography of the dictator Rafael Trujillo:
https://www.history.com/topics/1960s/rafael-trujillo
Below is a link to how the real-life murder of the Maribel women led to the downfall of the Trujillo regime:
https://www.history.com/news/mirabal-sisters-trujillo-dictator
Many readers may not know this, but in certain eras of human history, real-life local Church officials sometimes were political radicals, particularly in Central and South America and nearby Caribbean islands. The injustice, poverty and arbitrary punishments against Latin people by police and the elite and many governments in Twentieth-century Central and South American dictatorships compelled some Church officials to support revolutions, either secretly or from the pulpit - despite severe consequences given out from the Vatican or corrupt dictatorial and democratic governments. These radical Catholics supported revolutions and revolutionaries, pushing democratic governments and organizations to intervene in a country where Latin citizens were being terrorized. As a result, sometimes they were murdered and raped. Sometimes radicalized nuns and priests who teach students in schools would secretly and discreetly nurture those students who seem to be outraged by dictator cruelties. Perhaps that is, maybe, partially, how the real-life radical, Minerva Mirabel, became a freedom fighter. Maybe a nun or two gave the charismatic, intelligent and easily outraged-by-injustices Minerva a smuggled-in "educational" political science or history book. My guess, that's all I've got, gentle reader.
Link to Liberation theology, which was embraced by some in the Catholic Church in South America:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberation_theology
emotional
informative
This is more of a story of women than it is a story of revolutionaries. Starting from childhood, Julia Alvarez imagines the lives of Minerva, Patria, Dede, and Mate Mirabal as they grow up, go to school, fall in love, have children, and yes, start an underground movement to take down dictator Rafael Trujillo. However, the actual planning and revolutionary work is (in my opinion) skimmed over, and for most of them, aside from Minerva, it seems like an afterthought--something they're involved in but not very serious about. Mostly, the book is dominated by regular problems: strict parents, crushes, family secrets, and personal turmoil. For me, this is good and bad. It humanizes these women and makes them seem like everyday people rather than canonized saints. On the other hand, the story gets a bit boring at times.
honestly this was so good
like i literally dont have much to say other than you have to read this at some point.
like i literally dont have much to say other than you have to read this at some point.