How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, 1st half

I am enjoying this book so far, the way it is written, although different from Cisneros, is also a style that for me is easy to read and keeps my attention with its telenovela-style melodramas. When I first read the synopsis on the inside cover of the novel I thought “oooh how West Side Story!” but then I quickly realized that this is nothing like West Side Story, well except maybe that one chapter where Yolanda is “on the island” and the family discusses the differences between the U.S. and the Dominican Republic. “I like to be in America...everything free in America!” Does anyone else feel like singing that song throughout this book?

I’m intrigued by the reverse chronological/random chronological order in which Alvarez tells the stories of the four girls. I also like the chapter titles, and the declaration of whom the chapter is about, proving the confusing nature of stories about 4 sisters and people’s inability to remember who is who. I also noticed that sometimes Alvarez writes in the third person and sometimes it’s first person. This creates a real emotional divide between the writings, those in the third person (or better yet, those that refer to the characters as “the third daughter”, or my favourite “the mother”) are more impersonal, giving us less insight into the life and mind of the character. Whereas a chapter that is written in the first person, gives more of a sense of a character opening up and allowing the reader into their thoughts. The most interesting use of this was the two chapters that feature Yolanda, one after the other. The first, “Joe”, about Yolanda’s relationship with her ex-husband, John, was written in the third person whereas the following chapter “The Rudy Elmenhurst Story” was written in the first person. I haven’t quite figured out why Alvarez wrote these two stories so differently…maybe it will come with more insight into the character of Yolanda. I feel like so far Yolanda has been featured the most out of the 4 daughters.

This book deals with a lot of the themes that we’ve seen in some of the other literature in this class such as race, class, gender, immigration/migration, culture, identity, and probably many more common issues…but I think it deals with them in a different way.

I think “the mother” is an interesting character…so wrapped up in righteousness and the reputation of their family. It makes me think of the stories of immigrant families where the children do not understand the struggles of their parents in their home country. However it seems that when it comes to Dominican society, this family is pretty secure and is definitely upper class, despite the mother’s declaration of their poverty. I also find it interesting that we don't learn much about her until the chapter entitles "Daughter of Invention" when we learn that her name is Laura and that she aspired to invent things that would make the life of a housewife easier, and that she often mixes up English sayings (that was kinda funny).