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Summary: YOU MUST READ THIS BOOK!
Review: This novel possessed me... and has become one of my favorite novels of all time. I first read Alvarez's "Garcia Girls" in a graduate lit class "contemporary literature from women of color," and quickly read everything else available from this amazing author. "Butterflies" spoke to my core... as a woman, a feminist, a revolutionary. It informed me of the global struggle of women seemingly first-hand. THANK-YOU, Julia Alvarez, for telling us the story of the Mirabel sisters!
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Summary: A novel that shows how brave women could be!
Review: Fictional story (based on true facts) about four extremely brave sisters: Patria, Minerva, Dede and Maria Teresa Mirabal. Three of them die trying to free the Dominicans from the every day horrors of life under the rule of their dictatorship,General Trujillo. Only Dede survives to tell this amazing story. All four sisters have a voice in this book; they all talk about their pleasant and not so pleasant life experiences. This is what makes this book so interesting.
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Summary: It will capture your heart
Review: I simply loved the book it is about four sisters who are named the butterfly sisters. This book talks about how life was for this four girls living in a country were the dictator was very unfair and a murder. He was treated like a king when all the things he stood for were bad. This four sisters all have a story to tell that is why I enjoyed the book because it had so many diffrent experences and views from four diffrent women. And how they all ended up fighting for their county for freedom.
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Summary: Fantastic book
Review: This book was so inspiring. I began reading it because of an english assignment where we had to read a book by an award winning author. And Julia Alvarez really is an award winning author. She drew me into the story of the Mirabal sisters and I think that this is the best assignment I have ever had. I recommend it to everyone!
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Summary: Thought -provoking and fascinating
Review: I first picked up this book three years ago after reading an outstanding review. Since then I have read it at least twice a year, if not more. This book sweeps you into the life of the Dominican Republic, into the lives of four sisters who are fighting to hold on to their beliefs, a fight that ends in tradgedy but ultimately triumph. This is most certainly one of the best books I have ever read.
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Summary: The Best Political Drama I Have Read.
Review: I had to read this book over my summer vacation for my AP English class. I couldn't put it down, and finished it in six hours. Now I have the honor of meeting the author, and I am really excited.
Rating:
Summary: compelling and touching
Review: Great book! If you like reading about strong women in saga-esque storylines, this is for you! Writing is beautiful in its simplicity and the characters will move you. You will feel a little "changed" after reading this book, as if you have lived through all that you read too.
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Summary: Wonderful, touching book
Review: I actually first read this novel last year in our Advanced Placement English class...I found it to be a beautifully written book (heck, it even made the boys in my class cry!). This book really raises the awareness about the tragic history of the Dominican Republic. As for the reader who commented that this story strayed too far from truth: this book never claimed to be any sort of non-fiction, Alvarez in the post script admitted that the story and personalities of the four sisters were completely fictionalized and simply inspired by the true figures.
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Summary: An inspiring and wonderful book!
Review: Before I picked up this book I was unaware of the past political situation in the Dominican Republic. After reading this great book, my eyes have been opened to a different country and history. Besides learning about another historical despot, the Mirabal sisters had great courage to fight a tyrant. The bond between the four sisters was interesting and should definitely be read
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Summary: An eloquent novel based on haunting real life events.
Review: In the Time of the Butterflies The Dominican Republic suffering great despair was drowning under the brutal dictatorship that was commanding its country. Trujillo had killed, lied, and cheated to rule Dominican and now was coaxing its people to "enslavement," life without freedom. He hid his evil, perverted, dirty self with glamour and parties forcing women, children, and men to treat him as a god. The amazing heart wrenching story of the four Mirabal sisters who where brave enough to lose their comfortable lives to threaten Trujillo's power and save their country is portrayed in this eloquent novel. They are the "Butterflies," their code name in the secret movement to free their trapped country. Patria was the oldest trusted so much in her religion that her childhood dream was to become a nun, but at sixteen fate drew her to her beloved, and future husband Pedrito. The immense beauty shared by all four sisters only grew greater as Patria aged and gave birth to her treasured children. Though as her babies were consumed, along with herself by the "movement," and other things she loved, stolen or burned, extreme worry and stress threatened her beautiful existence. Minerva was rebellious and out-going, fascinated by politics and law. Law school, her enemy of the state teenage best friend, and her determined lawyer husband Manolo push her over, to become a important member of the "movement," to a place of no return where she stores thousands of weapons and illegal papers for the revolution. Maria Teresa is the youngest surrounded by boys and elegant clothes all her life. Well into her twenties she finally outgrows her vanity, marries wonderful Armando, has her beloved baby girl, and learns to create bombs of all shapes and sizes for the "movement". She loses it all, after sharing months of torture in prison and then bound to house arrest with her sister Minerva; Patria, Minerva, and Maria Teresa are brutally murdered on November 25, 1960. Dede the sister who survived had tried to keep her sisters and best friends from harm only to end up raising their children and mourning their deaths for the rest of her life. Julia Alvarez succeeds in creating lives and probable dreams for the real life Mirabal sisters who died for their country. This novel based on the real life accounts takes hold of you, entwining you into the lives of these brave sisters understanding their views and dreams and suffering their hardships. So as you approach the ending knowing their fate, you read to experience their death. You cry as though you also have to lost a sister, a part of you. I believe almost any audience, including students my age,14 and 15, can relate to this novel because we all face problems just as the AButterflies." Females may be able to relate more to the issues these four women faced; that is not to say that millions of men would not enjoy it equally. Not at any time did I find this novel boring although at times it may have been hard to follow. Alvarez jumps from past to present and between a different sister narrating each chapter. The book also includes and so many people and names to remember. It is extremely difficult to compare such a unique plot with such real characters to any other book. This is an extraordinary novel where four brave sisters -Patria, Minerva, Maria Teresa, and Dede speak across the decades to tell their stories -from tales of hair ribbons and secret crushes to gun-running and prison torture- to describe perfectly the horrors of life under Dominican dictator Trujillo. To better understand the haunting human cost of defying the government and saving freedom, this novel must be read by all!
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