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From the Bookshelf of Bound Together…

In the Time of the Butterflies

Julia Alvarez

Start date: September 1, 2012

Finish date: September 30, 2012

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Apr 06, 2009 Chrissie rated it liked it

Shelves: hf, 2012-read, caribbean, magic, dominican-republic

I have completed the book. I am not as enthralled as when I began it. Why? What went wrong? I am only going to give the book three stars.

I am not going to give another synopsis of the book. If that is what you are looking for please see the book description above. I have learned how it might have been to live in the Dominican Republic during the latter half of the 20th Century, mostly under Dictator Trujillo!s reign. The four Mirabel sisters fight against him have today reached mythic proportion I have completed the book. I am not as enthralled as when I began it. Why? What went wrong? I am only going to give the book three stars.

I am not going to give another synopsis of the book. If that is what you are looking for please see the book description above. I have learned how it might have been to live in the Dominican Republic during the latter half of the 20th Century, mostly under Dictator Trujillo!s reign. The four Mirabel sisters fight against him have today reached mythic proportions. This book is fiction. Neither myth nor fiction give us the true facts. I would have preferred that the epilogue clearly stated what is known and what is imagined.

The author wants to wipe out the mythic status of these women so that we readers can more easily relate to them as four individuals, four different women with different personality traits. Clearly one is portrayed as the rebel rouser, one is religious, one just hasn't the requisite courage and the fourth? Well, she is the youngest and this is evident all throughout the story. Does the author succeed? Do we readers empathize with them? Do we relate to one of the women more than another given our own specific personality traits? I did not empathize with any of them, although I did recognize their differences.

Each chapter title indicates which sister is speaking and the dates when the events in the chapter take place. Thus each chapter should reflect the views of one of the four sisters. You are given her thoughts. You are meant to see the events through her eyes. Something went wrong with this presentation: I frequently had to flip back to check which of the girls was speaking or when the events were occurring.

The bottom line is: I did NOT relate to the girls that well. I actually cringed when I had to get through the religious sister's chapters. Neither do I know if the author has portrayed their personalities correctly. This should have been made clear in the epilogue with detailed entries explaining why she chose to represent each as she has done.

I did enjoy how the author expressed herself, particularly at the beginning of the book. I did enjoy the suspense of the denouement. I think it is admirable that the author wants us to relate to the sisters on a personal level. I believe she wants us to do this so that we too might be encouraged to take a stand against injustice, as they did!

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This is good simply because the lines make me smile. What do you think of these: "The country people around the farm say that until the nail is hit, it don't believe in the hammer." Or: the air was so fragrant that it "smelled like a rose garden wished it could smell." I want a writer to delight me with their ability to express themselves in an imaginative manner. I am on page 76; every couple of pages I hit sentences that I love.

And I didn't know much about the dictator Trujillo of the Dominican Republic. I am learning. This is just my kind of historical fiction in other words! ...more

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Jul 20, 2012 ☮Karen rated it liked it

Shelves: read-in-2016

This is Julia Alvarez's take on the reign of the Dominican dictator Trujillo and the brave Mirabal sisters who sacrificed their comfortable lives to form a resistance against him. I also read about them on Wikipedia and watched a short video about the sister who survived. Julia Alvarez created this story from a few pieces of known facts; the background is of her imagination, based on some truths. But even so, it serves as an inspiration to the oppressed and especially women of the world to st ...more

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Sep 29, 2012 Irene rated it liked it

This novel of historical fiction is inspired by four real life sisters, three of whom were assassinated by the Trujillo regime for their involvement in the Communist revolt in the Dominican Republic. The author uses her imagination to create fictional versions of these national heroines whose actual identity has been buried under layers of legend. I appreciated that this story was set in a historical context which gets little attention in the English-speaking world. However, the sisters’ voices, ...more

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Mar 05, 2014 Karen rated it it was ok

Shelves: family, 2014

meh...too messy of a book.couldn't hold my interest ...more

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Sep 04, 2008 Beth rated it liked it

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Mar 31, 2019 Ashley Hart rated it liked it

Shelves: 2019, 2019-women-author-challenge

Sep 21, 2010 Karen rated it it was ok

Mar 23, 2011 Wendy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2011-reads

Sep 03, 2011 Beth marked it as to-read · review of another edition

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Aug 29, 2012 Teresa marked it as to-read

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Shelves: ebooks-i-own, bought2013

Jul 07, 2013 Lauren marked it as to-read

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Shelves: owned-not-yet-read

Aug 15, 2015 Lindsay marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Sep 10, 2015 Gaijinmama marked it as to-read

1 like · Like

Oct 18, 2015 Meghan marked it as to-read

Jul 10, 2016 Julie marked it as to-read

Aug 13, 2018 Melissa marked it as to-read

Shelves: caribbean-books

Apr 05, 2021 Karen marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Jul 26, 2022 Christina, Join Me on Storygraph! marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Sep 26, 2022 Nancy marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: banned

Jun 02, 2024 Stephanie marked it as to-read · review of another edition

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