A Fantastic Island Jewel
The first book I read of Alvarez's was for our Women?s Literature class. "In the Time of the Butterflies" was fantastic. "How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents" was just as good, focusing again on four sisters. This book describes their stories as they are ripped from their native home in the Dominican Republic and dropped into 1960 New York. She shifts time so often, it?s like a Tarentino film on paper-it all comes out in the end, but the timeline was thrown through a blender, so you have to pay attention. It definitely leaves your appetite whetted and wanting for more.
Her fiery character Yolanda (or just plain Yo) is the main subject of another of Alvarez's books, cleverly titled "Yo".
