siddy's Full Review: Julia Alvarez, Rolando Costa Picazo, Antonio Alfau...
What makes "chick lit" so compelling? Is it because it's mostly written by women for women? Is it because its recurring themes are universally shared among people of all cultures? Is it because it highlights women's frailty in the face of adversity in a man's world? How boringly predictable. IN THE TIME OF THE BUTTERFLIES by author Julia Alvarez was one of assigned readings for my Literature class last semester, and I chose another book, thinking that migraine-producing "magic realism" must be liberally sprinkled within the book as well, due to Alvarez's last name. Maybe you can tell that I like a lot of grit in my readings that doesn't demand a lot of imagination as opposed to the fluffy, mystical fudgings utilized by many modern authors. The semester ended, and with some time available in the summer, I picked up the book, intending it for a leisurely read before going to bed each night.
Now I must confess at this point that I don't know a whole lot about the history of the Americas below the Rio Grande. If it was a category on Jeopardy, I would switch the channel. You hear stuff about the Mexican mafia, the drug cartels, Simon Bolivar, and see the stylized screenprinted face of Che Guevarra on t-shirts, but what do we really know about any one South American country? Reading the novel challenged my shallow preconception of the customs and people of that part of the globe. Through the novel, I realized that Women's Literature doesn't necessarily mean that it's full of depictions of idyllic family life, and that it can be full of horrific and nasty discoveries of the real world around us.
The fictional story of four Mirabal sisters who appear in the book is based around events in the history of the Dominican Republic, circa 1940's through 1994. Of the four sisters, only one is left alive to pass on the legacy of the rebellious sisters who saw injustice and tyranny in that country and chose to act, despite their privileged social and economic status. How likely is that, for women with children to risk all the comforts they enjoy, to voice out their opposition to a very powerful and intimidating tyrant? Very unlikely, but it is the plot of the book, and that defiance against political oppression and persecution earns them the veneration and the nickname, "Las Mariposas," spanish for "The Butterflies." These women display traditional values and modern sensibilities back in the days when women were delegated to a subservient role as wife and mother, particularly in that machismo dominated society in that era and that in itself was interesting enough to keep the pages turning.
Characterization is made real and immediate through the author's use of alternating POV from that of the four sisters. Patria, the eldest and the most conservative sister, yearns to become a nun but finds that her calling is not from God but from dedication to her husband and family. Minerva, who outrages her father by wanting to attend the university to become a lawyer, becomes an activist outlaw on the lam along with her equally wanted husband. Maria Theresa, the youngest Mirabal girl whose lifelong goal is to marry her a dashing young man but gets thrown into the maelstorm of persecution by association to the hated Mirabal family. Apart from these three sisters, perhaps Dede is the only one sister who chooses to refrain from participating in the protest, because she values her own individual freedom far more than the other sisters who wanted the overthrow of President Trujillo and the resultant freedom for all of Dominican Republic's citizens. I saw myself in all of the four sister's shoes and found that it was very difficult to either condemn them for risking everything they had or admire them outright for the courageous choices they made.
In the Time of the Butterflies is a unique selection that depicts girls and women as they are, without the fluff and lace. The early part of the novel describea the young girls' frivolous concerns, of shopping for shoes, of being Papa's favorite, of chasing boys and finding romance. Later, we find that their lives are not fairy tales, but they are strewn with the trials that are typically associated with being female-miscarriage, infidelity, rape, and gender discrimination in a patriarchial system. Further on, the story pans out to reveal many shocking atrocities on an even grander scale that affect the entire country and beyond.
There is not much that I disliked about the novel worth mentioning. It had the pathos and moments when I saw myself, a total gringa, in each of the characters that made me believe in the reality of the story and the sense of tragedy that these heroines do not see to the proper end of their days, surrounded by loving grandchildren and family. The theme of the novel is of active protest, of doing whatever it takes to cause a change an unjust system, and that too many of us-myself included-are too busy finding excuses to do the same in my own town, my own country.
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