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In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia…
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In the Time of the Butterflies (original 1994; edition 1994)

by Julia Alvarez (Author)

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4,4541032,574 (4.1)230
Fiction. Literature. HTML:25th Anniversary Edition
"A magnificent treasure for all cultures and all time.â? â??St. Petersburg Times

 
It is November 25, 1960, and three beautiful sisters have been found near their wrecked Jeep at the bottom of a 150-foot cliff on the north coast of the Dominican Republic. The official state newspaper reports their deaths as accidental. It does not mention that a fourth sister lives. Nor does it explain that the sisters were among the leading opponents of Gen. Rafael LeĂłnidas Trujilloâ??s dictatorship. It doesnâ??t have to. Everybody knows of Las Mariposasâ??the Butterflies.
In this extraordinary novel, the voices of all four sistersâ??Minerva, Patria, MarĂ­a Teresa, and the survivor, DedĂ©â??speak across the decades to tell their own stories, from secret crushes to gunrunning, and to describe the everyday horrors of life under Trujilloâ??s rule. Through the art and magic of Julia Alvarezâ??s imagination, the martyred Butterflies live again in this novel of courage and love, and the human costs of political oppression.
Julia Alvarezâ??s new novel, A
… (more)
Member:jasbro
Title:In the Time of the Butterflies
Authors:Julia Alvarez (Author)
Info:Chapel Hill, N.C. : Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 1994.
Collections:Your library, To read, Chosen Covers
Rating:
Tags:literature (Dominican Republic), Dominican Republic, Minerva Mirabel, Patria Mirabel, MarĂąia Teresa Mirabel, Mirabel, women, revolution, historical fiction

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In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez (1994)

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English (94)  Spanish (4)  German (2)  Dutch (2)  All languages (102)
Showing 1-5 of 94 (next | show all)
A fictionalized account of four sisters in the Dominican Republic in the 1940s to 1960s. They courageously opposed the leadership of the brutal dictator Trujillo. I found some early parts of the book slow, in contrast to the distressing later sections. This is an important story of four women who should be remembered for their sacrifice made to protest political oppression. ( )
  VivienneR | Feb 2, 2024 |
This book was everything it was talked up to be: beautiful, rich, complex, endearing characters with an exciting story that I was eager to finish, even though I knew how it's was going to end. I think it is tricky to try to separate these fictional characters from their historical counterparts, which would be the only problem with this otherwise fantastic piece of literature. ( )
  mslibrarynerd | Jan 13, 2024 |
I have had a copy of In the Time of the Butterflies sitting on my To Read shelf for quite a while now—drawn to it by the pretty cover and the subject matter. It is the story of four sisters, the Mirabels, three of whom would go on to become known as Las Mariposas, or the Butterflies, helping to lead a revolt against Trujillo, a dictator in The Dominican Republic during the mid-1900’s. Based on real people and events, In the Time of the Butterflies is a story of grief, fear and courage, and of oppression and hope.

The novel is narrated by the four sisters, some through journal entries. Julia Alvarez has given each of the sisters very distinct voices, and their stories are very compelling. They were all drawn into the rebellion for their own reasons and in different ways.

I read this novel with an online reading group, and it was interesting to see how some of our opinions of the sisters varied. Whereas I saw Minerva as courageous and admired her for her focus and dedication to her cause, a couple others saw her as reckless and without regard to the danger she put herself and her family in by her actions. Maria Teresa seemed to be more of the romantic of her sisters, hopeful and loyal to her sister Minerva. Then there is Patria who dedicated much of her life to God and family. Many of us in the reading group identified most with her, given her devotion to her children and need and desire to protect them at all costs. The fourth sister, Dede, may not have been actively involved with the rebel group, but she is the survivor who has carried her sisters’ story and memories into the present long after their untimely deaths in 1960.

Alvarez takes readers into the childhood and teen years of the Mirabel sisters as well as their adult lives—their family life and eventual involvement in the resistance. Their own father,a farmer, had been quite successful in their small town. He was well-respected and liked. As the sisters got older, the truth about their country’s leader could no longer be hidden. Trujillo was a cruel leader who controlled the media and did not hesitate to order his dissenters jailed and killed. I appreciated Alvarez’s narrative in how each of the sisters felt about their government and eventually came to rebel against the suppression and oppression. They each had to make sacrifices in one way or another. The reader gets to see how the women’s actions impact their family life, the support—or lack there of—they received.

I thought In the Time of the Butterflies was a well told account of what life may have been like for the Mirabel sisters. It took a little bit to get into the novel as I got a fuller picture of each of the sisters, but once I did, I thoroughly enjoyed the book. It is an emotional read, especially in the later chapters. I couldn’t help but to see some parallels in contemporary times to the Dominican Republic at that time. I am ashamed to say I hadn’t known much about Las Mariposas before reading this novel. These woman are known worldwide for their efforts, and I found the author’s notes at the end of the novel very enlightening. The United Nations declared November 25th, the anniversary of the three sisters' murder, International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women to raise awareness of violence against women, including rape, domestic violence and other forms of violence, the scale of which is often under-reported. ( )
  LiteraryFeline | Jul 22, 2023 |
Taking place in the Dominican Republic during the brutal dictatorship of Trujillo ( )
  Jess.Stetson | Apr 4, 2023 |
FROM AUDIOBOOKS.COM: It is November 25, 1960, and the bodies of three beautiful, convent-educated sisters have been found near their wrecked Jeep at the bottom of a 150-foot cliff on the north coast of the Dominican Republic. El Caribe, the official newspaper, reports their deaths as an accident. It does not mention that a fourth sister lives. Nor does it explain that the sisters were among the leading opponents of Gen. Raphael Leonidas Trujillo's dictatorship. It doesn't have to. Everyone knows of Las Mariposas - 'The Butterflies.' Now, three decades later, Julia Alvarez, also a daughter of the Dominican Republic and long haunted by these sisters, immerses us in a tangled and dangerous moment in Hispanic Caribbean history to tell their story in the only way it can truly be understood - through fiction. In this brilliantly characterized novel, the voices of all four sisters - Minerva, Patria, Maria Teresa, and Dede - speak across the decades, to tell their own stories - from hair ribbons to gunrunning to prison torture - and to describe the everyday horrors of life under Trujillo's rule.
  Gmomaj | Mar 12, 2023 |
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Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Julia Alvarezprimary authorall editionscalculated
Kingston, Maxine HongForewordsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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For Dede
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She is plucking her bird of paradise of its dead branches, leaning around the plant every time she hears a car.
Quotations
"The nightmare is over, Dede. Look at what the girls have done."...He means the free elections, bad presidents now put in power properly, not by army tanks. (p.318)
Maybe these aren't losses. Maybe that's a wrong way to think of them. The men, the children, me. We went our own ways, we became ourselves. Just that. And maybe that is what it means to be a free people...(p.317)
May I never experience all that it is possible to get used to. (p.235)
You think you're going to crack any day, but the strange thing is that every day you surprise yourself by pulling it of, and suddenly you start feeling stronger, like maybe you are going to make it through the hell with some dignity, some courage,...(p.241)
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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
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Wikipedia in English (1)

Fiction. Literature. HTML:25th Anniversary Edition
"A magnificent treasure for all cultures and all time.â? â??St. Petersburg Times

 
It is November 25, 1960, and three beautiful sisters have been found near their wrecked Jeep at the bottom of a 150-foot cliff on the north coast of the Dominican Republic. The official state newspaper reports their deaths as accidental. It does not mention that a fourth sister lives. Nor does it explain that the sisters were among the leading opponents of Gen. Rafael LeĂłnidas Trujilloâ??s dictatorship. It doesnâ??t have to. Everybody knows of Las Mariposasâ??the Butterflies.
In this extraordinary novel, the voices of all four sistersâ??Minerva, Patria, MarĂ­a Teresa, and the survivor, DedĂ©â??speak across the decades to tell their own stories, from secret crushes to gunrunning, and to describe the everyday horrors of life under Trujilloâ??s rule. Through the art and magic of Julia Alvarezâ??s imagination, the martyred Butterflies live again in this novel of courage and love, and the human costs of political oppression.
Julia Alvarezâ??s new novel, A

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On a deserted mountain road in the Dominican Republic in 1960, three young women from a pious Catholic family were assassinated after visiting their husbands who had been jailed as suspected rebel leaders. The Mirabal sisters, thus martyred, became mythical figures in their country, where they are known as Las Mariposas (the butterflies). Three decades later, Julia Alvarez, daughter of the Dominican Republic and author of the acclaimed How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, brings the Mirabal sisters back to life in this extraordinary novel. Each of the sisters speaks in her own voice, beginning as young girls in the 1940s, their stories vary from hair ribbons to gun-running to prison torture. Their story is framed by their surviving sister who tells her own tale of suffering and dedication to the memory of Las Mariposas. This inspired portrait of four women is a haunting statement about the human cost of political oppression, and is destined to take its place alongside Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude and Allende's The House of the Spirits as one of the great 20th-century Latin American novels.
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