Julia Alvarez

Julia Alvarez is such a good story teller - and here she tells several within one, not unlike Scheherazade, which happens to be the pen name of the main character, a Dominican writer. She is ready to retire, leave the states and return to the DR, once her father's will is settled and she and her three sisters divide the family estate. She takes the least desirable plot of land for her concept - a graveyard for untold stories. All the manuscripts she never finished, and the half-begun show more projects, and most importantly, her father's story of his made-up land that she could never get him to fully explain. While most of the characters are made-up, she includes the historical character, Bienvenida, once wife to the revolutionary cum dictator Trujillo - her story of pain and rejection and control of being married to a terrible man. All the stories/papers/boxes are literally buried in the cemetery - a bit of magical realism - the headstones are all sculptures created by a woman artist, and the caretaker, Philomena, an old local woman can hear the stories tell themselves. The cemetery entrance has a speaker box that demands a story from those who wish to enter and judges their story worthy or not of entry - the most essential criteria being authenticity. So many layers here and also levels of connection between the characters, stories, lives lived. It reminded me a bit of Spoon River Anthology - voices speaking from beyond the grave to tell the truths that can't be told among the living. I think this is one I will need to return to in print, because the audio version was a lot to keep track of. Still Alvarez's beautiful writing and so real characters came through. Favorite quote: 'That's why in certain tribes they say when an old person dies, a library is gone." show less

…what mattered was here
was the lover who lives for the mystery caught—
if we are lucky—in the lines of our poems.
from Muse Sighting in Matanzas by Julia Alvarez

I loved these poems that form a brief autobiography of the author’s life, starting with childhood memories, turning to the immigrant experience, flowering into the struggles of adulthood, love, marriage, the calling to be a poet. I read a few a night, savoring the stories they told that so moved me.

I adored the earliest poems. show more Discovering as a girl how poetry recited could move an audience, the power of word and song. The simple joy of a Sunday outing, choosing ice cream cones. Watching a beloved grandfather eating a mango, his enjoyment of the children at a time when “he struggles to keep a flicker of hope alive/like the window light that signals a safe house/for friends on the run from el Jefe’s policia.” Recalling the simple food at her sister’s restaurant; even power outages could not stop their enjoyment of a simple meal. The physical punishment at the American school, the prejudice that would not allow her to even clean the blackboards. Her mother at the vanity, putting on her face.

Then the poems turn to New York City, reading at the library, learning English, believing she had a better future here even while her father has been diminished. She dreams of abundant candy while “my new America was waking up/to a nightmare: freedom fighters marching…” Becoming a woman. Knowing her father was different. The eagerness to begin her new life, as a poet, independent.

Then, marriage with its disappointments. Thinking about her sisters, their shared past and divergences. Love in later life: “we were silent, holding hands/like children looking for a way/back to what was lost.” Menopause. Knowing “how love can turn.”

And with age comes wisdom, a better understanding of our parents, the mystery we can’t solve. Watching war and devastation from the safety of home, feeling powerless.

Did I say that I loved these poems? I love the way my chest slightly tightens, my heart aches whilw reading them. How Alvarez is known in them. How they connect.

I will revisit this slender volume.

My wish for this collection would be that at least one poem finds a fervent lover…In these times of encroaching darkness, may poetry provide the necessary spark of joy to keep us going. from Visitations by Julia Alvarez

Thanks to Knopf for a free book. show less

The Cemetery of Untold Stories - Julia Alvarez
Audio performance by Alma Cuervo
4 stars

A famous Dominican American novelist, Alma Cruz, has a story to tell. Alma begins with a convoluted tale about her ‘her friend’ and unnamed literary mentor who dies in a mental institution. The ‘friend’ is plagued by many paranoid delusions, including the idea that the characters of an unpublished story are haunting her. I’ll admit that I thought this opening tale was awkward, too long, and more show more convoluted than necessary.

As Alma ages she finds that she also has stories that she is unable to finish. This seems to be more than a case of writer’s block. She decides to retire to the land of her ancestors wrapping up her successful writing and teaching careers. She makes a proactive decision to never end up like her mentally ill friend. She will give her unfinished manuscripts a ceremonial burial. This decision coincides with her father’s death and a family inheritance. Alma accepts the least desirable plot of land in the inheritance to create her Cemetery of Untold Stories.

The plot diverges into many tangents of family drama including the early history of Alma’s parents and her current relations with her three sisters. The characters of her unpublished books have their own thoughts, desires, and continuing stories which they impart to Alma’s new cemetery caretaker, Filomena. These characters include the second wife of the dictator Trujillo and a rebel of that oppressed era, Doctor Cruz. I did get lost in the layers of metafiction as the fictional characters of a fictional author related their personal stories to another fictional character. The audio performance was fine, but there were connections between characters that passed over me. I think it would have helped to have a print edition.

This is the first book that I’ve read by Julia Alvarez, although I’ve been wanting to try her books for some time. This may not have been the best title to start with, but despite my confusion (at least partly due to my own lack of concentration) I enjoyed the book. I liked the way she built the relationships between Alma and her sisters. I appreciated the insights into Dominican Republic history and to the immigrant experience. There was wry humor that prevented the book from becoming a bleak story without minimizing the effects of trauma and tragedy. I found that I missed the characters when I’d finished the book. I wouldn’t mind going back to it to see if I can figure out what was really going on in the Cemetery. show less

Tyler and his family own a dairy farm in Vermont, but with his dad injured in an accident and not at full strength, they're in danger of losing it. But when his parents hire three Mexican brothers, these hard-working men - one of whom brought his three daughters - are going to help them keep the farm. The third-person narrative keeps close to Tyler POV for part of the chapter, and then switches to the oldest girl, Mari, as she writes letters to family and in her diary.

I had a hard time with show more this book, and I'm trying to put my finger on why. I think the main thing was that I was not the audience, and the author seemed to have an uncomfortable balance she was trying to make between what she thought would be age-appropriate for an eleven-year-old and talking about the plight of undocumented immigrants. Mari glosses over, for example, the actual trek from Mexico to North Carolina when she was a child; granted, her parents probably didn't tell her much about it. And there are other moments where an adult reader would know exactly what was being referenced, but it would be largely lost to a child as it was to Tyler and Mari. My main critique is that a lot of things that could have been more nuanced were oversimplified, but I feel uncomfortable with that analysis because 1. I really don't know all that much about undocumented workers on Vermont dairy farms while the author clearly does and 2. the intended audience for the book is much younger than me. Secondarily, I thought the structure of the book with Tyler's more narrative and Mari's letters, was disjointed and often led to some awkward leaps in time with the characters looking back on events that weren't included in a straightforward narrative. A mixed bag for me, but maybe a good way to introduce elementary-age kids to a complex issue. show less