In the Time of the Butterflies
Ratings50
Average rating3.9
This was a terrible book. The summary and back were totally misleading. They said the book would be about a few girls fighting in a revolution however the entire book the girls react to the fighting of the revolution. the entire book is them being scared because they joined the revolution or deciding whether or not they should join the revolution. The book is also very hard to get through and even when you do the story is so bad you'll wish you hadn't. I hate everything about this book.
3.5 stars.
The story was interesting and provided so much new information. Characters were interesting, but some were more developed than others.
The shifting of perspectives sometimes detracted from the story.
I am having a hard time reviewing the story itself because after reading it I feel so much anger toward the real-life antagonist, Rafael Trujillo, the dictator of the Dominican Republic from 1930-1961. There are few first-hand encounters with him in the book, but the effects he had on the islanders are so lucid that it's hard not to come away from reading this with at least a little rancor.
That aside, In the Time of Butterflies is a beautifully written story of how a family of strong women and their husbands lived, loved, and fought under an oppressive regime. It's a very human introduction to the recent history of the Dominican Republic and, apart from the parallels to actual history, a well-paced, well-written story with plenty of action and emotion.
As Banned Books Week ends, I have just finished reading Julia Alvarez's “In the Time of the Butterflies.” Alvarez tells of the Mirabal sisters in the Dominican Republic during the time of ruthless dictator Rafael Trujillo. Las mariposas, the butterflies, each in her own way, find the courage to oppose the brutalities of this despot, and three of them are murdered for their refusal to yield. The work is a historical fiction that develops a haunting and beautiful portrait each of the three murdered sisters and of the sister, Dede, who survives to tell their story. Alvarez weaves a remarkable story that is still compelling, even as the sisters draw toward their inevitable end. But the soul of the book is the celebration of their lives, and not a mordant fascination with their deaths.
The book has been banned for various reasons. It includes a crude diagram of a bomb the revolutionaries construct in their preparation for a revolution. Men and women portrayed in the novel have sexual feelings and act upon them, but not in a prurient manner. And more recently, conservatives are appalled that people being tortured and murdered in their country might speak well of revolutionaries in Cuba who overthrow their government. Mary Grabar is the most ludicrous of this sort of critic. She positively gets the vapors about the implied masturbation in one page and by the characters praising of Castro in some small sections when the entire book graphically portrays the terror of living under an autocratic regime. http://frontpagemag.com/2013/mary-grabar/common-core-exemplars-graphic-sex-and-praising-castro/
Okay, this is going from review to rant, but how can anyone be a professor of literature with this attitude: “I must admit that I would have been too embarrassed to teach Julia Alvarez's sexually explicit novel, In the Time of the Butterflies, to the college students I have taught for over twenty years, much less to ninth- and tenth-graders, as many Georgia high school teachers have been instructed to do.” First, that Georgia high school teachers have been told to teach the work to ninth and tenth graders is a damnable lie. And second, if you have seen Miley Cyrus lately, you aren't going to lose your innocence by reading a novel that's essence is the unyielding resolve of people, especially these women, and our ability to find courage in the most difficult and trying times.
Even today, Georgia's Governor Nathan Deal has asked that the Common Core English Language Arts exemplars be removed by the state board of education. Evidently, the Gov and his circle mistakenly believe that English teachers might see a two-page passage in the Common Core documents and think they must teach the novel to be able to pass the test. The governor has even called for the creation of a single state reading list of “approved” books. http://www.ajc.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/deal-orders-review-of-common-core/nZYbc/
I certainly imagine that Rafael Trujillo would agree with that sentiment.
Great historical fiction. I really liked how Alvarez created the narrative voices from her research, especially using Dede, the only surviving sister. She certainly allows an attachment to each character and, I believe, purposely reinforces the unreliable narrator. I think this adds to the realism of the book. I would recommend for sure, and I may teach it one day.