Book Review: How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez

In How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, the lives of the four Garcia girls are told through short glimpses into each girl's memories and experiences.  The Garcias are an immigrant family from the Dominican Republic who had to flee their home for the safety of the United States.  The four girls have rebelled in different ways and become Americanized, but still have a strong connection to "the island" as they call it. Julia Alvarez begins her novel in a more present time, when the girls are adults, dealing with their adult lives and issues while trying to stay connected to their family.  From there, she moves backward with each chapter until we are finally with the girls when they are are young and back living on the island.

I enjoyed much of this book and was pulled through the first and second section, each of these taking place in the states when they are in their adult lives and then their teen and pre-teen lives.  However, for me the story ended when it moved back to the island before the Garcias were forced to flee from their home country.  In this last section I lost interest.  At first I was curious about why they had to leave, but this was answered rather quickly in the last section, followed by a few more chapters in which we follow the girls on a few adventures while they are living on the island.  None of this really answered any questions for me or tied everything together.  I would have been much happier ending with the episode that explained why they had to leave.

In addition, I felt it difficult to keep the voices of the girls straight.  There are a few chapters told from the Mami's perspective, which I enjoyed, but the rest are focused on one of the four girls.  Unfortunately, switching back and forth from one character to another left me grasping for something that grounded one of them in a place that allowed me understand them.  Voices mingled together and I became lost in which sister was which and who was the oldest.  Maybe this was the point.  Each of the girls (and the mother) refer to the fact that they were known as "the girls" and part of their identity was wrapped up in being a member of this tribe of sisters.  As children, their clothing was color coded.  Each child wore only pink, or yellow, or white.  I can imagine being lost within this larger identity of the family as a unit of four girls, one mother and one father and no individual identity.   Even when they are older, they girls seem to be "the girls" and not their individual selves. 

All in all How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents reads as though it is a collection of short stories about a family of immigrants.  I believe that I would have enjoyed it more had it been advertised as such.  I do recommend this book, but only if you are willing to have a few glimpses into the life of this family.  You will not have a chance to become their friends and worry about them and hope for their well-being.  You will not miss them when it is over.  I give this novel 3 our 5 stars.