This is a fun read, in large part because of the format. Each chapter is told by a different character, revolving around one Yolanda Garcia (Yo for short), a writer whom we get to know in a delightful variety of ways: from her sister, her college professor, one of her several husbands, the caretaker of her cousin’s estate in the Dominican Republic, even her creepy stalker. The stories jump around in place and time – some take place in the U.S., some in the D.R. – and feature characters from many walks of life, who have a wide variety of opinions about Yo. She is a complex, colorful character, and it’s fun to see the similarities and differences in the other characters’ portrayals.

 

Overall, this is a light contemporary read, though there are some forays into darker material (such as the family’s fleeing the D.R. during the Trujillo regime, when Yo and her sisters are children). Alvarez seems to have a good understanding of her own limitations, often missing in authors who attempt multiple narrators; some stories are told in first person and some in third, but she wisely sticks to the third person for characters likely further from her own experience and more difficult to render credibly in first person (a Dominican peasant woman who seeks Yo’s assistance in writing an important letter to her daughter, for instance). It’s a very readable book, and my only real complaint involves the occasionally over-the-top metaphors; the honking of a flight of geese is described as “a cross between a human cry and the trumpets of those angels that are going to descend on the last day to sort out of the good and bad souls like laundry.” I understand the use of figurative language to highlight a character’s background, but that’s a bit much. Leaving Yo in a dangerous place in what seems to be the last story chronologically isn’t my favorite choice either. Nevertheless, I enjoyed this book and think it would be a good book club pick.

Alvarez, J. (2011) How Tía Lola learned to teach: The Tía Lola series. New York, NY: Yearling.

 

Tía Lola has been invited to teach Spanish at her niece and nephew’s elementary school. Miguel wants nothing to do with the arrangement. On the other hand, Miguel’s little sister, Juanita, can’t wait to introduce her colorfully dressed aunt with her migrating beauty mark to all her friends at school—that is, if she can stop getting distracted long enough to remember to do so. Before long, Tía Lola is organizing a Spanish treasure hunt and a Carnaval fiesta at school. 

 

Julia Alvarez has bridged the Americas many times. Born in New York and raised in the Dominican Republic, she is a poet, fiction writer, and essayist, author of world-renowned books in each of the genres, including How the García Girls Lost their Accents, In the Time of the Butterflies, and Something to Declare. She lives on a farmstead outside Middlebury, Vermont, with her husband Bill Eichner.

 

Grades 3-7

Realistic Fiction

The works of this award-winning poet and novelist are rich with the language and influences of two cultures: those of the Dominican Republic of her childhood and the America of her youth and adulthood. They have shaped her writing just as they have shaped her life. In these seventy-five autobiographical poems, Alvarez’s clear voice sings out in every line. Here, in the middle of her life, she looks back as a way of understanding and celebrating the woman she has become.

Amazon.com

 

 

 

 

It's hard for me to know where to start when reviewing a collection of poetry, but I guess I start with saying that I found these poems to be absolutely gorgeous, even when talking about not-so-pretty topics! As one might guess from the title, these poems cover the span of Alvarez's life up to the time of this collection being written. She speaks of the struggles of trying to find her space in the world as a Dominican child being transplanted to New York City. The poems speaking on this also give a nod of pride and respect to her parents who seemed to remain solid and vigilant, their everyday actions promoting perseverance through adversity, even as young Julia would watch them falter and rebuild time and time again. 

 

"Long after I'd lost my heavy accent, my face showed I had come from somewhere else. I couldn't keep the southern continent out of the northern vista of my eyes."

 

from "All-American Girl"

 

She also gets real about her adult years, with poems that only give a whispering reference to a failed marriage and what that taught her. Briefly she writes of the doubts she had about herself during that time, questioning whether or not she understood love. Choosing not to linger with the negative moments, she instead focuses on finding love again later in life, writing poems of gratitude for all that life has taught her -- about herself, her family, her roots, even her connections with the natural world. 

 

from Alvarez's "Locust"

 

Not every poem was an absolute hit for me -- I didn't entirely connect with "Anger & Art", for instance -- but that didn't diminish my enjoyment of the collection one bit. This is one I will definitely be referring back to in years to come, and I am curious to see, as I read some of Alvarez's novels,  where connections can be made between her writings within the two genres.

 

from Alvarez's "El Sereno"

 

 

I've included some samples -- not the poems in their entirety -- from some of my favorites from this collection below.

 

 

"Museo del Hombre": the closing line -- Become the one you have been waiting for. 

 

"ARS Politica" : I yearned to write the story of my life into a book a girl might want to read, a girl like me, no longer frightened by the whisperings of terrified adults, the cries of uncles being rounded up, the sirens of the death squads racing by, toward a destination I could change with an eraser or a trick ending. There had to be a way to make the world safer, so I could bear to live in it!

 

"Tom": We make art out of ourselves and what we make makes us. 

 

"My Bottom Line": You are the bottom line, my love, the net that catches me each time I take a leap toward an absolute that isn't there but appears dispersed in the relative: warm supper waiting when I get in late, my folded long johns on the laundry stack, the covers on my side turned sweetly down when finally I head upstairs from work that couldn't wait til morning, the love note tucked in my suitcase for my night away...I'm so relieved I'm not an ingenue searching for you at parties, singles bars. I have you, waiting when my plane gets in, curling your body in the shape of mine, my love, my number one, my bottom line. 

 

Other favorites of mine included "Gaining Myself Back", "Touching Bottom", "That Moment", and "Canons".

 

 

If someone had simply sat me down and told me what this book was about and the characters it contained, I would have expected to like it. As it was, I was not disappointed. Even though I knew what was coming in the end, it was still heart-wrenching to read, because Alvarez did such a fantastic job of making the characters feel like living, breathing, real people. I was drawn in by each one of their stories, by their unique voices, and by their genuinely relatable lives. Due to class deadlines, I had to read this book in a single day, but I very well may reread in order to take a bit more time with certain parts. Regardless, I am a huge fan of this book, and recommend it to anyone who wants their literature to be the perfect balance of heartwarming and heartbreaking.

Rating: 4 Stars

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