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Customer Reviews of In the Time of the Butterflies

"Butterflies" Is Beautiful
In the Time of the Butterflies is an intriguing, historically based story, which appears to be an underemphasized subject in the United States. Not much is written on the dictator Trujillo, or the people who rebelled against him for that matter. The fictional first person accounts of the Mirabal sister's opposition to Trujillo's reign are a remarkable way to weave a poetic story of an actual historic event. Julia Alavarez's Dominican background was helpful, as well as her time spent interviewing the last surviving Mirabal sister, Dede. Although this novel is recommended for its incredible story of defiance, I caution readers to be careful and observant while reading because of certain transitions that might lead to confusion. Also, Alvarez's personal style of writing is wonderful in many ways, yet she fails with some stylistic choices.
The novel is separated by individual perspectives of each Mirabal sister. The characters have distinguishable traits, but their actual voices are way too similar in style to be believable. Instead, it feels more like Alvarez is the mind behind it all, using her same sense of poeticism and imagery for all four sisters. She tends to add small anecdotes that would be common tendencies for each sister, yet they seem too forced at times. For example, Minerva is always speaking of having to hold herself back because of her bold nature, or Patria always speaks to God. Then there is Maria Teresa and her love of clothes and shoes, and Dede who lacks bravery. The character's personalities are distinct, but their own ways of describing themselves are not present. Alvarez wants to give a good amount of characterization which is great, but she would have been better off writing in one perspective since she cannot pull off these separate voices.
In its entirety the novel is clear and comprehensible, that is until the passages written in Dede's point of view. Her passages are the only ones with transitions between the past and present, and at times it is not executed well enough. It can become a bit confusing what place in time is being presented, so just be aware of the lines that separate present to past flashbacks. As long as one keeps alert to these time changes, the confusion can be avoided.
There may be some flaws to the way In the Time of the Butterflies was written, but Alvarez's talents cannot be overlooked. Along the way she constantly drops hints, and foreshadows to the inevitability of the Mirabal sister's deaths. She does this in an outstanding way, leaving the reader incredibly curious to discover what's to come. From the very first chapter Alvarez tantalizes you to read on, "By the time it is over it will be the past, and she doesn't want to be the only one left to tell their story."(p.10) A need to find out why Dede is the only surviving sister begins in the first chapter, and the novel becomes a page turner, that never fails to excite. Alvarez also uses some striking metaphoric qualities. There is of course the obvious metaphor of the sisters being butterflies, or 'La Mariposas', in Spanish. She depicts them as free-spirited, yet delicate and easily damaged. "... an overgrown fat boy, ashamed of himself for kicking the cat and pulling the wings off butterflies."(p. 217). This quote refers to Officer Pena, a man under Trujillo's regime, who is one of the many who tries to destroy La Mariposas. If anything the novel should be read for Alvarez's approach in telling such an important story.
The Mirabal sisters were political martyrs working together as a family. Julia Alavarez shows these sisters though with human qualities. She may have some weak points in her novel, but moreover it is a powerful, marvelous effort to combine fact and fiction. Not only does the story itself touch the hearts of those who read it, but Alvarez's elegant words complete it.

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A Metaphorical and Poetic Journey
In the Time of the Butterflies, is a novel written in fiction about factual historical story. The Mirabel sisters were immediately brought in to the plot with drama straight from the beginning. Although we know at the very beginning the fortune of the sisters, the book offers many secrets. Julia Alvarez wonderfully enchanted her readers with suspense and the eagerness to want to read on at the end of the chapter by being extremely poetic with great stylistic choices and also using outstanding metaphors.
Alvarez is able to take an extremely complex political story and turn it into a one with a poetic nature that is quite harmonious to read with remarkable attributes of the stylistic choices that she has decided to convey. She chose to write this in multiple 1st person with four sisters, the Mirabel sisters. Each sister, for the most part, was easily identified by the different tone and melody that their chapters included to stimulate the disparities between them. For example, Alvarez chose to write the youngest sister, Maria Theresa's chapters in diary form with a much more child-like characteristic to her entries. Maria Theresa childishly states on pages 35-36 "...But these newest ones are patent leather, and I have always wanted patent leather shoes...I had such a hard time deciding between the patent leather and white leather for church today." It is obvious that Maria Theresa is naïve about what is going on politically and that she is concerned about child-like issues; which really add to the novel because it makes the reader care about the character. Alvarez also tends to peak into Spanish lingua every so often and that familiarizes the reader with the setting, which happens to be the Dominican Republic. This adds an extreme kick to the book that is fun because it makes the reader feel a part of the community in which they lived.
The metaphorical usage in this book is tremendous and brings out a beauty in the book that wouldn't otherwise exist. Even though when one first picks up the book, they might not know what the metaphor for butterflies is, they can surely identify that it is some sort of metaphor that is largely used in this book. Once taking a look at the Mariposas, it was easy to figure out that the Mirabel sisters were the butterflies; butterflies who are emerging from their cocoon, frailly being set free as peaceful creatures. Alvarez also uses a garden metaphor on page 179 "...And it was disturbing to see-among the established plantings-the raw brown earth like a wound in the ground." This metaphor represents re-birth for Dede, the only life that she can really grasp at that moment with all the chaos swarming around her life.
With a quick glimpse of extremely positive attributes of this book, there is much more to learn and read about which Alvarez can help lead you through your next 324 page journey. This book is not just filled with enlightening information, but is also a really good and important read to have read. This is one of those books that you will want to read again some day, or just say, hey, I read that book.

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My favorite book...
This has to be one of my favorite books, if not my overall favorite. I am a huge Alvarez fan, and have read most of her works. I found this book in particular to be truly inspirational. It made me want to go out there and become a revolutionary! But while we all may not go to that extreme, it will at least make you want to appreciate each day to it's fullest, and it's a good history lesson at that.