In the Time of the Butterflies

On December 18, 2002 I wrote in my book journal:

It is unfortunate that the first book for my new journal is one that sucks. Today I finished reading In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez. This book lacked any substance of a piece of literature. It was a good story or should I say, it could have been a good story but the way in which it was told made the story lose meaning. This book was about 4 Maribal sisters who lived during the time of the refolution in the Dominican Republic. They all joined an underground refolution to overthrow a dictator named Trujillo. All of them except Dede that is. They were a well-to-do family who suffered because they questioned the ways of their ruler.

What the people of the Dominican were subject to is absolutely horrible. People were arrested and excecuted for no reason. They were tortured in prison, their land, homes and belongings stolen by the government. The Mirabal sisters wanted more for their country and began to plan a revolution to assassinate Trujillo. Two of the sisters were caught though and thrown in prison for 9 months. Their husbands and the husband of a third sister were also put in prison. The two sistere were tortured and one was forced to miscarry while in jail.

When they got out, they were placed under house arrest and were only allowed to leave to visit their husbands, shop, etc. While on the way hom from visiting one day. Three of the Mirabal sisters were stopped in their vehicle, forced out, beaten to death and thrown off a cliff with their vehicle and their driver. Their family was told they were in a car wreck, but they knew better.

Trujillo had ordered them killed. Their assassins were sentenced to 20-30 years but were exiled after the revolution where Trujillo was also assasinated. This could have been a great story but I told it better in the last 4 paragraphs then the author did in her 300+ pages of nonsense. First of all, the story was told in 1st person by each sister. It was difficult to follow who was narrating. She also did not assign any physical attributes to any of the characters. The reader could only recognize them by name.

I read this book for my book club. We choose a new book every month. I hear that a movie was made by showtime of this book that came out last year sometime. I would be anxious to see this same true story told in a different way.