August 3, 1998
Having transformed her tumultuous life story--a passage from childhood in the Dominican Republic and Queens, N.Y., to a career as a celebrated author and creative writing teacher--into a body of startlingly lyrical fiction and poetry ( Yo!, etc.), Alvarez here chronicles that journey in nonfiction form. These 24 autobiographical essays are meant to answer various questions her readers have posed about her life and her writing. For Alvarez, these questions ultimately can be summed up in one line: "Do you have anything more to declare?" The first section of the book, "Customs," paints with vibrant, earthy clarity--in classic Alvarez style--the author's Dominican girlhood, surrounded by the rich cast of characters that made up her extended family and the constant menace of dictator Rafael Trujillo's police state. She also describes her escape to the U.S. with her parents and sisters, along with the assimilation that made her a "hyphenated American." The seeds of her writerly beginnings are picked out here and then further explored in the second part of her book, "Declarations." These essays examine the difficult balance between the writing life and "real life"; the joys of teaching; the daily process of writing; and an unsuccessful trip to Necedeh, Wis., to research a potential novel. Alvarez also includes her "ten commandments" for writing, which consist of some of the author's favorite quotes (beginning with a Zen saying and ending with Samuel Johnson's well-known credo, "If you want to be a writer, then write. Write every day!"). Taken together, the pieces are as open and lively as Alvarez's readers have come to expect from her work, although the inspiration and guidance they offer to aspiring writers are less striking. (Sept.) FYI: Plume has just published the Spanish-language edition of Alvarez's second novel, In the Time of the Butterflies; Plume's Spanish edition of Yo! will be out in 1999.
August 1, 1998
This first collection of essays, some previously published, by award-winning Hispanic American author Alvarez (How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, LJ 5/1/91) ranges freely between her life as a child displaced by her family's flight from the Dominican Republic and her development as a writer. In two sections, she explores childhood memories of trying to become part of American society, her developing interest in writing--encountering encouragement from a teacher and some discouragement from her family--and the road to becoming a full-time writer. Along the way, she offers comments on teaching--repeating Roethke's saying that teaching is "one of the few professions that permit love"--and some advice for young writers, including the idea that "we are here to learn a craft that truly takes all of life to learn." This collection will be of interest to both public and academic libraries.--Nancy Shires, East Carolina Univ., Greenville, NC
April 1, 1999
YA-The poet and novelist brings together two dozen pithy autobiographical essays that are by turn humorous, thoughtful, or frightening. The first third of the book follows Alvarez's early Dominican childhood-when she was one of the wild cousins who was seated between well-behaved ones at family gatherings-through her family's immigration to the United States and their assimilation. Later essays take up the author's college years, budding career as a writer, marriages, and return trips to the Dominican Republic. Alvarez presents her personal experiences with a literary skill that converts them into universal moments. This book will delight her fans, attract new readers to her previous work, and open the possibility for discussions about experiences with emigration, immigration, growing apart from one's family, and discovering one's own career path and status as an adult.-Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA
August 1, 1998
Readers can sense the bright flame of Alvarez's young self in her exuberant novels, and that same energy animates her essays, whether she's describing her Dominican Republic childhood or her life in the U.S. Two themes shape her first nonfiction collection: family and literature. In her familial recollections, she emerges as the most rebellious of four sisters and nearly the only one in the entire clan to be bookstruck. This love of reading proved providential because books helped her cope with her family's abrupt move to New York City (a leave-taking necessitated by her parents' resistance work against the island's dictatorship) and the long struggle to feel comfortable in a culture that automatically stigmatized her and her relatives by virtue of their accents and appearance. As she moves on to contrast the dynamics of family life with the solitude of writing, Alvarez ends up sharing her views on such personal matters as food, marriage, and the decision not to be a mother, all the while exuding an easy charm that almost succeeds in concealing the tremendous force of her will. ((Reviewed August 1998))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1998, American Library Association.)