Catch Hold Of Yo! Articulated By Julia Alvarez Compiled As Text
fun, likable book, large autobiographical, about going back home to the Dominican Republic after growing up in the U.
S. from the age ofor so on, Alvarez is an engaging writer, No particularly deep thoughts, but a lot of resonant experiences, combined with a nicely developed sympathy for the characters, I heard her read some of this several years ago and got this book autographed, one of the few signed copies I have.
She was very pleasant to talk to, Absolutely brilliant.
I was so impressed by the authors use of outside perspective to depict such a fascinating main character.
I feel like the picture of Yo was painted so vivdly by means of so many people that come and go from one's life.
I was very sad upon finishing, especially after the chapter from the dad's point of view, It rounded itself out with Yo being a child crying, and Yo as a middle age woman crying, Dunno why but something about that was pretty powerful, Definitely a good read.
The wedding guest chapter was phenomenal, Beautifully written. Obsessed by human stories, Latina novelist Yolanda Garcia has managed to put herself at the center of many lives, Thrice married, she's also managed to remain childless while giving very public birth to her highly autobiographical writing, She's famous for it. Now her characters want a chance to tell their side of it, And tell it they do! Everybody who's ever been caught in Yo's web from her sisters to her third husband can hardly wait to talk.
The stories they tell on celebrated writer Yolanda Garcia known to her intimates as Yo deliver delicious insight into the very nature of artistic creation and the material from which it is built.
Yo! is a novel about what happens when an author really does write what she knows.
At once funny and poignant, intellectual and gossipy, lighthearted and layered in meaning, Yo! is, above all, the portrait of an artist.
And with its bright colors, passion, and penchant for controversy, it's a portrait that could come only from the palette of Julia Alvarez.
I didn't read sitelinkHow the García Girls Lost Their Accents, so I feel like I'm probably missing some of the nuance here.
I bought it beaus I thought it would be interesting and I'd move through it pretty quickly well I was right!
It was good! And the most accurate representation of Latino family dynamics that I have read which was personally refreshing to me as there were finally aspects of a family drama that I could relate to.
But as always, Hailey Dightman please comment when you read this was right, it wasn't the book for me, I definitely like the idea of the narrative structure way more than I actually liked the book, A collection of short stories all depicting the same women, who kind of a wild, I'm almost a little annoyed I don't actually like her considering she is a sort of alter ego to Alvarez.
I generally enjoy all of Julia Alvarez's books, and I certainly enjoyed this one, It was more like a book of short stories rather than a novel with an extended narrative, which is why I only gave it four as I am not a huge fan of short stories.
However since the title character runs through all the stories, there was at least a central focus for the book.
This was a really cool book, Its about a character Yolanda, or Yo that never gets to speak for herself, Each chapter is written from a different perspective her sister, mom, dad, bestie, stoner boyfriend, landlord, husband, stalker, etc, They all talk about Yo at different time periods stretching from childhood to older age, and manage to both drill down on the same frustrating characteristics and highlight different facets of her softness.
As I got deeper into the book, I really wanted to hear from Yo herself but the reader never gets to it left me feeling slightly unsatisfied but mostly impressed.
You end the book not really knowing how to feel about this person that you know so much about! Alvarez should be really, really proud of the research that went into this book and her ability to put herself in others shoes.
The only chapter I really couldnt stand was the one with Dustin Hayes or whatever his name was he was too much of a caricature.
Id recommend to anyone who wants to read a complex novel, has never read Alvarezs work before, who likes stories about immigrants pulled between too cultures.
The only thing I didnt like was Alvarezs translation of Spanish words and phrases into English, but then I realized this book was written in.
It reads awkwardly at times, but I understand that that translation was an expectation when this was published, Yo! is the skeleton key that opened me up to planet books, Even though at seventeen, I got Holden in The Catcher in the Rye his cynical, maddening thought process, I truly resonated with big family, and lots of voices in Yo!, Thanks for opening the door, Another great book by an amazing author! Julia Alvarez is one of the best authors of our time!! This is another book that I didn't realize up front was a collection of short stories.
They're all connected, all different peoples' stories and impressions of Yolanda Garcia, aka Yo, A couple of them I really liked The teacher/romance The caretakers/revelation, a few I really hated The best friend/motivation The wedding guests/point of view The stalker/tone, but most of them I felt completely indifferent to.
One of my problems with this collection is that, despite the fact that each story is told by a different character, those characters all sound too much alike for me to believe they are real, separate, distinct people.
Even Yolanda never really came alive for me at all, It's possible that I would enjoy a more traditional approach from Alvarez, but after reading this, I'm not rushing out to try her other work.
I am reviewing a book called Yo! by Julia Alvarez, She is also the author of How The Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents and In The Time of The Butterflies, I have not read either of them but after reading this book I think I might check into the them.
YO! is a fiction book and it's about a writer Yolanda and the point of views of everyone around her, kind of like everyone's side of the story, and in different points in time.
The book YO! A girl that grows into a woman named Yolanda, Each chapter/person is different point in time, in some chapters she's a child and in others she is on her second marriage.
She hassister, Carla, Sandi, and Fifi they aren't main characters except for in the chapter called "the sisters", At points it can be a bit harder to follow then most books because basically Its characters in Yo's life telling their encounters and experiences with her.
Yolanda is Dominican and was born and somewhat raised in D, R. and when she was a child not that young though when they moves to New York, Yolanda is a passionate writer she loves to write, It started when she was a child telling stories and grows into her being teenager with a journal til' she becomes an adult with a bestseller, which her friends and family don't appreciate because it's a story with them as characters and of Yolanda's life.
The moral of the story is basically think before you speak well in her case write because it could affect the ones you love the most the worst
I didn't quite have a favorite scene but I did have a favorite character.
My favorite character would have to be Sarita, she is the maids daughter, they said she was part of the family but truly she wasn't and didn't have a room she and he mother lived in the Gracias' basement and she didn't have all the private type schools and private lessons or anything like that but despite that she made something of herself, she didn't just become a doctor but she runs a whole clinic.
I'm not going to tell you much more because I don't want to give the book away, but basically that's why I like her character.
This book was pretty good, There was definitely one thing that was interesting and memorable, the way the Author made the book, every chapter was a new person whether they mentioned them in the past or if they are going to be brought up again in the future and some how everyone is connected.
This book was decently descriptive I could do a decent amount of visualizing I could have at least one visualization in each chapter.
Like this quote from the chapter "the maids daughter" "She had stopped at a street lamp, and like a child, sticking out her tongue and laughing as the flakes pelted her face.
" There was some confusing parts because in some parts they used Spanish words I
didn't know so it made it heard to follow.
One question I do have is why did Julia Alvarez make the book the way she did, meaning each person had a side of the Gracias' life and their points of views of it
I would recommend this book to just about anyone it could be a teenage book or and adult, but I think that older people would like it more because they can relate to Yolanda's character because she is and adult in majority of the story, and adults can relate to other adults just like how teenagers can relate to other teenagers.
Teenagers aren't talking about getting married for the second time adults are, If you liked Sisterhood Of The Traveling Pants you might like this book because like the Sister Hood of The Traveling pants it jumps back and forth from character to character girl.
That's who I would recommend this book to, Overall this book was pretty interesting with the different presumptions of the characters and a bit confusing because you wouldn't know what point in time the character was talking about.
The sequel to How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accent, Julia Alvarez continues Yolanda's journey into American culture and how she changes from Domican Yolanda to American Yo and all of the struggles to maintain a balance between the two cultures.
As expected this book was not as quite as good as the predecessor because I already knew the characters but still has Alvarez amazing prose so I enjoyed it all the same.
Highly recommended. Another great Julia Alvarez book! It's kind of the literary equivalent of a concept album is that even a thing, in that all the stories revolving around Yolanda García are grouped in sections and each designated by some sort of literary concept Part I is all genres, Part II plot elements, Part III abstract ideas.
Reading the table of contents, it looks a little overwhelming or rigid or silly, but it works out, There is not much on any of the other sisters introduced in How the García Girls Lost Their Accents, but Alvarez shows many different sides of Yo: not all flattering, but all interesting.
There were two parts that didn't really work for me: "The student" and the character of Yo's exboyfriend Dexter in "The suitor" and "The wedding guests.
" In both of these instances, Alvarez is adopting the viewpoint of American males, and in "The student" it feels very cliché jock and not indepth like, I could have written that for all I've observed the sports players on campus, while with Dexter she really lays it on way too thick with the "Southerner" thing.
But for the most part I loved the book, "What did he and this lady think That money could buy the only thing the poor could have for free, their own children"
Emerging as an actual very bright, very original, very nostalgiromantistoric.
A bona fide portrait of a woman with many haters and lovers, a writer one easily begins to think is Alvarez herself.
Also, that she's writtento my knowledge, since I still have some exploring of her entire body of workat leastnovels aboutsisters, about the table that requires sturdy legs as much as a good novel necessitates glimmers of humor and pathos, and original voices all masters of their section, all ingeniously and aptly titled.
This book is about what happens when instead of quiet and complacent angels, the Garcia sisters become fiery and disobedient: a theme I've encountered in her two books Ive read previously, In the Time of the Butterflies and her most recent Afterlife.
This is up there with "Olive Kitteridge", but strikes louder with me as I knew a couple of fabulous people from the DR whose voice I remember upon reading this.
When the characters return in a different characters anecdote, or section, or chapter, it truly is a joyous occasion.
The title of the novel is insistent upon itself, it is an ode to the sister or it could be us, MEYO.
The inverted exclamation point is uniquely Spanish it is also a greeting between two friends, Love her or hate her, Yolanda Garcia sure does make an impressionand yet has no time of her own in the narrative: splashes, impressions, I'll admit, in the beginning, it took some time to get into, and I especially didn't like that the whole book was centered around Yo strange, because isn't that the title of the book I suppose it didn't really impact me that this whole book was to be all about Yo.
. . oops.
However, as I read, I grew to like the book a lot, The author employs a chronological storytelling, starting from the present and going deep into the past, back to where it all started, just like in How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents.
It starts with the Garcia girls and the whole clan being up in arms and holding a grudge against Yo, who has written a book about them.
With the arrival of Sandi's baby, Sandi tells Yo about what has happened during the days they didn't talk to her, this "her one chance to say all she wants without someone in the family cutting in with their version of the story".
Throughout the rest of the book, we hear the story of Yo and her attachment to storytelling and writing from the different cast of characters in her life: her Mami who tells an intriguing story of the bear and their lives in NY, her cousin Lucinda who goes to college with Yo, Sarita the maid's daughter who grows up with the girls in the US, Yo's professor Garfield her advisor and mentor, Consuelo who works with the family and asks for Yo's advice, Sergio and Maria whom Yo helped seek closure, Tammy Yo's best friend, Marie Yo's landlady in the States, Lou Yo's English student, Dexter Yo's suitor, the guests at her wedding, Jose the night watchman, Doug her third husband and his daughter Corey, her stalker, and Papi her father.
Even though it seemed like too many characters, I realized that each of them was important, Although they talked about Yo, her struggles with writing and life and her commitment to family that ties her to her values and morals, these characters also spoke of their own struggles and even how Yo helped them.
Yo! teaches that everyone has their struggles and their own story to tell, and that we touch each and every person we encounter in a number of ways.
Yo! also addresses prevalent issues that are still relevant today, such as domestic abuse, love, gay/lesbian issues, feminism, and assimilation.
Published a few years after sitelinkHow the Garcia Girl Lost Their Accents, Yo! feels like a companion to the previous book, bringing back the GarciaTorres clan, Lucinda, Consuelo, among others, but then introducing others that have an impact on Yo's life and vice versa.
It was fascinating and exciting to see all the characters in the book come together, where you could recognize each and every character and know their inner story.
Alvarez's descriptive and beautiful writing flowed as she hopped betweenst andrd person narrative, and I could picture her characters and their stories vividly.
All in all, it was a really great book! :
"stories is how we take care of each other"
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