Summary
A fictional account of the three (+1 wallflower sister) Mirabal sisters and their role in the revolution in attempting to overthrow the Trujillo dictatorship of the Dominican Republic. The sisters are eventually assassinated indirectly by Trujillo, this appears to have paved the way for his own assassination six months later.
Thoughts
While I appreciate the engaging narrative presented by Julia Alvarez, I feel conflicted in providing a comprehensive review of this book, as I initially believed it to be more historical than fictional. The unique format—each chapter narrated by one of the four sisters—may take some getting used to, with many passages resembling journal entries. In her afterword, Alvarez explains her decision to rely on the essence of the sisters’ lives rather than conducting in-depth interviews or research, drawing from her father’s involvement in the anti-Trujillo underground network as justification for this approach.
The book itself is fairly entertaining as we follow the sisters each growing up in their own ways, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. My main complaint with this book is the absolute lack of detail on the sisters’ revolutionary activities. We find out all sorts of details about the sisters and their acquaintances, we are painted a very thorough picture of their daily activities all except for their revolutionary actions. There are many meetings attended by the sisters, but the things discussed, the plans made, actions taken never make an appearance. This omission doesn’t feel accidental, but it does make the reader wonder; were the meetings boring? Were they uninspiring? Did they not accomplish their goals? We’ll never know, because for whatever reason they were not included in the story.
Having said that, the sisters themselves are still inspiring, especially Minerva the ringleader. They became national heroes for standing up to a dictator when few else did. Their story is worth hearing.