Thursday, March 06, 2008

Julia Alvarez's most important books

Julia Alvarez grew up in the Dominican Republic before emigrating to the United States at the age of 10. She is the award-winning author of How the García Girls Lost Their Accents, ¡Yo!, Once Upon a Quinceañera, and the National Book Critics Circle Award finalist, In the Time of the Butterflies.

She named her five most important books for Newsweek, and addressed a couple of related questions:
A classic book that, upon revisiting, disappointed:

The Arabian Nights, I'm sorry to say. There are too many dull stories, plus all the kowtowing to the male ego is enough to make your hair curl.

A book that you always return to:

T. S. Eliot's The Four Quartets, a long, mystical poem that reboots my spirit.
Read about Alvarez's most important books.

--Marshal Zeringue