My first impression of "Garcia Girls"

In How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez, the author write the book in many unique ways. Alvarez had written the book in reverse chronologically order. I was puzzled by that idea that an author would do that. The book is confusing and I tend to lose sight to where I am. I placed so many post-its in the first part that I wanted the author answer. Some on them were but many of them were not. In the end, I figure out who is communicating and what the section in about.

I found the book confusing mainly because I have had no experience about the book at all. I did not know who the author was and her background. It was fresh and I did not know where to start when I first received the book. When I first began the book, the author didn't give any background information about characters except for the family chart that marked the main characters' position in the family. The author just began with a story after story. Sometimes, Julia Alvarez just jumps from one scene to the next barely or not even making any transition at all. Until the end of each section, I was confused but as the story progresses I slowly understood the plot and the main point of each section. Julia Alvarez wrote the book where it was just the perfect amount of confusion but it also gave a chance for the reader to understand what is going on.

Besides the confusion part, I found the book quite interesting. I enjoyed how there were like miniature stories within the book. It was similar to House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros where there were vignettes. It was also nice how she had included a family diagram so that the reader would know the family.

My favorite part of the book in Part 1 was the section where Sofia (FiFi) had lost her father's trust since she had run away with another man. The father disowns her and he does not speak of her name. Even when Sofia tried to throw a party for him on his 70th birthday, the father still did not approve of her. One of my questions was why the father held the grudge for such a long time. I am hoping that it will be answered later.