"Julia Alvarez has suitcases full of history (public and private),
trunks full of insights into what it means to be a Latina in the United
States, bags full of literary wisdom." --Los Angeles Times
From the internationally acclaimed author of the bestselling novels In
the Time of the Butterflies and How the García Girls Lost Their
Accents comes a rich and revealing work of nonfiction capturing the
life and mind of an artist as she knits together the dual themes of
coming to America and becoming a writer.
The twenty-four confessional, evocative essays that make up Something
to Declare are divided into two parts. "Customs" includes Alvarez's
memories of her family's life in the Dominican Republic, fleeing from
Trujillo's dictatorship, and arriving in America when she was ten years
old. She examines the effects of exile--surviving the shock of New York
City life; yearning to fit in; training her tongue (and her mind) to
speak English; and watching the Miss America pageant for clues about
American-style beauty. The second half, "Declarations," celebrates her
passion for words and the writing life. She lets us watch as she
struggles with her art--searching for a subject for her next novel,
confronting her characters, facing her family's anger when she invades
their privacy, reflecting on the writers who influenced her, and
continually honing her craft.
The winner of the National Medal of Arts for her extraordinary
storytelling, Julia Alvarez here offers essays that are an inspiring
gift to readers and writers everywhere.
"This beautiful collection of essays . . . traces a process of
personal reconciliation with insight, humor, and quiet power." --San
Francisco Examiner and Chronicle
"Reading Julia Alvarez's new collection of essays is like curling up
with a glass of wine in one hand and the phone in the other, listening
to a bighearted, wisecracking friend share the hard-earned wisdom about
family, identity, and the art of writing." --People
Julia Alvarez's new novel, Afterlife, is available now.
