Evening Book Club in October

In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept. 15-Oct.15), the Evening book club read and discussed "In the Time of the Butterflies" by Julia Alvarez.
"They were the four Mirable sisters - symbols of defiant hope in a country shaowed by dictatorship and despair. They sacrificed their safe and comfortable lives in the name of freedom. Their codename in the revolution was Las Mariposas, 'the butterflies,' and in this extraordinary novel, Patria, Minerva, Maria Teresa, and Dede speak across the decades to tell their own stories. From tales of hair ribbons and secret crushes to gunrunning and prison torture, they describe the everyday horrors-and the unbelievable joy- of life in the Dominican Republic under dictator Trujillo. Through art and magic, the martyred Butterflies come to vibrant and dramatic life in a warm, brilliant, and heartbreaking story that makes a haunting statement about the human cost of political oppression."
US Penguin Group

Julia Alvarez's father was part of the same group as the Mirabel sisters and they got out, and the Mirabel's did not. Julia, her mother, her father, and her sisters all got out. The book club members enjoyed talking about the "voice" that Alvarez gave to the Mirabel sisters, their lives, their loves, and their faith. They were very human, not tragic stick figures. As a society we need to keep writing and reading books about these awful, charismatic dictators since they seem to keep reappearing in various countries and societies.