How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accent

How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accent by Julia Alvarez tells the story of four sisters trying to cope with...life. They each have their own personal struggles and part 1 of the book mostly centers around Yolanda, the third oldest sister. She has multiple personalties, each reflecting a different side of her. For example, one of her nicknames, "Joe" represents her American self, "Yoyo" is similar to the toy, and how it goes up and down, back and forth. It is similar to Yolanda's personality and how she keeps moving from one thing to the next.

Most of the first part of the book mainly focuses on Yolanda and her relationships with men. but before the chapters with Yolanda, I thought that most of it was about how Fifi and her father do not get along well because of her running away to Otto. Fifi was the 'rebel', as I would call it of her family. She liked to do things her way, and if she did not get what she wanted, she keeps trying. One day, on her trip to Colombia, she meets a German, Otto. They 'fall in love at first sight'  and keep in touch with each other by letters. Fifi's dad discovers the letters and is pissed off. I thought that, it was just another way to describe 'it's either your family or this man' and she chose Otto, her man. She goes and finds him, asks for his hand in marriage and now they have kids.

What's interesting about this book is that it goes in reverse-chronological order. That means that most of the events that are happening in the book are going backwards, which is how I got confused on the chapter with mostly Yolanda. The book says that she was married to a man John, whom loved her, but 'spoke in a different language' than her, then it hints that Yolanda falls in love with her doctor, who tries to help her keep her mind off leaving John. Then after the doctor part, there is another chapter about a guy, Rudy Elmhurst that only wants to have sex with Yolanda, but Yolanda seems to differ. She believes that her relationship with Rudy might just work out, and she tries her best stay together with him.

All-in-all, I thought that the first part of this book was a good hook. It's interesting how Alvarez makes it in reverse-chronological order to depict the events that happen to the sisters, also how she is capable of making the coherence with it flow.