by Julia Alvarez
(New York: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 1998)
($20.95 in U.S.)
In 1960, when Alvarez was ten years old, her father's participation in a failed coup attempt against Rafael Trujilo, the repressive dictator of the Dominican Republic, resulted in the family's self-imposed exile to New York City, where Dr. Alvarez set up a medical practice in the Bronx while his wife and four daughters set about the serious business of assimilation. That uprooting formed the thematic basis for two of Julia Alvarez's novels. Her father's revolutionary ties inspired the third, the story of one of Trujilo's most infamous atrocities.
Something to Declareis about the influences those experiences have had on her work, and about the practical lessons she's learned on her way to becoming the internationally acclaimed writer she now is.
"Customs," the first half of Something to Declare, examines the specfic effects of exile-surviving the shock of New York city public school life; yearning to fit in; watching the Miss America contest for clues to "beauty," American-style; worrying about reactions to her published writing back on the Island.
The essays in the second half, "Declarations," are about writing and range from confession of how she supported her writing habit early on to the gritty details of her own actual writing process. One of the most revealing is "In the Name of the Novel" in which she takes the reader along on a scouting trip in search of her next book. What's unexpected is that she lets us watch as the project falters and then fails.
As an experienced teacher of creative writing, Julia Alvarez is a popular speaker on college campuses and famous for her receptivity to probing questions from her audiences and for her generous responses. Something to Declarecaptures the unique rapport between the writer and her readers.