Pallassino: Cover to Cover

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iction writers are supposed Association. Her first, How the Garda Nonfictional to write about what they Gir!.J Lo.:~t Their AccentJ, won the PEN know, but how much of w hat Oakland/Josephine Miles Award for lit­ F they know should be put erary excellence in books that reflect a fiction down on paper? multicultural view. The novel recounts In Julia Alvarez's iYol, writer the flight of the Garda family from the Yolanda Garcia-whose nickname gives brutal dictatorship of Raphael Trujillo, When art mirror.1 thi.J the novel its title-pens a fi ctionalized known as EL Jefe. Alvarez shifts narration account of her family. To the family's among family members who, in reverse famiLy'cJ Life, the re.1uLt.1 chagrin, Yo includes intimate details of chronological order, tell how they adjust­ can be me.1.1y their lives. ed to their new lives in New York City. Yo's mother threatens to sue her. Two In ;Yo!, a sequel to Garcia Gir!..:J, Alva­ of her three sisters won't speak to her, rez uses the same shifting perspective. and one of them, who is pregnant, for­ Here the narrators are Yo's family, bids anyone to tell friends, and acquaintances, the people Yo about it, for w ho provided the fodder for her novel. fear that her baby Each speaks his or her mind- sisters, will also be "fic­ mother, father, cousin, former lover, tionally victimized." teacher, student, even a stalker-and "She has this together their stories bring Yolanda whole spiel about Garda into focus. The only character art and life mir­ who is not permitted to speak in the first roring each other person is Yo. and how you've In 1Yo!, as in Garda Giri..:J before it, Al­ got to write about varez writes about w hat she knows. Her what you know," family emigrated to New York in 1960, one sister tells a­ fleeing EL Je(e'.J regime. Yo teaches writ­ ...... c: nother after see­ ing at a small New England college; ing Yo on televi­ Alvarez is an English professor at Mid­ sion. "I couldn't dlebury College in Vermont. And Yo's listen to it; it was novel sounds a lot like Alvarez's own making me sick." Garcia Giri..:J. Interestingly, Alvarez chose 3... ., The sister the Spanish word for 'T' as her charac­ who still talks to ter's nickname. ::=3 Yo describes her As a young girl in the Dominican ....! efforts to console Republic, Alvarez found a gun hidden in ~ ---.:::::j the outcast while her father's closet. Unaware of the dan­ ••••• J ::::] dealing with her ger to her family - her father had ties to own feelings of the underground opposing Trujillo - she t betrayal: "'Hey,' I spoke about the gun in school. When her say, putting the parents learned what she had done, they best face on this reacted in fear and anger, severely pun­ I\U1Hor 01 HOJ.I THr Ulll{/!l rJ!W LOfT Tlwt A(((I/Tf AWP messy situation, 'I ishing her. iYol contains a similar scene, _ /!1 THr Tir'!r Of T/1( $UTTrlfl!(f -'3 bet there were a shown first from Yo's mother's perspec­ =------~...;·;:.:.::: lot of people mad tive, then from her father's. Frightened iYo! at Shakespeare, but aren't we all glad he by the possibility of arrest, Yo's father By JuLia ALvarez G'75 wrote Hamlet? ... But still,' I go on, getting beats her, telling her, "You must never 350 pp. A(qonquin BoolcJ. $18.95 everyone's point of view in, 'imagine how ever tell stories!" you'd feel if you were his mother."' Yet it is the father who gives his bless­ i Yo! is Alvarez's third novel. New,/day ing to Yo's book: "We left everything called the 1975 graduate of The College behind and forgot so much .... My grand­ of Arts and Sciences "the foremost children and great-grandchildren will chronicler of the Dominican immigrant." not know the way back unless they have H er second novel, In the Tinu of d1e But­ a story. Tell them of our journey. Tell tetf!iu - a fi ctionalized portrait of the them the secret heart of your father and martyred Mirabal sisters of the Do­ undo the old wrong. My Yo, embrace minican Republic-was named a 1995 your dutino .. .. " Best Book by the American Library - GARY PALLASS!NO

6 Published by SURFACE, 1996 SYRACUSE UN IV E RS ITY MAGA Z INE 1 Syracuse University Magazine, Vol. 13, Iss. 2 [1996], Art. 3

Soaring with the Schweizers: Dog People: Native Dog Stories The Fifty-Year History of By Jodeph Bruchac G'66 Their Aviation Adventures 65 pp. FuLcrum K/2<1. $14.95 By WiLLiam Schweizer '41 Find out what happens to Cedar Girl 241 pp. RiPiLo Bookd. $24.95 and her dog, Azeban, when they try to One of three brothers who founded outwit a stranger. Meet Muskrat and his the Schweizer Aircraft Company, WJliam dog, Kwaniwibid, who cannot resist fol­ Schweizer chronicles the transformation lowing bear tracks deep into the woods. of the family business from a small but In Dog PeopLe, a great Abenaki storyteller essential manufacturer of gliders and sail takes the reader back 10,000 years to planes to a production company for tur­ the days when Native American chil­ bine helicopters. Aviation aficionados dren and their dogs used their wits to will enjoy this historic and informative survive the dangers of the natural account of a lifetime in the sky. world.

Audrey Hepburn's Neck Drew and the Bub Daddy By ALan Brown '72 Showdown 290 pp. Pocket Bookd. $21 By Ro66 Arnutrong '85 Toshi Okamoto, a 23-year-old comic 87 pp. HarperCoLLi11.1 Pu6Li:lherd. $15.89 illustrator living in Tokyo, has been fas­ Cartoonist Robb Armstrong takes his Winslow Homer in the cinated by writing and illustration talents in a new Adirondacks all things Am!'!rican ever since his mother took him as a boy to see direction with this novel for children in By Da"/2 Tatham G'70 the film Roman HoLway starring Audrey grades two to five. In this book, young 158 pp. Syracwe Unir,erdity Predd. $45 Hepburn. This book details how Oka­ Drew Taylor creates comic books that Winner of the 1996 John Ben Snow moto and his circle of American friends have his whole school talking. He's got Prize, this stunning visual and written travel through life in search of their own friends, money, and two bullies after account of paintings Homer created dur­ identities amid the culture clash be­ him. He also has an older brother who ing his years in the Adirondack region is tween expanding commercial America has a secret he'll do anything to hide. a must-read for any Homer enthusiast. and traditional Tokyo. Want to know more? Read the book. The author examines the influence of Darwinian thought and concepts of City Lights: Urban-Suburban Mr. Lincoln's Whiskers landscape and wilderness through the Life in the Global Society artist's work. By Karen B. Wtiuuck '68 By E. Barbara Phi!Lipd G'69, G'75 eta!. 52 pp. Boydd MiL& Pre.Jd. $15.95 592 pp. Oxford Univerdti:y Predd. $59.95 Abraham Lincoln was the first presi­ A Single Shot The second edition of this successful dent of the United States to sport a By Matthew F Jone.J G'80 urban studies text has been fully updated beard. What gave him the idea to grow 248 pp. Farra1; Straud and Girou._,;. $22 to highlight issues facing cities in an ever­ whiskers may have been a letter from an If you killed someone by accident, changing global society. Skillfully blend­ 11-year-old girl named Grace Bedell. what would you do? How far would you ing perspectives from the social sciences Illustrated with oil paintings that cap­ go for a second chance at life? This is with insights from the visual arts and ture the look and feel of 19th-century the dilemma of John Moon, a back­ humanities, this lively and imaginative America, this book tells the true story of woods poacher who accidentally shoots book provides a comprehensive intro­ a little girl who changed the face of an a runaway girl during a hunting excur­ duction to cities and how they work. American president. sion on a state preserve. This novel is a compelling and readable story of one man's struggle with enormous guilt and Book.1 for Younger Reader.! his inability to succeed in a world deter­ mined to make him fail. I'm a Girl! By LiLa Juke.J; JLwtrated /;y Sudan Keeter '85 Silver Thorns 50 pp. CooL Ki2<1 Pre.Jd. $15.95 By Amanda Harte '70 An important book for every child of 586 pp. Pinnacle. $4.99 the nineties, I'm a GirL! explores the A historical romance novel set in strength, courage, power, and indepen­ medieval France during the time of dence of young girls. Children will rec­ Richard the Lionheart, SiLPer Thor/Zd ognize these features in themselves as weaves the tale of a powerful knight and they read about the characters affirming his betrothed, an innocent healer. their own value in daily life.

7 https://surface.syr.edu/sumagazine/vol13/iss2/3 Wi N TER 1996/97 2