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Title: Couldn't get past page 50
Review: I love Julia Alvarez's novels, so I couldn't wait to dig into Geographies of Home -- especially since Alvarez herself recommends it on the back cover. What a disappointment! The characters are two-dimensional and inconsistently drawn, the dialogue is stilted, and the language is way overblown. There's very little to like about this family: The author paints their moments of happiness so falsely that it's impossible not to focus completely on how bizarre and screwed up they are. Although I could not get past the first few chapters, I can't imagine that the novel offers anything more than a long list of Latin-sounding names (lovely though they are) attached to unappealing characters, stiff dialogue, and dreary imagery.
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