What I’ve Been Reading Lately…

“Ethan Frome,” Edith Wharton

   This novella from the beloved Edith Wharton focuses on a family living in Massachusetts in the 1800s who seem to be trapped by circumstance. The first, Ethan, married in the wake of his mother’s illness and death, and then falls for his young wife’s cousin who comes to take care of her when she falls ill. Beset by tragedy, Ethan is forced to live out his life trapped in an unhappy marriage and surrounded by discontent women. Even though we know from the outset that he is not escape, the reader cannot but help root for him from the beginning, given that the thought of the characters being weighed down by their own unhappiness for the rest of the lives is quite unsettling.

“A Wedding in Haiti,” Julia Alvarez

   This book follows two subsequent trips taken by the author and her husband to the Dominican Republic, her native country, and Haiti, it’s neighbor. Their first trip is a promise fulfilled to see one of their workers-turned-adopted-son’s wedding, and the second is to take the young married couple from the DR to Haiti after the earthquake to see their family. Given the prolificness of her writing and her experiences on the island, I was hoping for more profound insight on the author’s part, instead of just the simple narrative she provided readers with. Although interesting, I think she missed a vital opportunity to give readers a view of the DR and Haiti that they have probably never seen, especially since the earthquake wreaked its devastation in Haiti’s capital, Port-Au-Prince. 

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