'The Cemetery of Untold Stories' reads like a novel made up of all the stories that Julia Alvarez no longer wants to carry in bits and pieces in her head,. And Alvarez knows that we all are—and need to be—story creatures.

Tolkien's fiction reminds us that power cannot be controlled; it enslaves you. To act freely is to acknowledge your limits, to see the journey as a long road that includes dozens of future elections, and to fight against the temptation for power.