Angie Cruz

Those of you elders who fondly remember The Education of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N, by Leo Rosten, a delightful book featuring the trials of a Jewish immigrant learning English, will thoroughly enjoy this one! Our heroine, fifty five year old Cara Romero, escaped domestic violence in the Dominican Republic to an apartment building in Washington Heights, NYC, and is working with a career counselor to improve her English and to find a better paying job. However, Cara already HAS a job, and a very show more important one: to be the building mother for all her friends and relations - to support them and to simultaneously make them crazy. She's a glorious character, and every one of the twelve chapters holds an incredible adventure for Cara and for the reader, spiced with plenty of laugh-out-loud moments. show less

This is a marvelous story. I sat down to listen for just a few minutes and relax, and 3 hours later, I found myself nearing the end of the book and unable to stop until I knew what Ana had decided and how far into her future I would be allowed to see.

Everything about this story was intriguing; the Dominican countryside and the family dynamics between Ana, her sister, and her parents; the idea that a mother could somehow justify promising her 15 yr old daughter to some guy she mostly knows show more just by reputation; the political and cultural climate of both the DR and the US that heat up and clash and are almost a character themselves, wreaking havoc, upending, and touching every single other character in some way.

Ana is a real girl who has to grow up so fast, all the while balancing her mother’s voice in her head with what she feels in her heart so she can figure out what to do. I related so much to her when she was pretty much shouting to herself in her head all the things she *should* do or say, but then ended up quietly following the expectation of meekness and docility that was set for her. I shudder to think of what my own experience would be if I had ever been in a similar situation. Once she did find some freedom to make her own choices, she completely blossomed into a new person, bold and strong, even if she was still a little bit afraid. I genuinely didn’t know what choices she would make toward the end of the story, and I had to I had to keep reminding myself that all these things were happening within a single year.

I could see this book being one that I return to again. Being married at 15 is definitely an uncomfortable plot point, and it leads to other uncomfortable moments, but Ana is a fighter. She adapts and grows and hers is a story worth telling, reading, and re-reading. show less

In the Dominican Republic in 1965, 15 year old Ana is married to Juan, four years after her parents' promise to him. Ana's parents make it clear: her marriage is their family's ticket to America. Juan will take her and they will bring her family to America. She is trapped by her obligation.

Ana's emotional trap becomes a literal one, too, as once in New York Juan keeps her firmly under his thumb, not even able to go shopping or to ESL classes. She must bear his beatings, his infidelity, his show more financial control, because of the promise of visas. Already too young for marriage, she's dropped into a new country with little guidance. She longs for home, for her family, and for the boy she left behind. Her emotional space becomes as compressed as the apartment she's trapped in; she's unable to consider her own needs or desires.

That is, until Juan must return to the DR for an extended visit to deal with family finances during the civil war. Supervised only by Juan's fun loving brother César, Ana gets the physical and emotional space to begin to dream, to think about what she wants.

Ana's entire existence--and that of those around her--is enmeshed in a web of mutual obligation, and Cruz conveys that on both a personal level and as a symbol of immigration. (The novel is based in part on her mother's story.) Ana knows her success means her family's survival, and she cannot pursue her own dreams without crushing those of others. That said, it's not a heavy read; Cruz has a good eye for detail, and there are some delightfully funny sections, such as the one where Ana, angry at her husband, kills a New York City street pigeon, cooks it, and serves it to him for dinner.

1965 was a pivotal year in more ways than one: in the US it was the year of Malcolm X's assassination; in the DR it was the year of the civil war that ended with US intervention. The history of the period is woven in to the story, and it's worth further reading. show less

What I loved about this the most was the voice of the narrator, Cara Romero. Prior to now I might have expected to lose patience with a book consisting of straight monologue, with only the occasional government document or rent invoice to mix things up. Not only did I not lose patience, I enjoyed (more or less) every minute. Which leads me to my second favorite aspect of this book - and that is -

191 pages. Not an overly drawn-out explanation or an unnecessary adverb to be found. A publisher show more might have said "Hey, any chance you could just throw a couple extra words in here and there, it would be great if this could get to say 210 pages." And Angie Cruz said, "No." show less