The Dirty Girls Social Club

I enjoyed this book but when it finished I realized that I wanted more but it wasn't because I was so enchanted by these women and their lives, it was because Valdes-Rodriguez tried to do too much and just didn't have the room for it.

Each chapter is told from the pov of a different sucia. That device should have given the reader more insight into the world these women inhabit but it actually served to further separate them as it frequently talked about the lives they lead away from each other. Now, I liked all six women to varying degrees but I didn't get enough of them in the way I wanted. Less women would have worked better, maybe, because then the story would have been able to be more balanced.

Don't get me wrong, I liked this book a show more lot. I like the characters, I like their lives and their choices, I like their friendships. I also really liked the social issues that were a natural part of this book. Nothing was presented as if I was being lectured, but nothing was glossed over and made to be okay, either. There are things all these women have to deal with that come from being Latina and that's just the way it is. It was nice to read something that approached these issues honestly.

The book takes place in Boston which, to be honest, was why I bought it. I've read criticisms of the book that say it presents Boston as less liberal than it is, and I think those criticisms are wrong. Yeah, sure, we're liberal, but that doesn't mean there aren't problems, because there are, and what these women run into seemed very appropriate to me. show less

A little underwhelmed

I wanted to love this book. Being Hispanic myself (I’m basically Rebecca without the uptight ness and the claim to Spanish royalty. I’m native, I haven’t got any qualms about it) I was excited.

But I wasn’t. Most of the time I wanted to strangle whomever was talking fo being just a blatant asshole. I mean, some of these women are terrible people at some point in the book. I wanted to shake the shit out of Usnavys when she was in Rome for being an ungrateful witch.

I think this was meant to be like a Latin version of Sex in The City, but failed miserably.

With that said, I blew through it fast. It kept me engaged. I doubt I’ll pick up the sequel. But we shall see.

A blurb from New York claims this reads "like the Hispanic version of Waiting to Exhale." I can see similarities in this tale of close girlfriends, but I hated Waiting to Exhale, while I loved Dirty Girls Social Club. I loved how this book recognized and reveled in the diversity of Hispanics. That they are white--and black--and only sometimes brown. That besides Catholic, "Latinas come in 'Jew'" as well as Born-Again Christian. That "Hispanic" embraces very different cultures from Old Spain to Indio to African and various mixes thereof. That some are Republican and not inevitably Democrat. And that those from a Caribbean background who enjoy maduros and tostones are enjoying a cuisine very different from the Mexican food you'd find in show more the American South West.

Valdes points all this up through the "Buena Sucias"--a group of six friends who met at Boston University who meet twice a year to keep their bonds strong. There's Amber, a California Chicana and musician who is all into the "Mexica Movement" that tries to return to "Aztec" roots; Sara, a Cuban Jew and stay at home wife and mother; Elizabeth, a network television reporter who is a black born in Columbia, Usnavys, a Puerto Rican/Dominican who rose to riches from Boston's projects; Rebecca from New Mexico, a magazine entrepreneur who snootily emphasizes her Spanish origins--and then there's Lauren.

Lauren is the first character we meet, the first voice in a series of first person narrators--all done in present tense in a conversational manner that makes you feel that each is intimately whispering into your ear. It's a little scary how easily I identified with the abrasive "know-it-all" Lauren. Like her I'm half-Hispanic, and with my spotty Spanish and light skin I too have sometimes felt like a "fraud" presenting myself as "Latina." But there's so much of the Sucias' experiences I could identify with and recognized. So many lines where I wanted to shout YES--this. Beyond that, my heart broke for Elizabeth and Sara, and I'm surprised how much I grew to like Rebecca and Amber. Diametric opposites in so many ways and yet alike in how both struck me at first as poseurs--both irritated me at first acquaintance.

I don't know that this novel is so intrinsically good in terms of the writing I'd be so impressed if this was yet another excursion into frothy Upper Class WASPs usually inhabited by chicklit. The book is episodic in structure, and the reviewer that says it rather buys into happiness means having a sig other by your side is right. Yes, much of the plot is predictable yet farfetched. And I have to agree with yet another reviewer who said it was a bit too convenient how the six fell so neatly into different demographic groups of "Hispanic." I also found it hard to credit that portrait of a sweet, sensitive genius drug dealer. But the novel held up enough of a mirror for me to feel right at home with these six (not that home is always a comfortable place to be) and it's not just a celebration of diversity, but of friendship. I loved the time I spent with this group of friends. show less

She's no Isabel Allende, but Alisa Valdez-Rodriguez is worth reading as a Latina writer. The plot and resolution is somewhat contrived and unbelievable. Come on, six Latina women from Boston College who are all incredibly successful? A rockstar, news ancherwoman, etc., etc. However, in many ways these characters ring true, supportiveness and pettiness, beauty and warts. I had a hard time getting excited about starting the novel, but once I did, I couldn't put it down.

Very mixed. At times has great energy. Concept is wonderful but not every character is equally strong. Great job getting across the idea of multiplicity of Latina identities. A fair amount of chichés. A few narrative dead-ends. Also quite a bit of offensive ideas and language. Much was "okay" when written but still seems awfully tone-deaf.

Narrated by Isabel Keating. Follows a year in the life of six college friends, the "sucias" or "dirty girls," now in their late 20s: Lauren, half Cuban and half Cajun, is a newspaper columnist in Boston who has rotten luck with men. Usnavys, a full-sized, fashionable Puerto Rican from the 'hood, is conflicted between her desire for the good life and her love for Juan who can't pay for it. Rebecca is the business-oriented, directed head of Ella magazine who is trapped in a loveless marriage to Brad and attracted to Andre, the Nigerian Brit who provided the start-up funds for her magazine. Amber, an aspiring rock star, is all about recognizing the Aztec and Mayan ancestors and the strength those cultures bring to the Latino people. Sara, show more a Cuban Jew, is married to Roberto, an abusive husband, a fact she doesn't admit to herself or her sucias. Elizabeth is a black Colombian lesbian whose outing by a newspaper threatens her job as a TV news anchor. show less

An entertaining and enjoyable read about a group of friends navigating romantic struggles and professional problems while also dealing with varying Latina roots.

I do hope in the republication of the book, Ms. Valdes asked for the pejorative r-word to be excised. It felt jarring in an otherwise timeless-feeling novel.