the next good book

How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water

By Angie Cruz

8.5/10
(8.5/10)

191 pages

What’s it about?

Cara Romero is a young mother when she leaves the Dominican Republic for New York City.  She arrives with a small child and hope for a better life.  She finds work in a factory- and a community in Washington Heights.  In 2007, the factory she has worked in most of her adult life closes and she is left unemployed in her mid-fifties.  She is set up with a job counselor for twelve sessions to prepare her for the job market.  In these pages we find the notes from her time with the counselor.

What did it make me think about?

What an inventive way to write a novel.

Should I read it?

Cara Romero is a memorable character!  I loved Dominicana by Angie Cruz a few years ago and grabbed this off the library shelf as soon as I saw it.  It again takes us to New York City and into the life of someone who is assimilating into American culture.  Angie Cruz writes about this subject with such warmth, kindness, and compassion for her characters.  This is a slim and hopeful book about our capacity to change.  Cara Romero will both exasperate you and put a smile on your face.

Quote-

“When you need each other to survive, you forgive.  That’s the way it is.”

What’s it about?

Cara Romero is a young mother when she leaves the Dominican Republic for New York City.  She arrives with a small child and hope for a better life.  She finds work in a factory- and a community in Washington Heights.  In 2007, the factory she has worked in most of her adult life closes and she is left unemployed in her mid-fifties.  She is set up with a job counselor for twelve sessions to prepare her for the job market.  In these pages we find the notes from her time with the counselor.

What did it make me think about?

What an inventive way to write a novel.

Should I read it?

Cara Romero is a memorable character!  I loved Dominicana by Angie Cruz a few years ago and grabbed this off the library shelf as soon as I saw it.  It again takes us to New York City and into the life of someone who is assimilating into American culture.  Angie Cruz writes about this subject with such warmth, kindness, and compassion for her characters.  This is a slim and hopeful book about our capacity to change.  Cara Romero will both exasperate you and put a smile on your face.

Quote-

“When you need each other to survive, you forgive.  That’s the way it is.”

Related books: