Eight Hurricane Maria Stories from Puerto Rico

by Robert Egan

What's happening to Puerto Rico!? Robert Egan created eight stories to tackle this question. To truly embrace uncertainty and call this island home, he would need memoir and magical realism, time and trouble, the call of the coqui and the hum of the generator. His stories couldn't be the adventure of a passing they had to find their place in Maria's enduring aftermath.

85 pages, Paperback

Published January 19, 2018

Reviews

[Jackie · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I was looking forward to the premise, I was disappointed. The author seemed to have a lackadaisical way of describing the events which made me feel a layer removed. I did appreciate the larger view of what it was like experiencing hurricane Maria, there just wasn’t an emotional connection to the content.

[Lisy V · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was so disappointed with this book! First of all, thought the stories were from different people (locals), but it wasn’t like that. All the stories were from the same person (the author), someone who is not Puerto Rican had been living for a year in the island and was there during Maria. The author’s girlfriend is from Puerto Rico. The author attempted to make the stories humorous, but they really weren’t. His focus was on a total different spectrum than someone going through the aftermath of a hurricane. As a Puerto Rican myself, living on the mainland, who has lived and grew up in Puerto Rico and have been through several hurricanes, I was desperate to receive news from family, to help however I could, to inform others of what news I knew, the author didn’t seem to have the same priorities. I didn’t connect with the stories, did not find them humorous and kept thinking, are the parents and family of his girlfriend okay?!! He didn’t talk about it much at all. I understand he self published this book, and the writing is also awful. Anyway, unfortunately due to all these reasons, I need to rate this 1 star.

[Rosa E. Martínez Colón · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was eager to read this book, looking forward to reading the stories from Puertorricans that went through the hurricane, their survival stories. I was so disappointed when it turned out to be a personal commentary of this self-absorbed person who had been living on the island for about a year and saw the hurricane as an opportunity to publish his middle-school level stories, complete with awful drawings. It was a pain to go through this book. His unfortunate attempt to be funny by using language like “farts” and “butthole” felt disrespectful to say the least. This book is going straight to the garbage can as I would not dare share this with others. There are so many stories to be told, stories of resilience, stories that really represent what happened in Puerto Rico that the fact that this book is out there and the author presents it as “stories from Puerto Rico” is obscene. I can go on...I am so mad about this awful misrepresentation. Wasted my time.

[Carla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent, entertaining and easy to read.

As a PR resident that witnesses Hurricane María, I can relate to some of the experiences presented on this book. The author found an original way to present the social and economic impact of a major natural disaster and its effects on Puerto Rico.

[Alhan Rahimi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting way to perceive a tragedy

When you're in a situation and can't control it - best thing is to laugh about it... This is what I take from this book :-)