From the Bookshelf of La Crescent Public Library…

[close] Our library book club read and discussed How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water and had a lively group discussion about many topics. We also got a lot from this interview with the author about the book:
https://electricliterature.com/angie-...

There were some members who struggled with the bilingual aspect of Cara's story, but it led to a good discussion about culture and who books are written for and by - are they written by an author from that culture, do they mean to represent someone from the culture more fully? Not every book requires or should require a translation for white readers.

Overall, the themes of the book - immigration, motherhood, family trauma, systematic prejudice, ageism, sexuality - these are what our readers latched on to and spent time discussing. Everyone felt like Cara was a full figure they could see walking down the street because she felt so real. She was very flawed, but it brought out the humanity in the book again and again.

We loved the style in which the book was written and Angie Cruz provided so much laughter in the book along with the serious issues thanks to the style it was written.