Dominicana in Around the World in 80 Books

Sep 06, 2021 Nadine in NY Jones rated it it was amazing

Shelves: historical-fiction, literary-schmiterary, fiction, era-mid-20th-c, 100-best-of-21st-c, lotsa-buzz, audio, nyc, coming-of-age, why-no-quotation-marks

He taps my nose and says, Don’t worry. I’m a good man.

Always worry when someone says don’t worry: my father’s words.

This was fantastic. I could hardly put it down, and when I DID put it down, Ana was still with me in my head. I thought of things to tell her, and wondered what she would say about other things. She felt that real. This book is a really good example of how intense and in-the-moment a book in first person present tense can be. Usually I find myself irritated by books in

He taps my nose and says, Don’t worry. I’m a good man.

Always worry when someone says don’t worry: my father’s words.

This was fantastic. I could hardly put it down, and when I DID put it down, Ana was still with me in my head. I thought of things to tell her, and wondered what she would say about other things. She felt that real. This book is a really good example of how intense and in-the-moment a book in first person present tense can be. Usually I find myself irritated by books in first person, but this time it really worked for me.

I listened to the audiobook, read by Coral Peña, who did a wonderful job and is probably a big part of why Ana felt so REAL to me. And it's a good thing I listened to the audiobook, because I see now that this is one of those books without quotation marks - why do authors do this? Please stop doing this. I probably would not have enjoyed this book as much if I'd had to struggle with that nonsense while reading. Thank you to Peña for doing the hard work for me of parsing out what is dialogue and what is not.

The audiobook must have been read from an early draft of the book, before final edit, because I did catch one glaring error.

From the audiobook:

César digs his hand in his front pocket and pulls out a train token.

You’ll need this token to get on the train.

… I hold the golden token with a Y cut out, the size of a quarter, that can take me to the beach, to the Statue of Liberty, to anywhere in New York City.

… He places a map on the table.

The city’s an island. Rivers on both sides. It’s a grid. Streets go up and down, avenues east to west. Remember, country girl, if you get lost, just follow the sun.

From the ebook:

César digs his hand in his front pocket and pulls out a train token.

You’ll need this token to get on the train.

… I hold the golden token with a Y cut out, the size of a dime, that can take me to the beach, to the Statue of Liberty, to anywhere in New York City.

… He places a map on the table.

The city’s an island. Rivers on both sides. It’s a grid. Avenues go up and down, streets east to west. Remember, country girl, if you get lost, just follow the sun.

(bold emphasis mine)

Peña grew up in NYC herself, so I have no idea how this one slipped by her. It jumped right out at me when I heard it. I had no idea the tokens were smaller in the 60s, but everyone knows the Avenues go north-south, right? ...more

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Nov 03, 2019 Beverly rated it really liked it

Shelves: united-states, 2019, historical-fiction, audio, family-drama, newtome2019, immigrant, dominican-republic

thoughts coming shortly

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Aug 20, 2019 Kat rated it it was amazing

Shelves: books-i-enjoyed, 2019

Wow... Angie Cruz delivers a moving and touching story about a young Dominican girl married off and sent to NY in hopes of a better life for her and her family. This hits home as a New Yorker, growing up near Washington Heights and married to a huge and wonderful Dominican family. What a moving book. I can’t wait to recommend it to so many people!

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