Tag: flatiron books

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book reviews

Book Review: ‘Dominicana’ by Angie Cruz

Dominicana by Angie Cruz

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


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Dominicana by Angie Cruz is a coming-of-age literary fiction novel about a Dominican girl in the 1960s who’s forced into a marriage to get her chance to live in the United States, but the American dream comes with more sacrifices than she expected.

Ana Canción is growing into her own. She loves her family composed of her parents, three siblings, and two cousins, and helps them on their dying farm in the Los Guayacanes area of the Dominican Republic. Except her family needs to sell some land to the entrepreneurial Ruiz brothers, who mostly live in New York City. Ana’s mother convinces Ana to marry middle brother Juan to seal the business deal and have an opportunity to live in the U.S. As the obedient daughter who witnessed her older sister Teresa suffer the downfall of having a child with a no-good man, Ana says yes to a marriage proposal that’s been on the table since she was eleven years old, even though she’s falling for Gabriel, her first crush:

One kiss and suddenly I’m una mujer. Not a niña or jovencita but a woman. I touch the mirror to understand how it happened without warning, but with the hot-pink dress on, the girl who had never been kissed is gone. I am Ana, about to be married and to travel to America. Juan Ruiz is expected before noon.

On the way to New York, Juan buys Ana a ceramic doll at the airport she calls Dominicana. By the time they get to their apartment in Manhattan on 168th Street and Broadway, Ana realizes that the doll is the only constant. Juan works most of the day in the garment business and comes home smelling like another woman’s perfume. He becomes violent when Ana isn’t the perfect homemaker, always cooking, cleaning, helping with Juan’s side hustle, and staying home as an undocumented immigrant who doesn’t know English. Juan’s side hustle is selling men’s suits out of their apartment. Ana figures out a way to overcharge and keep some of the profits for herself, hidden in Dominicana. But upon expanding her world, she loses her money and feels desperate about starting over again.

To make matters worse, Ana discovers she’s pregnant. She needs her own money. Juan’s younger brother César comes to her rescue. While Juan sorts out business affairs in the Dominican Republic, César, who also works all day and comes home smelling like another woman’s perfume, takes it upon himself to be the husband he knows Ana doesn’t have. They form a bond that seems indestructible until Juan returns home.

Every detail of a regular life juts out in a way that’s still interesting in this historical fiction novel reflecting the journeys of Dominican women coming to the United States in the 1960s when the island was on the brink of civil war. Seeing the world unfold from her window, Ana even witnesses Malcolm X’s assassination at the Audubon Ballroom next to her building.

It’s a snapshot of immigrant life in American history that’s rarely told in American literature. The story follows a pattern from other novels such as Monica Ali’s Brick Lane, which takes place in London with a woman from Bangladesh brought there by a much older husband, of the teen bride-turned-housewife dedicated to serving the husband who works all day while she doesn’t get the love she deserves until she finds it elsewhere. But the story also features domestic violence and rape as Ana is fifteen and Juan thirty-two, more than double her age. Ana feels stuck in a new country and in a promise to financially support her family. The weight is heavy of being the chosen daughter of a poor family from a poor country where she has the chance to make life easier for everyone by sacrificing herself for the cause.

Overall, the reader sees Ana’s growth from shy teenage girl to determined mother-to-be looking for ways to escape her marriage without causing harm to her family. Throughout the book, Ana thinks about her family as tragedy strikes amid her home country sinking into war. Her dedication to her family is strong as she depends on one Ruiz brother to save her from another.

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music reviews

Reading a Singer’s Memoir? Choose the Audiobook

Mariah Carey is the latest singer to tell her life story in a book that will be formatted into an audiobook she narrates. With singers using their actual voices in their memoirs, the audiobook has become the best format in this booming genre.

Last week, the five-octave diva revealed the title of her memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey. The book will be coming out via Henry Holt & Company’s Andy Cohen Books in the U.S., Pan Macmillan in the U.K., and Audible. The release date is Sept. 29 with Michaela Angela Davis, a well-known Black culture insider, as the co-writer.

 

The next day, as fans chimed on social media about the fate of an audiobook, Mariah confirmed her memoir will be in an audio format, linking to the Audible pre-order page. On Friday, in celebration of the 30th year of her career, she released a new album featuring one of her first concerts at the Tatou Club in New York during her 1990 debut.

Between new music and the audiobook, songstress memoirs are more entertaining to read, as evidenced by Jessica Simpson and Alicia Keys, the other major female artists who also released memoirs this year.

In Harper Collins’ Open Book, Jessica’s voice not only breaks with emotion at the emotional parts, but it also includes six new songs she wrote while writing the book. Her new music is still not available on streaming services as an exclusive for audiobook readers.

More Myself from Macmillan Audio has Alicia expressly telling her story with every chapter guest-starring family and friends from her mother, husband Swizz Beatz, and even ex-boyfriend and collaborator Kerry “Krucial” Brothers Jr. with of course Oprah Winfrey, Michelle Obama and Jay-Z. She also has spurts of singing to describe how albums or singles came together.

Jessica and Alicia have been promoting their books the best way they can amid the COVID-19 pandemic, but with cases rising in many states, even Mariah may have to deal with the same fate of not meeting fans in public who want their books signed, or their audiobook covers.

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what's lit

The Fight for Diversity in Publishing Competes With ‘American Dirt’ Success

American Dirt, Jeanine Cummins’ debut sensation, was met with controversy right off the bat when the Latinx literary community said some descriptions in the book appeared racist. Jeanine, who identifies as a white woman with a Latina grandmother, saw her author profile still rise with white readers and Oprah Winfrey claiming it as a marvel.

Whether readers think the novel had racist undertones or not, American Dirt reignited the conversation around diversity in publishing. But what changes should we expect?

A group of Latinx writers, spearheaded by Myriam Gurba, helped drive the campaign against the novel, which led to a meeting with Flatiron Books after the publisher canceled the book tour  over safety concerns for the author and booksellers hosting the events. The Flatiron Books president and publisher, Bob Miller, said he and his colleagues had been excited about the book’s release and its praise from major authors and Barnes & Noble and Oprah’s Book Club making the book a selection. In a statement, after the excitement wore off, he said:

“We were therefore surprised by the anger that has emerged from members of the Latinx and publishing communities. The fact that we were surprised is indicative of a problem, which is that in positioning this novel, we failed to acknowledge our own limits.”

The statement also added the publisher regretting the categorization of the novel under the migrant experience, the mention of Jeanine’s husband being an undocumented immigrant “while not specifying that he was from Ireland,” and a centerpiece at a bookseller dinner last May that “replicated the book jacket so tastelessly.”

The barbed wire illustration on the cover has been seen as offensive, and critics accused Jeanine of glamorizing the negative symbol of immigration with her book cover manicure. The blue watercolor-looking birds have become a part of Oprah’s Book Club profile photo on Instagram and the background of Jeanine’s website.

Flatiron Books plans to organize town hall meetings, where Jeanine will be joined by groups who have raised objections to the book. Dignidad Literaria responded with a letter from 142 writers of various ethnic backgrounds asking Oprah, who wields much literary industry power, to backtrack and drop American Dirt from its selection list. Some authors include Kali Fajardo-Anstine, author of Sabrina & Corina; Jasmine Guillory, author of The Wedding Date; and Angie Kim, author of Miracle Creek.

On Oprah’s Book Club Instagram posts asking for input on the novel, most of the comments are positive reviews. Jeanine, the author of The Crooked Branch, The Outside Boy, A Rip in Heaven: A Memoir of Murder and its Aftermath, has expressed her support for migrants along the U.S.-Mexico border on her website and asked readers to also send their support.

When I was traveling in Mexico and the borderlands researching for American Dirt, nothing surprised me more than the preponderance of HOPE among people who endure so much hardship. That is what the United States of America still represents to the people who risk everything to get here. So many good people in the US and Mexico are deeply committed to protecting refugees in their most vulnerable moments; these folks are out there just quietly saving lives every single day. If you are moved to do so, please support them however you can.

The Los Angeles Times featured a recent local event, organized by Myriam and other writers including Roxane Gay, about the American Dirt controversy. Roxane said of the novel’s author, Jeanine:

“This woman is going to be set for life, this book is going to earn royalties in perpetuity, and so it just reinforces what publishing already knows, which is as long as white people are translating the experiences of people of color, it will sell very well.”

Dignidad Literaria is holding another town hall meeting in San Antonio, Texas at the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center on Feb. 22.

With American Dirt at No. 1 this week on The New York Times Best Sellers list, the time period of the book’s success may last a few more months and most likely reach the end of the year. Roxane echoes the concern that diversity in publishing, especially related to this book, might not happen the way it needs to.

One of the main issues is a white author being reportedly paid a seven-figure paycheck to tell migrant stories that are not a part of her experience. The argument between readers is who gets to write others’ experiences versus if it’s fair to designate certain stories for certain groups.

All eyes are now on Oprah’s TV special she promised in response to the criticism. According to local Arizona publications, she was shooting Feb. 13 on location in Tucson, where 250 people were asked to meet at the Harkins Theatres Arizona Pavilions and moved to another location. Oprah had promised last month on CBS This Morning that she would shoot the special around the border towns mentioned in the book.

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music reviews

The Songstresses Who Have Memoirs Coming Out This Year

JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE! Ð ÒJimmy Kimmel Live!Ó airs every weeknight at 11:35 p.m. EST and features a diverse lineup of guests that include celebrities, athletes, musical acts, comedians and human interest subjects, along with comedy bits and a house band. The guests for Wednesday, January 29, included Jessica Simpson (ÒOpen BookÓ), Lakeith Stanfield (ÒThe PhotographÓ), and musical guest Orville Peck. (ABC/Randy Holmes) JESSICA SIMPSON

2020 is looking to be a momentous year for three divas who’ve grown into multihyphenates. After pursuing extraordinary careers with the media capturing the highlights and lowlights, the singers plan to tell their stories, from rocky childhood moments to failed romantic relationships.

Jessica Simpson

The 2000s teenage pop star turned fashion designer has written her memoir, Open Book. According to her book’s official page, she had originally been approached to write a motivational guidebook but felt like she would be lying to her fans.

“I promise to be totally honest with you, so you can feel safe to be honest with yourself, too,” Jessica says in a HarperCollins Publishers promo video for the book.

With the book going on sale last week, the press has focused on the newsmaking details such as Jessica surviving child sex abuse; having an emotional affair with Johnny Knoxville while married to 98 Degrees frontman Nick Lachey; and developing a yearslong diet pill addiction after Tommy Mottola, former Sony Music CEO and Mariah Carey’s ex-husband (see below for her pending memoir), told her to lose 15 pounds when she was 17 years old.

Music note: Jessica’s best album, 2003’s In This Skin, was written while she was in the throes of love with Nick Lachey. It produced some of her best hits: “With You,” “Sweetest Sin,” and the cover of Robbie Williams’ “Angels.” Unreleased gems include “Everyday See You” and “Be.”

Alicia Keys

Fresh off from hosting the Grammy Awards, Alicia plans to soon debut her memoir, More Myself: A Journey. Macmillan Publishers says in the book’s synopsis that Alicia will detail her experiences such as the “challenging and complex relationship with her father, the people-pleasing nature that characterized her early career, the loss of privacy surrounding her romantic relationships, and the oppressive expectations of female perfection.”

The book, co-written by celebrity memoir collaborator Michelle Burford, is under Macmillan’s imprints Flatiron Books and An Oprah Book from Oprah Winfrey. The press around Alicia’s memoir hasn’t started yet for its March 31 release, but it may be due to Flatiron and Macmillan dealing with the firestorm of their literary partner Oprah choosing their best-selling debut novel American Dirt as her book club pick. That book has been criticized for perpetuating stereotypes about Mexico and Mexicans.

Music note: The Diary of Alicia Keys solidified Alicia’s budding career in 2002 after her debut hit, “Fallin’.” This album produced even more hits such as “You Don’t Know My Name,” “Karma,” and the reality TV audition favorite, “If I Ain’t Got You.” Unreleased gems include “Diary” and “If I Was Your Woman.”

Mariah Carey debuts the “mixed-ish” theme song to partygoers in September 2019. (ABC/Image Group LA)

Mariah Carey

Mariah’s highly anticipated memoir will be released under Andy Cohen Books, the Henry Holt and Company imprint by the eponymous Bravo personality.

The singer, who just attained her 19th No. 1 hit with holiday classic “All I Want For Christmas Is With You,” has not revealed a name for her memoir.

“I did not feel like I was being treated the same as some male artists when I was coming out with my first album,” she told Variety in October. Though she didn’t add details about the industry misogyny from her interview, Mariah may save it for her memoir, along with her tumultuous marriage to Tommy Mottola and her relationship with her estranged father while growing up biracial in New York in the 1970s and 1980s.

Music note: Mariah Carey’s eponymous album from 1990 launched her unbelievable career with her first single, “Vision of Love,” hitting No. 1. It is rumored the title of this song may be the title of her memoir. Other No. 1 hits on this album are “I Don’t Wanna Cry”, “Love Takes Time,” and “Someday.” Unreleased gems include the rest of the album.

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what's lit

Why the Latinx Literary Community Is Warning Us About ‘American Dirt’

While American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins was being officially named the monthly pick for Oprah’s Book Club and the Barnes & Noble February 2020 National Book Club Selection Tuesday morning, Latinx writers and book bloggers and their supporters had already launched a social media campaign warning readers of the alleged egregious stereotypes about Mexico and Mexican-Americans within the book.

Oprah joined the CBS This Morning crew, including her BFF Gayle King, with Jeanine to share the highly anticipated book selection.

“You already have a little bit of haterade people are drinking about you,” Gayle said about the controversy. “Even you were first worried you had no business writing this book. You felt compelled yet unqualified because it’s a migrant story. In Mexico.”

“I always knew I wanted to write about immigration,” Jeanine responded. “I was interested in that topic and I resisted for a very long time, telling the story from a migrant’s point of view because I was worried I didn’t know enough. That my privilege would make me bind to certain truths.

“I felt very compelled. It was five years of research and two failed drafts that convinced me that I needed to go into Lydia’s point of view,” she said. She added during her early research she spoke to a former Chicano studies professor chair at San Diego State University who told her: “‘Jeanine, we need every voice we can get telling this story.'”

Oprah ended the interview by saying she and Jeanine will travel to the U.S.-Mexico border to the real places mentioned in the book to videotape the book club special for Apple TV+.

On Instagram, book bloggers and writers posted several photos starting with a neon blue screen, matching the blue hue in the book cover, followed by a pile of books by Mexican-American writers. Book blogger Lupita @lupita.reads said the book is “filled with harmful stereotypes of my culture for the sake of representation.”

Especially not at this time when all we are fed in the media is “Mexico = bad”. I can’t and I won’t accept books that dehumanize immigrants. The thing is, I am not a “brown faceless mass”, as the author noted, I have had a face for a very long time and so have writers like me that have written about our struggles beyond our initial journey here.

The messages ask readers to educate themselves on the stereotypes in the book and support books actually written by Mexican and Mexican-American authors who depict more accurate immigrant stories but didn’t get the same marketing budget as American Dirt. Book bloggers a part of the “own voices” community posted they felt their concerns about the book have been drowned out by the good reviews by the publisher, Oprah, and their affiliates.

The book is under the Flatiron Books imprint with MacMillan Publishers. Its website has a quote from trailblazing Mexican-American poet Sandra Cisneros saying, “This book is not simply the great American novel; it’s the great novel of las Americas. It’s the great world novel! This is the international story of our times. Masterful.”

“This book is not simply the great American novel; it’s the great novel of las Americas. It’s the great world novel! This is the international story of our times. Masterful.”

American Dirt follows Lydia, a bookseller in Mexico, who is married to a journalist. Once her husband publishes a profile of a drug cartel leader, Lydia must flee her home with her son Luca. Their journey leads to the border where they know the cartel leader won’t find them in the U.S. The book’s description ends: “As they join the countless people trying to reach el norte, Lydia soon sees that everyone is running from something. But what exactly are they running to?”

https://twitter.com/SassyMamainLA/status/1219701834454949888

Though Oprah received the bulk of the backlash, Barnes & Noble also announced its bookstores will hold a book club discussion on March 10 at 7 p.m. No word yet on any counter-discussions scheduled at that time.
 
 
“With Jeanine Cummins’ American Dirt, we have selected a book that will resonate with our customers and stay with them long after they turn the final page,” said Liz Harwell, senior director of merchandising, trade books at Barnes & Noble, in the announcement. “American Dirt is a heart-racing page turner that takes readers into the heart of the migrant crisis.”
 
 
Barnes & Noble Book Club conversation will be at #BNBookClub on social media while Oprah’s Book Club can be found at @OprahsBookClub on Instagram.