How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water
A NEW YORK TIMES EDITOR'S CHOICE · A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW NOTABLE BOOK
From GMA BOOK CLUB PICK and WOMEN'S PRIZE FINALIST Angie Cruz, author of Dominicana, an electrifying new novel about a woman who has lost everything but the chance to finally tell her story.
“Will have you LAUGHING line after line...Cruz AIMS FOR THE HEART, and fires.” —Los Angeles Times
"An endearing portrait of a FIERCE, FUNNY woman." —The Washington Post
Cara Romero thought she would work at the factory of little lamps for the rest of her life. But when, in her mid-50s, she loses her job in the Great Recession, she is forced back into the job market for the first time in decades. Set up with a job counselor, Cara instead begins to narrate the story of her life.
Over the course of twelve sessions, Cara recounts her tempestuous love affairs, her alternately biting and loving relationships with her neighbor Lulu and her sister Angela, her struggles with debt, gentrification and loss, and, eventually, what really happened between her and her estranged son, Fernando. As Cara confronts her darkest secrets and regrets, we see a woman buffeted by life but still full of fight.
Structurally inventive and emotionally kaleidoscopic, How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water is Angie Cruz’s most ambitious and moving novel yet, and Cara is a heroine for the ages.
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Readers say *How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water* is a compelling, quick read with a unique therapy-session format that keeps readers engaged. Review...
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.”
