Book of Unknown Americans (Henriquez) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
Mayor and Maribel are at the heart of this novel. But Henriquez also devotes space to their neighbors, whose stories illuminate the lives behind the current debates about Latino immigration.... While these stories are unfailingly well written and entertaining, more often than not the first-person accounts don’t seem quite authentic. The clean, detailed prose may make it more palatable for Americans with a low tolerance for the exotic, but it forsakes the vibrancy we suspect goes with each portrait. The narrative might have been more persuasive in the omniscient point of view.
Ana Castillo - New York Times Book Review


A novel crowded with characters as vivid as they are resilient—families and neighbors who have bravely chosen hope over fate. The Book of Unknown Americans begins with a vivid vision of promise. [But] Hollywood hopes sink like L.A. smog when....[t]he Riveras come seeking better care for their daughter, Maribel.... [The]collective story is interlaced with tales of dreams deferred from the other tenants, [including] a Puerto Rican dancer who could well be a proxy for anyone from far away with an American-size appetite to dream.
Jennifer Arellano - Elle


A novel as disturbing as it is beautiful: a testament to the mixed blessings our country offers immigrants, who struggle against bigotry and economic hardship while maintaining just enough hope to keep striving for something better. A narrative mosaic that moves toward a heartrending conclusion.
Daniel A. Olivas - Los Angeles Review of Books


Passionate.... Henríquez imagines the sweet—and bitter—reality of coming to America, giv[ing] voice to the unheard stories of people who have quit their native countries for what they hope will be a better life. Alternating points of view bring to life nine families living in an apartment building in Delaware who have fled their birthplaces—dusty towns in Panama, Mexico, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Paraguay—to begin anew in the States.... Through her characters’ fears, their robust affection for one another, and their resilience, Henriquez illuminates the disparity between the lives they’ve given up and the benefits they’ve gained. For some, the struggle to find new identities as Americans yields rewards; for others, the transition is too difficult, and they return home the way they came: "out of one world and into the next."
Abbe Wright - Oprah Magazine


Henriquez  gives space to the voices of...men and women who have fled their...homes to make a better life in a country that, as often as not, refuses to acknowledge their existence. Evoking a profound sense of hope, Henriquez delivers a moving account of those who will do anything to build a future for their children.
Publishers Weekly


Spectacular...highly believable and poignant.... A well-written story set among "unknown Americans," ostensibly Hispanic but in many ways any family adjusting to a new culture and way of life, regardless of ethnicity. —Lawrence Olszewski
Library Journal


[T]he Riveras, who have just left their happy lives in Mexico, are dropped off at a dilapidated apartment building [in] Delaware.... Each scene, voice, misunderstanding, and alliance is beautifully realized and brimming with feeling in the acclaimed Henriquez’s compassionately imagined, gently comedic, and profoundly wrenching novel of big dreams and crushing reality, courageous love and unfathomable heartbreak. —Donna Seaman
Booklist


A...page-turner.... That plot complication shades toward melodrama, giving the closing pages a rush but diminishing what Henriquez is best at: capturing the way immigrant life is often an accrual of small victories in the face of a thousand cuts and how ad hoc support systems form to help new arrivals get by. A smartly observed tale of immigrant life that cannily balances its optimistic tone with straight talk.
Kirkus Reviews