Catalina

★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 7/10

130 pages

What’s it about?

Catlaina's Parents died in an auto accident in Ecuador when she was a toddler.  After staying with her aunt and uncle for several years she is brought to America by her undocumented grandparents.  She was raised in Queens and when she was admitted to Harvard it seemed like she was one step closer to the American dream. But she is technically a Dreamer (a child brought to the U.S. illegally) and though she remembers no other home, she has no pathway to citizenship and could be deported at any time.

What did it make me think about?

Dreamers.

Should I read it?

Lots of people loved this book.  I liked it: smart narrator, interesting story, and unique circumstances. However, it just never went anywhere for me.  I never fully understood Catlaina's viewpoints or any of her relationships.  The author has a unique writing style and I often enjoyed her observations, but the story as a whole just floundered for me...

A passage I marked

"I knew this was coming, it happens to every undocumented person in America.  It is simply a matter of time.  A close family member back home dies.  You are unable to leave this country, unable to travel home, to say goodbye, to bury your dead. "