Angie Cruz is the author of the novels Soledad, Let It Rain Coffee, and Dominicana, which was short-listed for the Women's Prize for Fiction and a Good Morning America Book Club pick. She is a founder and the editor in chief of Aster(ix), a literary and arts journal, and is an associate professor English at the University of Pittsburgh. You can find her online at angiecruz.com.
Cara Romero thought she would work at the factory of little lamps for the rest of her life. But when, in her midfifties, 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 relationshiops with her neighbor Lulú 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.
Structurally, How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water is incredible. The novel is split into the 12 sessions Cara has with her job counselor, and each session is broken up by some type of paperwork or material that is relevant to Cara's live as she's looking for jobs. Think, job postings and interview prep questions, stuff like that. What's awesome about this is that, in each session, Cara reveals more and more about herself, but even that description of the progression is too linear. It's almost as if the sessions circle around Cara, getting closer and closer to the heart of the matter. Her stories do that, and so do the documents that break up the sessions. In this way, we're able to truly learn about Cara, to understand her, to empathize with her.
Not that we can't do that at the beginning—Cara's voice is so strong, I feel like I can hear her inside of my head. Reading the audiobook for this novel has to be absolutely amazing. Cara's voice is unlike anything I've ever read before. It is so strong and authentic, and it almost feels as if Cara is speaking directly to the reader. While we know she's speaking to the job counselor, Cara's musings are not once interrupted by dialogue from the job counselor that the reader can see (only stuff that we can infer), which heightens this feeling of Cara revealing everything to the reader, rather to anyone else. It means that reading this novel feels like you're sitting in a room with Cara, having her explain her entire life, and it feels like the reader is right there with her through it all. It's absolutely incredible, and made it very difficult to put the book down.
Overall, what I love about the story is how optimistic it remains. Don't get me wrong–Cara's story is full of incredible hardship and heartbreak, and yet, she is also resilient and thoughtful, brave in small ways rather than herculean ways. Throughout the novel there are some thought-provoking lines, but at the end of the day, it's all working up to that last page in the novel, to that last moment, with Cara's last words to the reader. It makes for a novel that is incredibly uplifting even though it focuses on so much of the hardship and heartbreak of life. There's a really powerful message here that I feel like I'm on the cusp of articulating, but doing so would require spoilers, and I don't want to do that for anyone. So, you'll just have to read the book to find out more!
For more from Angie Cruz, find her online at angiecruz.com.
*This review can also be found on my Goodreads page*
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