Today's book club discussion will be treating this book (see wikipedia for summary). It's won the 2008 Pulitzer prize for fiction and the National Book Critics Circle award. It tells a story - several woven together - of a family, their country of origin (the Dominican Republic) and their new home, New Jersey. The background on the history and politics of the Dominican Dictator Trujillo and his gangster minions alone makes this book worth the read, but the language used - makes this work remarkable.
A lot has been made of the gutter Spanglish - but having studied the work of the Hispanic cultural critic Carlos Mencia, that didn't throw me off - tho my knowledge of gendered nature of swear words has been expanded. The gratuitous use of the "N" word gave one pause, but ultimately the overall effect has been an authentic (albeit coarse) common dialect.
The controlled use of ambiguity makes this a favorite over the last few books we've read. Less a contrived work of art and more a testimony of the Dominican diaspora experience - it succeeds in a compelling, powerful way.
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