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.
Poster images found at Stefan Landsberger's sight.
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. 
The physical descriptions of characters intrigues me - men seem to be described initially, but the initial lack of description of the female characters might mean something. Halfway through it I've finally gotten a description of Mari, but not really of her sister. Eri, the model, maybe needs no description because Japanese and Chinese models fit a type: tall and willowy of stature, with higher-bridged and more angular noses, and lacking the epicanthic fold. The mind wandered to how class and status define "beauty" and how the genders see differently. Ethnic groups see differently too. Japanese readers see something exotic in Denny's, the way someone from Kansas might find a Teppanyaki house.
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