Review: Dominicana

Dominicana by Angie Cruz
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

4.5 Stars

Dominican-American author Angie Cruz's latest novel is powerful coming of age story encapsulating the search for the American dream. Inspired by the real-life arrival story of Cruz's own mother, fifteen-year-old Ana Cancion Ruiz is married off to a man twice her age because her family is desperately poor, struggling in the politically divisive post-Trujillo Dominican Republic and seeking a foothold in 1960's America. Ana marries feeling that she has no choice in the matter and finds herself little more than a maid and sex partner for her husband Juan. Her tourist visa to the US says she's nineteen and, like so many before her, just visiting New York. She hides, cooks, and feels utterly trapped in her life. She speaks no English, has no friends, and Juan becomes physically abusive. She also quickly detects that he is involved with another woman, Caridad. Ana dreams of a better life, of bringing her family to New York, and of simply working for someone other than her abusive slob of a husband. The vulnerability she feels is beautifully captured, though this first person narrated novel is sometimes painful to read. Ana's acceptance of her abuse is something the reader hopes she grows out of. When Juan is forced to return to the D. R. due to family business problems, Ana, now pregnant, is left in the care of Juan's much kinder brother, César. She finds the cracks in her prison and seizes the opportunity to learn English and make money of her own with her cooking.

Told with a light touch of magical realism and set against the tremendous strife of the 1960s, both in American and in the D.R., the real history of the era is the backdrop of the novel. Ana witnesses the events of the assassination of Malcolm X at the Audubon Ballroom, which is across the street from her apartment, feeling a mixture of shock and confusion. This happens in her Washington Heights? She wonders how Betty Shabazz will manage to raise six daughters on her own. Meanwhile her family wonders if Balaguer (the devil they know) can bring order back to a D.R. that has spent years in tense chaos following the assassination of Trujillo.

I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Coral Peña, courtesy of Libro.fm.

I received a Digital Review Copy of this book from Flatiron Book, and an audiobook from Libro.fm in exchange for an honest review.

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