Review: Dominicana: A Novel by Angie Cruz

My Interest

Dominicana is one of my top picks from the new Fall 2019 book releases. Immigrant stories are always fascinating to me–whether real or fictional.  I also enjoy the idea of “Reading the World–” reading books from as many different countries as possible as the author of this blog A Year of Reading the World did (though not necessarily the same books). Finally, coming-of-age stories and older man/younger woman stories are always interesting. This book offers all of that.

Recently, I reviewed a book dealing with Castro’s take-over of Cuba, When We Left Cuba. Dominicana is set in the Dominican Republic at the time of the insurrection into which President Johnson, in the midst of ramping up American involvement in Vietnam, sent in U.S. Marines to “restore the peace,” i.e. secure American interests.

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The Story

Ana is married off to an older man who gets her in the United States. The deal is two-fold for her family in the D.R.: money from a land sale and an anchor for immigration to the USA and, hopefully, a better life. During the insurrection, her husband, Juan, returns to the D.R. to see to business matters. He leaves a younger man to look after pregnant Ana who then discovers a new freedom and joy in life that clashes with the values of her upbringing and her dreams of reuniting her family in the USA.

My Thoughts

The older man–younger woman [girl–she was 15] aspect was portrayed with a careful hand. Juan was typical of his time and place in that he had one set of standards for his wife and one for himself, but Ana does not seem surprised by anything, which was good.

Ana was very young, trying to make sense of her marriage to a controlling, older man while living in a very different world to the one in which she’d grown up. I thought she handled it all quite well.  As a coming-of-age and an immigrant story, the book works very well. Ana’s efforts to grow and educate herself rang true, as did her homesickness and longing for her siblings and parents.

I felt Juan, the husband, was not well developed–he seemed a caricature of a type of man, more than a believable person. I really did not see the need, though, to set the book right at the Audubon Ball Room. Yes, it was a very volatile time in the USA and in New York but Malcolm X’s was assassination as part of Ana’s “entry” to America seemed unnecessary. I thought the Marines entering D.R. was much more meaningful to the story.

I look forward to reading more from this author as well as reading her backlist. She is a great find.

My Verdict

3.5

Dominicana: A Novel by Angie Cruz