The Book of Unknown Americans

The Book of Unknown Americans is a 2014 novel by Cristina Henríquez published by Knopf. The story is told from multiple first person points of view; the two main narrators are Alma Rivera, a 30-something housewife from Pátzcuaro, Mexico, and Mayor Toro, a teenage social outcast and first-generation American whose parents were originally from Panama.

Development and publication history

Henríquez originally conceived the novel as a short story told from Mayor's point of view.^[1] The 304-page book was published on June 3, 2014 by Knopf.^[2]

Plot

Alma Rivera, her husband Arturo, and daughter, Maribel, emigrate from Pátzcuaro to Delaware on a visa Arturo obtained through work. Though the couple had a rich life in Mexico, they immigrated in order to send their daughter Maribel to a special needs school after she sustained a head injury.

The family finds it difficult to adjust as they know no English and Arturo's work picking mushrooms, which was the only work he could obtain legally, is monotonous and degrading.

Their lives become easier when they meet the Toro family, who occupies the same tenement building as they do. The Toro parents are immigrants from Panama who have become legal citizens but struggle to get by on one meager income. Celia Toro and Alma Rivera become fast friends. Meanwhile, Mayor Toro develops a crush on Maribel and, after Garett Miller, a boy at Mayor's school, accosted her and tried to take her blouse off but was stopped by her mother, Mayor becomes protective of her. Her mother goes to the police who dismissed the incident, characterizing it as a "teenage relationship" issue. She was very worried but didn't tell her husband.

Arturo eventually loses his job and, unable to find a new one, he and his family lose their visas.

Meanwhile, after Alma is informed by a neighbor that Mayor and Maribel were alone together kissing in a car, she bans Mayor from seeing her daughter.

In March, after the first snowfall of the year, Mayor steals his father's car and goes to Maribel's school to get her to cut class. The two go to the beach. Alma, panicking when her daughter does not come home from school, finally tells her husband about Garett Miller assaulting their daughter, believing he has injured her.

When Mayor and Maribel return home they learn that Arturo has been shot by Garett's father. He dies at the hospital and Alma decides to return home to Mexico shortly after. As a final gesture of friendship, Celia and her other neighbors donate the money Maribel needs to transport Arturo's body back to Mexico.

Reception

The book received predominantly favorable reviews. In the Los Angeles Review of Books, Daniel Olivas said the book "is as disturbing as it is beautiful, a testament to the mixed blessings our country offers immigrants, who struggle against bigotry and economic hardship while maintaining just enough hope to keep striving for something better...a narrative mosaic that moves toward a heartrending conclusion."^[3] In Bustle, Claire Luchette described The Book of Unknown Americans as a "powerful novel...about love: familial love, two kids' first love, love of friends, neighbor, and country."^[1] In The Guardian, Sandra Newman felt the "strength of the book is in the quiet details", but criticized Henríquez for spending "too much time on the periphery of her story, making points that feel at once too vague and too obvious."^[4] Reviewing the novel in The New York Times, Ana Castillo found the novel "unfailingly well written and entertaining, [but] more often than not the first-person accounts don't seem quite authentic."^[5]

The novel was chosen as one of The Best Books of 2014 by Amazon.com.^[6] The Daily Beast named it the 2014 novel of the year.^[7]

References