Shattered Dreams, Broken Promises: The Cost of Coming to America

by Michael Viner

Viner traveled to various Eastern European countries to interview women of all ages and circumstances who are willing to do anything to get to America. The revealing and often unsettling tales of these women, told in their own words, shine a light on a growing population in the U.S.

Genres: Nonfiction

285 pages, Hardcover

Published October 1, 2007

Reviews

[Lisa · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was thrilled to be done reading this book because, boy, was it horrible.

I expected a sociological exploration of the lives of Russian women who emigrate to the U.S. Something cohesive, something with a thesis or point of view, interspersed with narratives from the women interviewed. I expected far too much.

What I got was a book littered with grammatical errors, misspellings, and missing words. Whomever proofread this book ought to be fired forthwith. Words were left out of sentences here and there -- but that's okay; they made up for it by repeating sentences unnecessarily. One woman discloses that she observed women get hooked on "heroine." One woman learns that her mother kept all her secrets "in her dairy." Now, maybe the mother kept her secrets out with the cows, but since the "dairy" was in a small box, I kind of think not.

Setting aside how painful it was to read this book grammatically, it also disappointed in terms of content. This was no sociological examination. It was the author "translating" the stories of 30+ Russian women, seriatim. The main problem was that the author imposed his voice on every woman. There was no individuality; all the voices sounded the same.

If you want insight into the "Cost of Coming to America" (the subtitle of this book) for Russian women who emigrate to the U.S. (oh, and note to the author: When one is leaving one's country, one "emigrates," not "immigrates"), you are probably better off reading an article in, say, Glamour or Marie Claire magazines than you are wasting your time with this book.

[Viktoriya · Rating 2 out of 5]

The idea behind this book was great, but the execution sucked. The writing was horrible, mistakes left and right. I felt that I should get a red marker, correct mistakes and send the book back to the editor.

[Jesse · Rating 2 out of 5]

Almost stopped reading at the intro because the author was horribly offensive. Some of the women's stories were compelling but they were all written in the same boring tone and there were hundreds of typos. I sort of can't believe a public library owns this.

[Kresta Galvan · Rating 5 out of 5]

What can I say it's a combination of my favorite genres. I love this book and I'm looking forward to read a book as fascinating as this one.