Make Your Home Among Strangers

by Jennine Capó Crucet

The arresting debut novel from award-winning writer Jennine Capó Crucet

When Lizet—the daughter of Cuban immigrants and the first in her family to graduate from high school—secretly applies and is accepted to an ultra-elite college, her parents are furious at her decision to leave Miami. Just weeks before she's set to start school, her parents divorce and her father sells her childhood home, leaving Lizet, her mother, and Leidy—Lizet's older sister, a brand-new single mom—without a steady income and scrambling for a place to live.

Amidst this turmoil, Lizet begins her first semester at Rawlings College, distracted by both the exciting and difficult moments of freshman year. But the privileged world of the campus feels utterly foreign, as does her new awareness of herself as a minority. Struggling both socially and academically, she returns to Miami for a surprise Thanksgiving visit, only to be overshadowed by the arrival of Ariel Hernandez, a young boy whose mother died fleeing with him from Cuba on a raft. The ensuing immigration battle puts Miami in a glaring spotlight, captivating the nation and entangling Lizet's entire family, especially her mother.

Pulled between life at college and the needs of those she loves, Lizet is faced with difficult decisions that will change her life forever. Urgent and mordantly funny, Make Your Home Among Strangers tells the moving story of a young woman torn between generational, cultural, and political forces; it's the new story of what it means to be American today.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Book Club, Latinx, Coming Of Age, Adult Fiction, Adult

388 pages, Hardcover

First published August 4, 2015

Reviews

[Angela M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just after I started reading this book , I came across an article on LitHub by Jennine Capo Crucet on how she was inspired to write this book . I always appreciate hearing what might have been the one little or the one big thing that created the spark to write a particular book. I'm including a link to the article because it really illustrates how much she knows of what she writes . http://lithub.com/when-a-novel-demand...

The novel begins with Lizet who is a lab manager in a research group studying "the demise of coral reef systems everywhere ", but the focus of the story lies in her past. She's one of two daughters of Cuban immigrants living in Miami and she's smart enough to get accepted into an elite college in New York. Just as she leaves for college her family is falling apart . They are abandoned by her father and forced to move to a small apartment .

At school Lizet gets quite lost in her first semester , floundering in her classes . She doesn't fit in with the well to do , white college students and isn't always honest with them . These people don't really understand who she is or where she came from and at times she doesn't seem to know either . She goes home on break and doesn't feel a sense of belonging there either.

This theme of identity and belonging also plays out with other characters. Some may remember the plight of Elian Gonzalez, the young Cuban boy whose mother dies when trying to seek asylum for them as they come across on a raft from Cuba to Miami in 1999. I distinctively remember being gripped by this little boy's story and will never forget the scene I saw on TV, when he is taken away from his Cuban relatives to be returned to his father in Cuba . Crucet has fictionalized him into Ariel Hernandez and Lizet's mother becomes intimately and fanatically involved in trying to keep the young boy in the U.S. where he "belongs ". Lizet 's mother who seems to have lost herself as her husband deserts her and her daughter leaves for college. She latches on to the cause of saving Ariel , even making up stories about her own immigration. I felt sad for her but also for Lizet and her sister who feel abandoned by their mother and their father .

Ultimately this is Lizet's story as she rises to the challenge of finding herself , while torn between cultures , places, loyalties to her family and to her own dreams . While slow going at times , I found myself invested in Lizet's coming of age story and I'll be watching for what Crucet may write in the future .

Thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley

[Esil · Rating 4 out of 5]

3 1/2 stars. Make your Home Amongst Strangers has the makings of a really good book, and it was good but some aspects didn't quite work for me. As a first novel though, it is very strong and I will definitely look for the author's book of short stories and next novels. The story takes place in 1999 and 2000. Lizet was born in Miami to parents who immigrated to the U.S. from Cuba when they were teenagers. Lizet's world is the Cuban community in Miami until she is accepted at a fictional Ivy League school in New York State. From then on, she experiences the challenge of not belonging anywhere. She is ill equipped to understand the Ivy League world she has entered -- a world that is quick to pigeon hole her as a minority student and that she too often misreads. At home, no one except her father who is estranged from the family, has any understanding or respect or interest in the route she had chosen. In the background, her mother is developing a public persona as part of the campaign to keep Ariel Hernandez -- the Cuban boy whose mother died on a raft from Cuba to Miami -- which irks Lizet and distances her from her mother further. The story is told in the first person from Lizet's point of view. One of the strengths of the book is that Lizet is far from perfect and her reactions and impulses often do nothing to help her circumstances -- many times I wanted to give her a shake. This is a strength because it feels more real and certainly is a more realistic picture of the challenges involved in bridging such broad cultural and economic divides. It was also a really interesting glimpse into the Cuban American community --which I recognize is not unidimensional. Unlike many Americans, because I am Canadian I have had an opportunity to travel to Cuba many times, generally as a tourist but sometimes for work. As a consequence, I don't have a sense of polarized negativity toward Cuba that comes through in this book -- although I don't have rose coloured glasses either I can assure you. So it was interesting to see Cuba from Lizet and her family's perspective. The weaknesses for me are probably typical of a first novel -- at times is felt long and a bit meandering. And I found the subplot involving Lizet's mother's involvement with Ariel's story didn't quite work for me -- her mother never jelled as a real person. Certainly, it was still worth the read -- especially to see Lizet struggle between her two worlds. And the political undercurrent is important -- the author makes a real dig at the poverty -- in both senses of the word -- of the public school system Lizet comes from in Miami and how elite universities need to step up their game to create a more hospitable environment for students who don't come from privileged backgrounds. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read an advance copy.

[Elyse Walters · Rating 5 out of 5]

Compulsively Readable ....A universal tale..... going off to College...being
classified as a minority student ... And all the trials and tribulation that come along
with it.

Liset is from Miami ...
Parents are cuban immigrants ... having recently divorced ...
Older sister Leidy, is living at home with her mother in a small apt. ( with her new baby, Dante, as a single mom)
The father left his wife at the same time Liset leaves for her Freshman year to Rawling's University in New York.
Liset leaves behind her a mother, sister, nephew, whom are crowded together --scraping by financially.

With loans, grants, and a work study program at the college in New York.. everything
is foreign to Liset ( including the whether, she is never seen snow).

Even before the First Thanksgiving break back home, ... Liset is petrified she is going to be asked to leave the University.
She is failing chemistry-- and she was accused of plagiarism.
NO Spoilers! :) Readers will be turning pages to see what happens.

During her first break home... ( hoping to find a way to tell her mother and sister her troubles at
School - she gets upstaged with the news of Ariel Hernandez... ( the young 6 year old boy who is from Cuba, who entered our country unassisted. He's mother wanting him to have the American opportunities -- and his father who is still back in Cuba asking the UN for their help
to get him back home. With so much commotion going on, and her mother glued to the TV,
Liset never tells her family of her school problems.

Back on the college campus -- Liset's roommate and other students want to talk about Ariel. Liset ( even though born in America), is often introduced as 'the Cuban Girl'. Many assumptions are made about her.. ( she's from the ghetto, she's prejudice and racist), and on top of her social challenges... she has bigger Academic concerns. She doesn't feel she can express freely her thoughts about Ariel Hernandez.

It seem all over the country Ariel Hernandez is in the news. Protests for the child to stay in this
Country - protests for him to be deported.
Being a Latino... ( only 3% enrolled in the school), is added pressure for Liset on the college campus. She is getting the type of attention she doesn't want. Can't she just focus on her school work? Why is it so difficult to ignore political, social, family, concerns at a time in her life
when she herself needs academic support and emotional encouragement?

"It was only a coincidence that I knew and cared about the protest, not a consequence of being Cuban, and so I denied caring at all."

Anything can happen with a person's college Journey.
Do you remember yours? What choices worked? Or didn't work?
I wasn't a minority student... but I did have to pay for college myself... ( challenging years on many levels)
Even in the best of conditions -- college years can be very trying for many...
Liset's story will grab you from the start... You want to know everything that happens...
.......She is so easy to love.

Jeanine Capo Crucet is a wonderfully descriptive writer who has the ability to write beautiful and flowing prose and make the reader feel as if they are witnessing and experiencing a scene rather than just reading about it.

Thank You to St. Martin publishing company, Netgalley, and Jennine Capo Crucet!!!

[Diane S ☔ · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Lizet, youngest daughter of Cuban parents, is accepted as a scholarship student at a prestigious college. Her parents marriage breaks up, her dad moving out at the same time Lizet leaves Miami to go east to school.

Lizet is an interesting character that we will see change and grow throughout this story. The first in her family to go to college she has a rough road to tow. She doesn't feel that she fits into her college's environment, misses her familiar life back at home. That however, is changing to as her mom become involved in the situation of young Ariel Gonzalez, the little boy rescued and brought into this country, but whom the government is attempting to send home. Also, her sister thinks that now Lizet feels she is so smart and better than they are, that she looks down on them.

The story stalls in a few places but it does a great job showing the plight of the immigrant. The first to go to college in a family and how they have trouble fitting into a new life but finding they no longer fit into the old. The comparison in the story with Ariel's plight and Lizets attempt to find her place is well told. Lizet must find her way forward while retaining her relationship with her family. Good storytelling and an interesting concept.

ARC from NetGalley.

[Jenny (Reading Envy) · Rating 5 out of 5]

When you are one of the only Latina students at a prestigious liberal arts university, heading to college can be an incredible cultural shift. But it can be just as difficult to return home. Lizet tries to move between the worlds of her Cuban-American family in Florida and the very white Rawlings University where she is confronting an academic integrity violation. It's 1999, it's harder to stay connected, Cuban refugees are in the news, her parents have recently split up, and she is pulled in multiple directions.

A friend recommended this book on the Reading Envy Best of 2018 episode, and I knew I'd want to read it working in academia as I do. The author captures the tension of what all college students go through - forming their own identities, cutting apron strings and being punished for being the person to leave - magnified by being a first-generation college student, far from home, and without a lot of the advantages of her classmates. I also love that she's working in the library as her work-study job because I think this is a home many of our students who are from farther away find.

[Jessica Woodbury · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't realize how much I needed a 5-star book until I found this one. This book raised my blood pressure, made my anxiety spike, got me yelling back at the audiobook as if it could hear me, etc etc etc. I loved every single second of it.

This book starts off with Lizet, older and a marine biologist, before flashing back to her freshman year in college. While this book absolutely sent me into a whirlwind, I have to thank it for that because it helped knowing where she'd end up even if I wasn't sure how she would get there. I was so incredibly stressed about Lizet's life that I often had to remind myself that somehow she would end up where she was at the beginning of the book and that would help a little bit.

On its face, this is a relatively simple book. It may even remind you of some others with similar themes. Lizet is second-generation Cuban American and the first in her family to go to college. Going to college, though, is not a sign of success. To her family it is a betrayal, especially when it comes at a time of great upheaval. Her older sister has just had a baby only to be abandoned by its father. Her parents have just divorced. No one wants to pay for Lizet to go off to school, no one even wants to help her with the financial aid paperwork. Leaving her family in Miami and going to a prestigious school in upstate New York is not what anyone has ever wanted for her.

At school, Lizet's plight is not any easier. Her high school has left her woefully unprepared for college and all the well-off mostly-white students around her seem to know how everything works already. Lizet is already facing potential expulsion, a disciplinary hearing, and could fail her first semester classes on top of that. Her fellow students aren't new close friends, but the kind of people who call her Liz instead of using her real name and ask her where she's from but aren't satisfied when she says "Miami." She is more alone than she's ever been and she can't go to her family for help.

On top of all of this, a young boy named Ariel Hernandez (a fictionalized Elian Gonzalez, remember that disaster?) ends up in Miami after his mother died on the raft escaping Cuba, galvanizing the Cuban community and creating a national crisis that takes over the news.

All of this would be enough, but really what I loved so much about this book was not just how interesting the plot was. (And that Lizet is attending college in 1999, just a couple years after I started.) What really got me was how well Crucet understands people, particularly newly minted adults like Lizet. How easy it is to find yourself arguing with your parents only to find yourself taking the opposite position in a group of friends, suddenly defending your parents' point of view vehemently even though you're not sure you agree with either side. How young adults want to be independent but can manifest it as isolation and self-sabotage when they refuse to find the help they need.

And AND there are such full and well-drawn characters. At first you think you know Lizet's family--her parents and her sister Leidy--and her boyfriend Omar who's still at home. But as the book unfolds, as she visits when she can, they all unfold into something more, especially her mother, whose life has just fallen apart and who seems to be filling the void with an obsession over Ariel and his family. In particular I fell in love with Leidy, who has her own obstacles and sacrifices that mostly stay hidden to Lizet simply because she doesn't want to see them. The way you can be closer to your family than anyone else, and yet feel like they are the people who understand you the least, I feel like I have seen that more clearly in this book than in any other I can recall. The way we draw close and push away, the way we struggle with balancing our own needs against the family's needs. It was all so real and so vivid, even if Lizet's family is nothing like mine.

The story of the smart kid who gets out is usually about success and striving. Crucet wants us to see all the failure and loss and hurt that goes with being the one who gets out. She wants us to wonder if it's really worth getting out at all, if getting out changes who we are, if there is ever anywhere we can fit in again when we move from one life to a completely different one.

I listened to this on audio, which only made my near-physical responses more intense. The reader is excellent at dialogue, if a little below average the rest of the time. Sometimes she has some weird emphasis in sentences, but the way she brought the characters to life made it worth it for me.

[BookgirlonGoodreads · Rating 1 out of 5]

One of the most boring books I have ever read. I did actually finish it, somehow. The story could have been interesting, but it dragged painfully and the writing was not beautiful so you didn't just enjoy reading for the sake of reading great prose. I could tell the author thought that's what she was doing the way she would end chapters with these sentences that were meant to be devastating in their simplicity but no they were just BORING. I think the idea of a novel that tries to bridge a gap between cultures in America is a great one, and I would have loved to actually learn more about the Cuban American culture in Miami, but instead I felt I learned more about what the stereotypes are. I couldn't relate to the main character nor could I understand what anyone in her family was doing, so instead of bringing me into that culture and making me feel what they do, I just continued to feel alienated throughout the book. This is not a good book.

[Reid · Rating 4 out of 5]

In October of last year, a group of students at Georgia Southern University burned copies of this book after Jennine Capo Crucet gave a talk there about, among other topics, white privilege. Though I had never heard of the book or its author, I determined that I was going to buy, read, and write about this book, no matter what. I also encouraged others I knew to do the same. It was not the first time I had purchased a book specifically to support an author, but it was the first where I had no idea of the subject matter, the quality of the writing, or even whether it was novel or non-fiction. I did not know what to expect.

Imagine my pleasure and surprise when Make Your Home Among Strangers turned out to be absolutely delightful, such a self-assured debut that it was hard for me to believe it was one. It turns out that Crucet had been an accomplished short story writer prior to taking on this novel. She has been awarded many prizes for her short story collection, How To Leave Hialeah. Still, I was amazed that a first novel could feel so well-crafted and satisfying. Among other things, Crucet has managed to walk that tightrope of moving the plot forward while remaining entirely true to her characters, and in particular to her protagonist. I understand the misguided temptation to attribute some of this surety to a degree of autobiography; still, it does seem from her author bio that this may not be far off the mark. But it hardly matters. She still had to pull off the feat of putting this all down on paper in a compelling, truthful manner that kept me turning page after page, eager to see what came next.

Lizet is the daughter of Cuban immigrants to the United States. She is the first in her family to aspire to college, and she chooses to accept admittance to a school in upstate New York, a place she had never been and a university atmosphere for which she is ill-prepared. Meanwhile, her family in Miami is having their own crises, her parents have, after many years of conflict, separated, her sister is raising a child on her own, and her mother is struggling to find purpose in her life amidst all this. How they each respond to these challenges is the core of the novel. My reading is that not a single word or deed is out of place or strikes a false note; a truly admirable feat with the welter of conflicting emotions all of this induces.

I strongly encourage everyone to read this novel, mostly on its own merits. But spiting those bigots at Georgia Southern is a nice side effect of reading such a superb novel.

[Dorothy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Author Jennine Capo Crucet was recently invited to speak at Georgia Southern University. She accepted the invitation and the focus of her presentation to the students was white privilege. Some of the privileged white students at the school objected to a Latina speaking on that subject and they staged a protest during which they burned her first novel, Make Your Home Among Strangers, which had been published in 2015. When I read that story, I knew I had to read that book.

Crucet is a Cuban-American with ties to the Miami area. She is currently an associate professor at the University of Nebraska. The protagonist of her novel is a Cuban-American young woman from Miami named Lizet Ramirez. She is the first of her family to go to college.

She had secretly applied to an elite (fictional) Northeastern school called Rawlings College. And she was accepted! This causes consternation in her family. Her parents are separated and not on good terms and she has an older unmarried sister who has a baby. Her family had expected her to get a job after high school and get married to her long-time boyfriend and help to support the family. Instead, she is leaving home, going far away to college and continuing to be a financial drain on the family. They are not encouraging or supportive.

Still, she goes, and with financial aid, the work-study program, and some help from her father, she cobbles together a way to pay for her education. But she is woefully out of her depth, having graduated from a less than stellar high school and also having limited social and cultural experiences to guide her in this new environment. In the book, an older and wiser Lizet narrates the events of this difficult first year of her college experience.

That experience is complicated by what is happening back home in Miami.

When Lizet goes home on her first school break, a young Cuban boy has just been rescued from a raft at sea and brought to Miami. His mother had been with him on the raft, but at some point, she had been swept away and lost. The young boy - here called Ariel Hernandez - was alone. (If this sounds familiar, it should. It is a fictionalized telling of the story of Elián González, the young boy whose story and fate consumed Miami in late 1999 and 2000.)

Lizet's mother becomes obsessed with Ariel/Elián to the neglect of her own family and job. She is passionately involved in the movement to keep Ariel in America and spends all of her time protesting and organizing. Meanwhile, news of her activities has made the national news and Lizet sees her on television back at Rawlings. She is appalled.

Crucet's telling of this story is heartfelt. Her observations of the Miami Cuban culture are sharp and the dialogue among her characters is one of the strong points of the novel. The plot is actually developed through those dialogues.

I could identify with Lizet from the beginning because we shared some of the same experiences. I came from a farm family with no background of going to college. I was the first of my family to attend college and I came from a poor rural school which certainly did not prepare me for the experience. So, yes, I could identify quite easily with Lizet's story. And I could understand the stress of a Latina student, one of few, struggling to make it in an elite school with mostly white students.

What I don't understand is why those Georgia students were so incensed that they felt impelled to burn her book.

Well, actually, maybe I do understand.

[Taryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book should be required reading for high school teachers and undergraduate advisors. Having taught high school myself, I understand quite well how wide the gulf has become in the US between the skills required to earn a diploma from a public high school and those demanded by most four-year colleges. It's why universities now find themselves having to offer more and more sections of remedial courses—many of the 18-year-olds arriving each fall don't have mastery of the basics. They may have graduated high school and met college admission requirements, but they aren't able to write an essay or read and comprehend complicated textbooks. And the task is even more difficult for students who are the first in their families to attend college, like Lizet, the main character in Make Your Home Among Strangers.

Born in Miami to Cuban parents, Lizet grew up attending public schools along with her older sister, Leidy. In her senior year of high school she decides to apply to Rawlings, an elite liberal arts school in New York, without her parents' knowledge. She is terrified of disappointing them and feels conflicted about abandoning what would surely be a comfortable, certain future with her boyfriend Omar, but something in Lizet, some spark of ambition, won't let her settle for the same life all her peers are set to live. She wants something more. So when her acceptance letter arrives, she decides to leave Miami and pursue her dreams in New York.

But Rawlings isn't anything like Lizet expected. She may have been a star student at her underfunded public high school in Florida, but at Rawlings she's barely able to keep her head above water. She pushes herself, studying nonstop, but it's clear she is totally unprepared for the level of rigor college demands. Beyond her serious academic concerns, Lizet also struggles to adjust to the social cues of the other students, who are almost all white, and they to hers. Case in point: her roommate always introduces her by announcing, “This is Lizet. She's Cuban.”

When a young boy named Ariel Hernandez makes national news, Lizet's roommate and friends force her into the awkward and unenviable position of unofficial spokesperson for all Cuban people. Ariel and his mother attempted to escape Cuba on a raft bound for Miami, but when only Ariel survives the trip, his presence in the US causes a whirlwind of controversy as to where he really belongs. The situation stirs up lots of ambivalent feelings in Lizet, who has never had to explain or justify her “Cuban-ness” to anyone before.

The culture shock Lizet experiences when she arrives at Rawlings is the most compelling aspect of the novel. The author does a great job of putting the reader inside Lizet's head to explain some of her more self-destructive choices early on—which is reason enough to read this book, I think.

I did have a few quibbles with the writing, though, which kept me from fully engaging. At several points the narrative loses momentum, a problem that could have been solved with a few judicious cuts. Oddly, Lizet as a narrator goes on far too long, yammering and navel-gazing, yet despite the constant flow of words, her motivations often remain obscured. Some of her choices, particularly how she acts toward Omar and her parents, were completely inexplicable to me. That could certainly be attributed to my lack as a reader, but since I felt I understood some of her other actions, such as choices she made at school, it seems more likely that those scenes back in Miami could have used some fine-tuning.

With regards to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the advance copy. On sale today, August 4!

More book recommendations by me at www.readingwithhippos.com

[Navdeep Dhillon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've often wondered about the experiences of minorities at Ivy League colleges, and this novel explores this with some real depth. The characters are very accessible and it's wonderfully written. Jennine tackles a subject I've always been curious about, but have never seen represented in fiction: the experience of being a minoritiy in a very white space. Liz secretly applies to an elite college, and leaves Miami to attend, which creates a fall out back in Miami. At college, Liz suddenly feels like a minority, something she never really felt in Miami, and she has a difficult time adjusting. She also ties in the news story of Ariel Hernandez, the little boy who arrives on the shores of Miami illegally on a raft from Cuba, and a court case ensues, ultimately ending with the father taking him back to Cuba. It embroils the family and fills the story with tension as Lizet has to decide whether to put her needs first or her family's.

[Melissa · Rating 1 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book in the Goodreads First Reads giveaways.]

I really wish I could say that I liked the book, but I can't. I forced myself to finish it, waiting for the story to take a better turn, but it never came. I honestly just wanted to shake all the characters up, so they could move on and do something with theirs lives...

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very nice writing in this story of a Cuban-American girl, the first in her family to go to college, who leaves Miami to attend an exclusive northeastern private college. Lizet is a bit of a pill, but I loved the way Crucet pulled us deep into this character and her family and community.

[Renae · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think any work of fiction has the potential to touch someone, to impact them, regardless of content. However, those books where you see your own experience mirrored in characters’ lives tend to mean more. They validate you, make you feel less alone. For me, Make Your Home Among Strangers was one such book. The story of its protagonist, Lizet, was one I could easily identify with, one that made me nod my head and think “I’ve totally felt that!” at almost every page. So, in this way, it’s special.

There are not, at least as far as I know, many books about first-generation Latino college students, and Jennine Capó Crucet has talked about how she wrote this book with that specific audience in mind. So, for me, a first generation Latina college student, reading Make Your Home Among Strangers was this process of understanding that others felt the way I have over the past few years and recognizing similar experiences, while also appreciating the differences between my life and Lizet’s—there is no universal Latina reality.

Which is not to say that Make Your Home Among Strangers was only a book about Latinas in college, or that only Latinos who’ve gone to college should read it—I imagine that anyone might read this book and gain something from it, regardless of ethnicity or situation. However, for me, the sense of recognition and belonging I felt while reading this book were what stood out, what made me stop and think.

I think of that moment, freshman year, when my White roommate would make offhand comments about Mexicans that she didn’t intend to be offensive, but only served to make me feel more alienated in an already uncomfortable environment. I think about all the comments about “affirmative action” I’ve received from fellow students when I reveal that I attend college on a full-tuition scholarship for Hispanic merit recognition. I think about the complete befuddlement and lostness that I felt (and sometimes still feel) when attempting to navigate the complex world of college—sure, there’s the office of academic success and intercultural affairs, which exists to help students like me, but the last thing I want to do is admit that I’m in over my head.

For all these reasons, Lizet’s story resonated with me. I’m not Cuban and I certainly can’t speak to those specific themes in the book, but she and I have much more in common than is typical when I read a work of fiction. This is, again, why books written by marginalized authors, about marginalized characters, are so important. Recognizing yourself in a book is more validating than one might think, and that’s what made Make Your Home Among Strangers so important to me.

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[Livia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I actually ended up not being able to finish this book, but felt it pertinent to write a review anyway. I'll start off by saying some aspects of this novel were very relatable for those of us who are the first in our immediate families to attend college. Being utterly ignorant to the little details of college that escape those of us who are first-generation college students is one of our biggest collegiate barriers. Lizet's surprise at needing a "summer plan" was one such example. I disagree with some of the reviewers who claim she was utterly unprepared for college and would do better at a community college: the entire point of the novel was that Lizet DID have a place there, she just needed help to navigate this absolutely foreign institution. If you aren't a first generation college student, there are some aspects to this book that will be lost on you, such as these little things Lizet missed, feeling out of place among her white and legacy peers, her occasional erratic behavior, and the feeling of suddenly being a stranger among your family, like when she feels the dissonance at the dinner table. The one scene that I was really struck by emotionally was the part where she sees her mother in the airport, and feels as though she's seeing her for the very first time as "tacky Cuban" (something along those lines) and feels guilty for seeing her mother through new eyes. This was one of the most relatable aspects of the book to me: being thrown into a new, academic world for months at a time, only to return to your roots and see something completely different than what you remember is jarring. Crucet did a good job with this.
However, overall the book was really disappointing as a whole. Many times I found myself staring at a sentence trying desperately to understand what Crucet was trying to say. I was honestly very shocked that the book didn't end at the scene where Lizet is meeting with her father at Christmas-it seemed to, for the most part, wrap up the book semi-nicely. Even if the book was disappointing up to this point, everything afterward just felt unnecessarily. I still had about 20 or 30 more pages to go before calling it quits, but what's the point when every page just felt as though it was saying the same things over and over again? Meh. Many parts of the plot were absolutely confusing for me simply because I didn't understand the character's, mainly Lizet's, thoughts or motivations. If we had more explanation for why she felt certain things or did certain things then it would probably have read smoother. I didn't understand the father character at all, either. He was so callous toward the family and it went unexplained throughout the entirety of it.
Basically, this book was like reading about the antics of a bunch of reactionary people whose actions hardly make sense and don't know how to communicate with the other. It's not really worth the read, although some parts are interesting.

[Dottie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really interesting look at what is really involved when a young person attempts to leave their home - with their parents expectations - and move into what is really a different culture. Lizet is the daughter of Cuban emigrants whose only goal for her is marriage to her high school boy friend and life in the neighborhood. She is a very bright young woman who manages - without her parents knowledge or approval - to gain acceptance to a very selective college in New York. Unprepared for the cultural difference and with no family support, she has a difficult time adjusting and then discovers that she no longer fits into her family when she tries to return. It is a look at the price you sometimes have to pay to become who you want to be.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a breathtaking debut and a must-read for anyone who works with first generation to college students. Added bonus that the author used to work for One Voice in LA! Capo Crucet's novel is both engrossing and heartbreaking - I very much look forward to her next work.

[MARILYN · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad book but rather tedious and boring at times. I thought the issues faced by family to be real, but didn't care much for the characters.

[Tina · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Make Your Home Among Strangers" follows Lizet Ramirez, a young Cuban-American woman leaving her home in Miami for the elite campus of Rawlings College. As the first in her family to attend college, Lizet faces the challenge of trading in her family and heritage for an academic world that leaves her both confused and isolated in her freshman year. Add on to that the tumultuous arrival of Ariel Hernandez (think Elian Gonzalez circa 2000) in Miami and her mother's obsession with his case, and Lizet begins to feel torn between two places. I really enjoyed this book. I felt like Capo Crucet perfectly captured the lost and bewildered perspective of an outsider in Lizet's experiences at Rawlings. The book is split between the college's New York setting and that of Miami, and I would say the college chapters were my favorite because they so sharply captured the ideas of culture shock, isolation, and finding your own way in the world. The Miami chapters, however, offered a fantastic contrast as they served to show all the things that could keep Lizet from really moving forward: family that needs you and doesn't understand your goals, high school boyfriends, and the alluring comfort of the home you've always known. At times I found myself super frustrated with Lizet and her choices, but that made the book all the more real in the end. Through it all, I was really rooting for her. Capo Crucet is fantastic at creating deep and real characters and scenes, I never felt bounced out of the narrative. I felt like this book was the perfect mix of a novel that really has something to say about America and the human experience, but still keeps you riveted by the sheer power of its story. Excellent read for me.

[Rebecca McPhedran · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lizet Ramirez is a first generation college student from Miami. Her first year at college coincides with a young boy from Cuba coming to the United States. She is an outcast in her family because of her choice to go away to school.
Her guilt at being away from her family, as well as the social and academic challenges she faces at a prestigious school, put a lot of stress on her. You root for her the entire time, and the story is structured as such, that you are constantly afraid that she will be stuck in the same rut as the rest of her family. A great read!

[Louis Muñoz · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's been almost a half year since I finished reading this book, and I'm still thinking about it - even though I often forget the name of the book and the author, LOL! I wish this book had been around when I was a teenager, because my struggles were so similar to our main character's! Unfortunately, I fared much less well than she did; even all these years later, I have so many regrets and so much bitterness. Coming back to the book, this author did an amazing job at bringing these people to life, and I hope you will pick up this book and read it.

[Sarah Jedd · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book. You guys. Go read this book.

[Rincey · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Theda · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sometimes a novel becomes a 'must-read' because of the author's ethnicity and not because of her talent. This is one of those.

[Joseph Wenworth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Had to read it for college...pretty long and unfocused, with a lot of petty, manufactured conflicts. Had some good character development though. Would not recommend.

[Susana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tenía grandes expectativas centradas en este libro: admiro profundamente a los escritores cubanos en Cuba y aún más a los exiliados, retratan con humor, amor, amargura, realismo, poesía, desencanto, con un profundo sentido crítico, la realidad difícil de un país que concibió un gran sueño, una gran utopía, que muy rápidamente devino en pesadilla, escritores de la talla de Eliseo Diego, Jesús Díaz, Daína Chaviano, Leonardo Padura, Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Zoé Valdés, por mencionar solo los primeros que vienen a mi memoria.

De allí que, cuando vi entusiastas recomendaciones sobre el nuevo libro de una escritora "cubano-americana", i.e. hija de cubanos nacida en Hialeah, Florida, USA, esperé ansiosamente su publicación. No es que el libro sea malo, no es lo que esperaba, pero debo confesar que la culpa es toda mía, porque muy probablemente represente a esas nuevas generaciones de hijos de cubanos, nacidos en los Estados Unidos, con experiencias más cercanas a cualquier inmigrante latinoamericano que a los familiares que permanecieron en la Isla, al menos en lo que sus expectativas y sueños se refiere. En particular, me resultó particularmente ajena, como mujer venezolana, que el sueño de las adolescentes cubano-americanas sea "atrapar a un buen marido", sin ninguna aspiración de estudiar, trabajar, hasta diría de formar parte del american dream, concentrados en su barrio cubano-americano, que habla español y mantiene las costumbre cubanas.

Desde mi punto de vista, lo más interesante del libro es el choque cultural que enfrenta la protagonista cuando sale de Hialeah a estudiar a Rawlings, una prestigiosa universidad, y, por primera vez en su vida, se encuentra inmersa en la cultura norteamericana, y necesita estudiarla para entenderla; la ceguera de la madre en aceptar el mérito que supone que sea la primera en su familia, la primera en su barrio, en lograr tan meritoria distinción, ser aceptada en una universidad de primera línea.

El evento central del libro, sin embargo, es la reacción del pueblo cubano de Hialeah ante la llegada del balserito Ariel, que evidentemente es un tibio disfraz de Elián González, aquel niño que fue el centro de las noticias hace unos 15 años, por la infructuosa batalla campal para que se quedara en Estados Unidos. Y aquí abundan los elementos que no terminaron de convencerme del libro; por ejemplo, la protagonista se queja que sus compañeros de estudios de Rawlings no entiendan que una madre esté dispuesta a dar su vida y arriesgar la de su hijo para escapar de Cuba, en busca de mejores condiciones de vida, pero en ningún momento se explica o plantea en el libro las precarias condiciones de vida en la isla, la represión de la disidencia o la inexistencia de espacios democráticos, es una especie de dogma o auto de fé por parte de los hijos de inmigrantes, que todo el mundo debe compartir y conocer "porque sí".

Al final, la única salida de la protagonista es aceptar su "transculturación", abandonar quien fue hasta ese momento, su "cubanidad", para poder explorar otro estilo de vida, más americano, en palabras de Jennine Capo Crucet:

"...and there was nothing left for me to do except for what I did: I walked away, back to where I’d come from, grabbed my bag, then left that house and eventually that city, kept leaving, year after year, until where I was from became, each time, the last place I left, until home meant an address, until home meant only as much as my memory of that morning would betray."

Un libro ligero para conocer las desventuras de una joven cubano-americana en la actualidad.

[Sheri · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked the first half or so of this book. I found Lizet to be very compelling and Crucet is full of astute observations about humanity: "I was doing something I'd done hundreds of times before, but I was suddenly aware of my performance of making cafe con leche, of trying to pass for what I thought I already was." and especially about race and class issues.

As a first generation college student myself (and one with a MS and almost a PhD), I get the tension between family who does not understand the culture and students from stronger cultural capital at a small, elite private school: "I didn't want to see myself anymore--I recognized it as exactly that, even at the beginning of it, when I couldn't name it: Lizet playing a part. I'd thought a shirt from Leidy's clubbing stash would cover me by not covering me, would turn me back into El, but I was separate from her now, aware I was putting her on, and that colored everything." . I also get the money worries and embarrassment. What I didn't get (and maybe this is a race/cultural thing) was the jealousy and anger from her family about having been left. Yes, it makes sense that Leidy was jealous (sibling), but I never understood Mami at all (at first I also didn't understand Papi, but then it came to be clear that he was in fact proud, just hard for him to show it).

The second half of the book was a huge disappointment (in part because I just didn't get Mami's character). I remember the Ariel fiasco, but I didn't live in Miami at the time and certainly don't remember it being such a big deal. I also don't understand the extent to which people got involved. And yes, maybe this is just a white girl perspective, but once they had gone over the deep end I don't understand why it was Lizet's job to pull her back. Leidy needed Mami's earnings and help; Leidy could feel abandoned. But why was it on Lizet to abandon her life and try to fix her crazy mother? Why is it selfish to move on instead of sit in a sinking ship? This was addressed a bit at the very end with the Professor's confusion, but not enough in my opinion. I felt like Lizet's identity struggle was real, but her family should have been in support of her moving on to the larger world.

Overall it was a great glimpse into the Cuban world of Miami with good insight about the discombobulation that comes when one no longer fits in the world in which one grew up, but is not yet comfortable with the world into one is growing.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

In all the books I have read (and I have read a lot) I rarely find the main characters from Miami. There is a special something that brings you there instantly. Author Jennine Capot Crucet describes the sights, the sounds, and the air perfectly. I can hear and see the characters. Lizet is a young girl graduating from Hialeah Lakes High School. She is the very first student to be accepted to Rawlings College, a prestigious, small, expensive college in New York. She has never been away from home, never flown on a plane. Her very small world of family, friends and boyfriend Omar had until that point been all Lizet needed to be happy. But when she spills the beans and tells everyone she is going away to college (having secretly applied) they are angry, feel betrayed and her parents who had always been on the brink of a huge meltdown - separate. Lizet wants to recreate herself. She has worked hard in school her whole life but can she hack the big leagues? She is nervous and scared and immediately homesick. Prepared to run from being the reffy from Miami, she plays down her Cuban identity only to wind up fighting for it in the end. Lizet is deeply connected to where she is from from, as the girls constantly ask, as she is introduced as Lizet, the Cuban roommate of Jillian. This book is about family, friendship and identity. All the things that make you you. Like, you you. Highly recommend this fantastic read. Look forward to more from this newfound author! Enjoy!! www.readingandeating.com

[Ashley · Rating 2 out of 5]

No. The book was difficult to read. There are no quotation marks- just dashes to indicate the start of a spoken word. If the quote has a complete sentence, sometimes the next sentence is a continuation of the quote and sometimes it is a thought. Editing fail for this reason and a few others. Interesting insight for those who are unaware of this history of Cuban-Americans living here. Clearly, this aspect was very well represented. The story loosely weaves around the plight of Elian Gonzalez as well. I never could get into the book nor get excited about any of the characters, try as I might. I couldn’t wait for the book to end. It was tedious work to get through it. Admittedly, I’m likely not the target reader though I was married to a Cuba-born, Miami-based Cuban and have a Cuban daughter. The better target audience would be my daughter once she is college-age... or any college-age student looking to diversify their mindset and break through that barrier that each of our childhoods is not how every American is raised. Decent insight into the culture, for sure. Sadly, just didn’t work for me. I AM looking forward to reading My Time Among the Whites and am hopeful that is a better match for me.

[Linda Doyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a Latina who attended a highly regarded university, I am able to relate to this story of a young Cuban-American who leaves her Florida home for a college education at an elite institution in upper state New York. She is torn about her decision, feels she doesn't deserve a college education, that she is separating from her family by choosing to move away. Her sense of alienation within a white student population is very real and intricately described.

There is so much I admire about this book: the humor, the depiction of campus life, the examination of the slow erosion of cultural identity. But I wish the mother was fleshed out more so that I could have a better understanding of her motivations. I dislike some of the cultural stereotyping (white people can't dance and Latinos are loud and passionate), but the book is written with so much humor that I couldn't help laughing at some of the generalities. One final beef: I really don't care for a style of writing that seems to be more common now: the lack of quotation marks to denote dialogue. It's confusing and makes the reading experience clunky.

This is at times a heartbreaking story but a joyful one too.