The Book of Unknown Americans

The Book of Unknown Americans is about immigrants. Specifically, immigrants from Latin America. It focuses on the intertwining stories of two families: the Riveras from Mexico (narrated by mother, Alma) and the Toros from Paraguay (narrated by youngest son, Mayor). The two families live in the same apartment complex in Delaware, and the life stories of the other residents are sprinkled through the main narrative.

I enjoyed the main narrative, though I found the side stories to be distracting and a bit simplistic. They were told in a way that seemed to give the people telling them more self-awareness than they exhibited in any other part of the story. It seemed a bit too concerned with explaining motivations, rather than letting the reader infer them from the histories themselves.

I also got distracted by the less than linear timeline. The two main overlapping viewpoints occasionally got ahead of one another, requiring the other one to back up and fill in the blanks. It was confusing until I realized what was happening, and then it sort of started working.

Ultimately the book did start to come together in the end, and I understood why the author structured it as she did. But it was clumsy while I was reading it, which distracted from the very sweet story at the center of anything. I don't think this was a wholly successful book, but it was worth reading, and I did cry at the end. I probably would have liked it much more had I encountered it in high school.

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