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A review by thepickygirl
The Time It Snowed in Puerto Rico by Sarah McCoy
The Time It Snowed in Puerto Rico opens in 1961 with 11-year-old Verdita on her birthday. Her father makes her a special treat and then tells the beautiful story behind her nickname – because in Puerto Rico, “everybody ha[s] two names. One was printed on a birth certificate. Another was the one you were called … and that name always came with a story.”
Puertoriqueno. Isn’t that such a beautiful word? I have always been drawn to Latin cultures; some of my favorite reads are Latin: The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende, The Memory of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel. I have been a salsa dancer for years and can’t help but sway when I hear a Latin beat. However, I had not heard of this book, The Time It Snowed in Puerto Rico by Sarah McCoy. No, I met the lovely Sarah McCoy on Twitter and only heard of her book after she initiated a conversation with me and I visited her blog. Then I saw the cover of this book and had to buy it. Isn’t it gorgeous?
The opening of the book is just as beautiful and idyllic as the cover, but the novel is also a coming-of-age story, and at 11, Verdita is very much on the brink of young womanhood. She sees her parents lying together intimately on the couch, and her mother yells at her to go away. After that, for months, Verdita harbors anger toward her mother without really understanding why.
At the same time, the political climate in Puerto Rico is charged as the possibility of incorporation looms over the heads of Puerto Ricans eager to safeguard their own culture and government. Verdita buys into American culture, though – hook, line, and sinker. Her cousin lives in Washington D.C., and though at first she makes fun of him for forgetting aspects of Puerto Rican culture when he visits, she soon longs to “look” and “feel” more American. She loves reading the Dick and Jane stories and seeing the blond girl with white skin. She forces herself to eat a hamburger she doesn’t really enjoy because it’s “American.” She treats her mother condescendingly for her island traditions and inability to speak English. I ached for Verdita to enjoy what she had, but she cannot reconcile who she is with what she sees around her.
No, instead Verdita fights it. At the same time little girl and growing young woman, Verdita is confused, embarrassed, angry, and hurt. She doesn’t always understand the way she acts, but by the end of the story, she seems to have come to terms with much of what has happened to her and around her. When I turned the last page, I simply wanted more. The ending is not abrupt, but it certainly left me wondering about this young girl with curly dark hair and the green eyes of a parrot.
Puertoriqueno. Isn’t that such a beautiful word? I have always been drawn to Latin cultures; some of my favorite reads are Latin: The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende, The Memory of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel. I have been a salsa dancer for years and can’t help but sway when I hear a Latin beat. However, I had not heard of this book, The Time It Snowed in Puerto Rico by Sarah McCoy. No, I met the lovely Sarah McCoy on Twitter and only heard of her book after she initiated a conversation with me and I visited her blog. Then I saw the cover of this book and had to buy it. Isn’t it gorgeous?
The opening of the book is just as beautiful and idyllic as the cover, but the novel is also a coming-of-age story, and at 11, Verdita is very much on the brink of young womanhood. She sees her parents lying together intimately on the couch, and her mother yells at her to go away. After that, for months, Verdita harbors anger toward her mother without really understanding why.
At the same time, the political climate in Puerto Rico is charged as the possibility of incorporation looms over the heads of Puerto Ricans eager to safeguard their own culture and government. Verdita buys into American culture, though – hook, line, and sinker. Her cousin lives in Washington D.C., and though at first she makes fun of him for forgetting aspects of Puerto Rican culture when he visits, she soon longs to “look” and “feel” more American. She loves reading the Dick and Jane stories and seeing the blond girl with white skin. She forces herself to eat a hamburger she doesn’t really enjoy because it’s “American.” She treats her mother condescendingly for her island traditions and inability to speak English. I ached for Verdita to enjoy what she had, but she cannot reconcile who she is with what she sees around her.
No, instead Verdita fights it. At the same time little girl and growing young woman, Verdita is confused, embarrassed, angry, and hurt. She doesn’t always understand the way she acts, but by the end of the story, she seems to have come to terms with much of what has happened to her and around her. When I turned the last page, I simply wanted more. The ending is not abrupt, but it certainly left me wondering about this young girl with curly dark hair and the green eyes of a parrot.