A review by anna_23
How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water by Angie Cruz

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

In this book we are part of the 12 sessions Cara Romero has to attend for the Senior Work Program, technically to only give enough information so her social worker can help her find a job, but often diving into her everyday life, her relationship with her family including her son, who she hasn't seen in around 20 years and the lives of her neighbors in a close knit community in Washington Heights.

This book is for certain, one of the books that affected me the most, emotionally, this year. I found myself slowly getting attached to Cara and getting invested in her struggles and the ones of her friends and family. Angie Cruz did a wonderful job putting us in the mindset of a flawed woman who first deflected the fact that she did things wrong in her life and slowly learned that while for her it came from a place of love and care, she still did things that hurt people, especially her son Fernando.
Also Cruz showed the slow and rocky road of questioning your own set and often harmful beliefs (like internalized misogyny, homophobia or toxic masculinity) and unlearning them. While also exploring why they manifested themselves in the first place.

While I am often not a fan of the one sided interview narrative, this time it really worked for me. Mainly, because Cruz gave Cara such a lively and engaging voice that I didn't feel like I lacked another perspective. I was glued to the page (or the audiobook narrator's voice, I guess) listening to her sad and honest observations of her own actions, her love and support for the people around her and the charming humor that often came from her love for horoscopes. And while we only got Cara's perspective, I felt I got enough information about the other characters to understand why they acted the way they did. Especially toward the middle, when Cara was more open to be honest about her flaws and past hurts, which opened the possibility for really cathartic and beautiful recountings of conversations that were a joy to read. 

I also loved how central the importance of community was in this book, which is a theme I almost always love. It was so lovely to see the care this little apartment block had for each other, which was mostly made up of immigrants from different Latin American countries. 
One of my favorite relationships was between Cara and her neighbor Lulu. All the small little details, like the way Lulu helps Cara to get up in the mornings when she is struggling and Cara helps Lulu when she is overwhelmed with her family. 
Additionally, we see how the community has to stand up against the increasing gentrification of their neighborhood and the rising unemployment after the 2008 recession. 

Between the sessions we get documents that Cara had to fill out or received during the duration of the novel, during which I first, found myself zoning out but later found to appreciate, especially thinking about how many documents have been found of people throughout history and, that different to Cara's fictional story, we are not able to hear the stories that are attached to them. 

I listened to the audiobook and I recommend it to anybody, who has the access and possibility to listen to it. The producers put a lot of work into it adding music, outside noises and more. The narrators (Kimberly M. Wetherell and
Rossmery Almonte) did an incredible job and brought Cara Romero to live.

Highly, highly recommend this book and hope everyone will enjoy Cara Romero's story as much as I did!
Also if you liked the way the relationship was written between Evelyn and Joy in 'Everything, Everywhere, All at One' I would 100% give this a try!

Trigger Warnings: homophobia, misogynie, domestic violence

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