An elegant, caustic travelogue sparkling with insight.
Greenhorn American decides on a whim to move to Argentina and learn to tango.
In 2000, just out of college, Winter packed up and headed to Buenos Aires to see what might happen. Little did at first, since he knew practically nobody in the city, his Texan Spanish was rusty and the country was in the middle of a calamitous economic meltdown that made it nearly impossible to find work. Eager for friends, Winter fell in with a handy cabal of argumentative tango aficionados, or milongueros, eager to school him in the art of seduction, dance, life, Argentina or anything else that crossed their minds. At first, Winter found the dance tough going: “Given the anarchic syncopations of the tango, with its wailing violins and unconventional ¾ time, I never stood a chance.” He eventually got the hang of it, and fell breathlessly in love with a female instructor. But Winter offers no gauzy paean to a stock notion of romantic Latin life. Instead, he provides a well-considered look into the Argentinean soul by an outsider who maintains the proper distance while remaining entranced. Winter is endlessly fascinated by the contradictions of a people so elegant and yet so crude, who seem so arrogant and yet continually display the national insecurity complex. His Argentina is a maddening, utterly beguiling place. Though Winter likens loving the nation during some of the worst years in its always-stormy history to “falling for an alcoholic at the very moment she hits rock bottom,” there will be no shortage of readers putting his book down and hopping the next flight to Buenos Aires.
An elegant, caustic travelogue sparkling with insight.Pub Date: March 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-58648-370-8
Page Count: 272
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2007
BOOK REVIEW
A welcome addition to the literature on immigration told by an author who understands the issue like few others.
The debut book from “one of the first undocumented immigrants to graduate from Harvard.”
In addition to delivering memorable portraits of undocumented immigrants residing precariously on Staten Island and in Miami, Cleveland, Flint, and New Haven, Cornejo Villavicencio, now enrolled in the American Studies doctorate program at Yale, shares her own Ecuadorian family story (she came to the U.S. at age 5) and her anger at the exploitation of hardworking immigrants in the U.S. Because the author fully comprehends the perils of undocumented immigrants speaking to journalist, she wisely built trust slowly with her subjects. Her own undocumented status helped the cause, as did her Spanish fluency. Still, she protects those who talked to her by changing their names and other personal information. Consequently, readers must trust implicitly that the author doesn’t invent or embellish. But as she notes, “this book is not a traditional nonfiction book….I took notes by hand during interviews and after the book was finished, I destroyed those notes.” Recounting her travels to the sites where undocumented women, men, and children struggle to live above the poverty line, she reports her findings in compelling, often heart-wrenching vignettes. Cornejo Villavicencio clearly shows how employers often cheat day laborers out of hard-earned wages, and policymakers and law enforcement agents exist primarily to harm rather than assist immigrants who look and speak differently. Often, cruelty arrives not only in economic terms, but also via verbal slurs and even violence. Throughout the narrative, the author explores her own psychological struggles, including her relationships with her parents, who are considered “illegal” in the nation where they have worked hard and tried to become model residents. In some of the most deeply revealing passages, Cornejo Villavicencio chronicles her struggles reconciling her desire to help undocumented children with the knowledge that she does not want "kids of my own." Ultimately, the author’s candor about herself removes worries about the credibility of her stories.
A welcome addition to the literature on immigration told by an author who understands the issue like few others.Pub Date: May 19, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-399-59268-3
Page Count: 208
Publisher: One World/Random House
Review Posted Online: Jan. 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
The Johnstown Flood was one of the greatest natural disasters of all time (actually manmade, since it was precipitated by a wealthy country club dam which had long been the source of justified misgivings). This then is a routine rundown of the catastrophe of May 31st, 1889, the biggest news story since Lincoln's murder in which thousands died. The most interesting incidental: a baby floated unharmed in its cradle for eighty miles.... Perhaps of local interest-but it lacks the Lord-ly touch.
Pub Date: March 18, 1968
ISBN: 0671207148
Page Count: 312
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1968
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