Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.04 AVERAGE
4.04 AVERAGE
I listened to this book on audible and when I finished I wanted to start it all over again! A poetic shorter story about a family and their immigration story from Columbia. All the thoughts and struggles of coming to America were so eloquently described. I’m not always a fan of Reese Witherspoons picks but this one was amazing!
A book about splintered immigrant family with mix status - I thought I'd love it, but something didn't click. I felt like the author kept us at a distance, and I was slow to react to the emotional scenes because they were written so mater of factly. There were also a lot of folklore stories, which I usually love, but they didn't fold up well with the story. Had the author taken the stories out I wouldn't have missed them, which tells me she needed to integrate them better, rather then add them for flavor. The book was short, and maybe this was its problem. Its briefness didn't allow the characters enough time to breathe, didn't allow their developments to properly arch over their wants, their sorrows, their resolve.
Spoiler
And the happy reunification at the end was too rushed. While I was happy to read a non-bleak ending, it wasn't earned.
Infinite Country is a short but powerful piece of literary fiction.
This highly relevant piece of social commentary follows a young Colombian family who embraced the American dream. Knowing they could make more money, they travel to the US for six months to cushion their savings, and once their visas expire, due to an additional pregnancy, they make the difficult decision to remain, becoming illegals.
The story jumps back and forth in time: to the present, fifteen years after the family was separated after the father, Mauro, was deported and their youngest daughter, Talia, was sent home to be raised by her grandmother so that her mother, Elena, could work without worrying about daycare. Talia's story is an On the Road journey, making her way across Colombia to eventually, hopefully rejoin her mother and older siblings in America, where she is a natural born citizen. The story also provides Mauro and Elena's back stories - as all family decisions are impacted from generational decisions, after all.
The story also heavily explores mythology. I especially loved the use of Andean mythology to add depth and symbolism to the plot, but the author also ruminates on the myth of the American dream and the myth of its melting pot. She shows how people come to this promised land of milk and honey only to be Othered and persecuted as criminals; how the promised land is just as violent and neglectful of its citizens as the “third world” countries left behind; how borders are mere social constructs.
"What was it about this country that kept everyone hostage to its fantasy? The previous month, on its own soil, an American man went to his job at a plant and gunned down fourteen coworkers, and last spring alone there were four different school shootings. A nation at war with itself, yet people still spoke of it as some kind of paradise."
Now, I can’t imagine someone with a different, more closed off mindset picking up this book and being receptive to it. I would hope that it would naturally engender empathy as all good literature does, but even so, this is a fantastic piece of literature from an own voices author. The writing is wonderful and the story is gut-wrenching, and it is certainly worthy of the Bookstagram hype.
This highly relevant piece of social commentary follows a young Colombian family who embraced the American dream. Knowing they could make more money, they travel to the US for six months to cushion their savings, and once their visas expire, due to an additional pregnancy, they make the difficult decision to remain, becoming illegals.
The story jumps back and forth in time: to the present, fifteen years after the family was separated after the father, Mauro, was deported and their youngest daughter, Talia, was sent home to be raised by her grandmother so that her mother, Elena, could work without worrying about daycare. Talia's story is an On the Road journey, making her way across Colombia to eventually, hopefully rejoin her mother and older siblings in America, where she is a natural born citizen. The story also provides Mauro and Elena's back stories - as all family decisions are impacted from generational decisions, after all.
The story also heavily explores mythology. I especially loved the use of Andean mythology to add depth and symbolism to the plot, but the author also ruminates on the myth of the American dream and the myth of its melting pot. She shows how people come to this promised land of milk and honey only to be Othered and persecuted as criminals; how the promised land is just as violent and neglectful of its citizens as the “third world” countries left behind; how borders are mere social constructs.
"What was it about this country that kept everyone hostage to its fantasy? The previous month, on its own soil, an American man went to his job at a plant and gunned down fourteen coworkers, and last spring alone there were four different school shootings. A nation at war with itself, yet people still spoke of it as some kind of paradise."
Now, I can’t imagine someone with a different, more closed off mindset picking up this book and being receptive to it. I would hope that it would naturally engender empathy as all good literature does, but even so, this is a fantastic piece of literature from an own voices author. The writing is wonderful and the story is gut-wrenching, and it is certainly worthy of the Bookstagram hype.
Short but powerful!
Story of a Colombian family and the impact that trying to emigrate to America has on all of them.
Story of a Colombian family and the impact that trying to emigrate to America has on all of them.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
“What was it about this country that kept everyone hostage to its fantasy? The previous memory, on its own soil, an American man went to his job at a plant and gunned down fourteen coworkers, and last spring alone there were four different school shootings. A nation at war with itself, yet people still spoke of it as some kind of paradise.”
Infinite Country is the second book I have read by Patricia Engel this year, and after completing it, I have come to the conclusion that I will read anything she writes. Engel’s writing and narrative in Infinite Country is gripping and authentic, revealing and powerful. She sheds so much light on the heartbreaking realities faced by an immigrant family broken apart as a result of deportation. There is a hopelessness and inevitability acquainted with the every day experiences of the different family members, but despite all of that, there is an underlying hope and love that burns within each of them.
One thing I was really pleased with is the way that Engel does not allow her characters to remain dreamy eyed in regard to the American Dream and the American Experience. They leave their home country for America in the hopes of safer and better opportunities, but they don’t allow their desire to cloud their awareness. They struggle, they face immense hardship, ultimately recognizing that there is no paradise on earth, aside from that found in those we love.
This novel was very precise and well-paced, though I found myself wishing it had actually been a bit longer. As vivid as the story could be at times, the story left me wanting more: in both a positive and negative way. Had this novel been about 50 pages longer, with a bit more exposure to cultures being depicted, I would have probably given this book 5⭐️
As is, I think this novel is really powerful, and everyone should read it. I don’t know how you could read this book and not be filled with compassion for the countless real life families in situations so like the one found here.
“What was it about this country that kept everyone hostage to its fantasy? The previous memory, on its own soil, an American man went to his job at a plant and gunned down fourteen coworkers, and last spring alone there were four different school shootings. A nation at war with itself, yet people still spoke of it as some kind of paradise.”
Infinite Country is the second book I have read by Patricia Engel this year, and after completing it, I have come to the conclusion that I will read anything she writes. Engel’s writing and narrative in Infinite Country is gripping and authentic, revealing and powerful. She sheds so much light on the heartbreaking realities faced by an immigrant family broken apart as a result of deportation. There is a hopelessness and inevitability acquainted with the every day experiences of the different family members, but despite all of that, there is an underlying hope and love that burns within each of them.
One thing I was really pleased with is the way that Engel does not allow her characters to remain dreamy eyed in regard to the American Dream and the American Experience. They leave their home country for America in the hopes of safer and better opportunities, but they don’t allow their desire to cloud their awareness. They struggle, they face immense hardship, ultimately recognizing that there is no paradise on earth, aside from that found in those we love.
This novel was very precise and well-paced, though I found myself wishing it had actually been a bit longer. As vivid as the story could be at times, the story left me wanting more: in both a positive and negative way. Had this novel been about 50 pages longer, with a bit more exposure to cultures being depicted, I would have probably given this book 5⭐️
As is, I think this novel is really powerful, and everyone should read it. I don’t know how you could read this book and not be filled with compassion for the countless real life families in situations so like the one found here.
This is a good story about a family reuniting. It helps me understand the complicated reasons families decide to leave their home countries for America and why they stay when life doesn’t work out the way they hoped. This is an important book that shows how politics gets in the way of family. The ending has a few insightful explanations that are well-woven into the story: “But every nation in the Americas had a hidden history of internal violence. It just wore different masks, carried different weapons, and justified itself with different stories” (170).
The only flaws I found were that the author got a little expository at a few points, explaining things that anyone who watches the news, right- or left-leaning, should know about, such as what ICE is. There were also times when I felt the story was a little rushed, and character development was subordinated to her political message.
The only flaws I found were that the author got a little expository at a few points, explaining things that anyone who watches the news, right- or left-leaning, should know about, such as what ICE is. There were also times when I felt the story was a little rushed, and character development was subordinated to her political message.
When I finished this book, I sat staring into space for a solid five minutes. As a feeling of both relief and dread bloomed in my chest, I was completely speechless.
This book details a Colombian family separated by continents, borders, and a broken immigration system, as they work their way back to each other. The premise sounds like an epic, but the author managed to tell this breathtaking and heartbreaking story in less than 200 pages.
The book grabs you instantly (the first sentence should be included in best first literature lines: “It was her idea to tie up the nun.”) The author wields the powerful talent of expressing deep, complex thoughts in short, heart stopping sentences.
I read this book while teaching my World History class about Columbus, the conquistadors, and their exploits in the Americas. A few weeks prior, we studied the civilizations that were destroyed by white greed, when they were untouched and thriving. The book approaches this history in a similar war. The author weaves in the mythology and religion of the indigenous people who lived in what is modern day Colombia, juxtaposed against its modern reality.
As I turned the pages of a story that exists because of the massive greed planted and reaped five hundred years ago, I found myself thinking, was it worth it? Was the plunder worth the lives they destroyed and are still destroying five centuries later? The beauty they crushed, the lives snuffed out, the potential extinguished. Of course it wasn’t worth it, and I wish their was more urgency among the people in power to remove the stains Columbus and the conquistador left, that are still spreading and poisoning people today.
Read this beautiful book.
This book details a Colombian family separated by continents, borders, and a broken immigration system, as they work their way back to each other. The premise sounds like an epic, but the author managed to tell this breathtaking and heartbreaking story in less than 200 pages.
The book grabs you instantly (the first sentence should be included in best first literature lines: “It was her idea to tie up the nun.”) The author wields the powerful talent of expressing deep, complex thoughts in short, heart stopping sentences.
I read this book while teaching my World History class about Columbus, the conquistadors, and their exploits in the Americas. A few weeks prior, we studied the civilizations that were destroyed by white greed, when they were untouched and thriving. The book approaches this history in a similar war. The author weaves in the mythology and religion of the indigenous people who lived in what is modern day Colombia, juxtaposed against its modern reality.
As I turned the pages of a story that exists because of the massive greed planted and reaped five hundred years ago, I found myself thinking, was it worth it? Was the plunder worth the lives they destroyed and are still destroying five centuries later? The beauty they crushed, the lives snuffed out, the potential extinguished. Of course it wasn’t worth it, and I wish their was more urgency among the people in power to remove the stains Columbus and the conquistador left, that are still spreading and poisoning people today.
Read this beautiful book.
I liked reading about a mixed status family because that is the reality for so many. Four stars because I’m not sure what this book added that was new to the narrative of immigration.
I also listened to the audiobook and I’m very confused and slightly offended by the choice to do accented English for characters when they’re presumably speaking in their native Spanish.
I also listened to the audiobook and I’m very confused and slightly offended by the choice to do accented English for characters when they’re presumably speaking in their native Spanish.
medium-paced