Reviews - America Is in the Heart

154 reviews for:

America Is in the Heart

Carlos Bulosan

3.75 AVERAGE

gellifromtheblock's review

3.5

challenging reflective tense slow-paced

leslie115's review against another edition

3.0

3.5 stars. Finally, a Filipino writer whose prose I like. I especially enjoyed reading about Bulosan's childhood in the Philippines and initial experiences in the U.S. The racism was infuriating. The narrative, however, became disjointed and I lost track of his friends because they were not as distinctly drawn as members of his family. Still, an important read.

bohdankinal's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

I enjoyed this book a lot. A really powerful and unflinching depiction of the terrible struggles Filipino migrants have faced in the US. Bulosan’s use of diction and the transition from simple, declarative phrases to complex, almost academic sentences alongside his immersion in American and academic culture works really well on the meta level. The ending works for me, too; the irony of it seems intentional to me and honestly makes it hilarious in a way. The depiction of women in this book as only either pathetic and maternal or seductive distractions is a bit frustrating, though I suppose it is partially a reflection of Bulosan’s situation.

caity_reviews_books's review against another edition

3.75

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bookbelle5_17's review

dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

Review of America is in the Heart

By: Carlos Bulosan

Like other Asian immigrants, Filipinos were met with nothing but prejudice and hate when they came to America for a better life. Carlos Bulosan was born a peasant and had already experienced classism while in the Philippines. He couldn’t even go to school and had to self-educate with help from one of his brothers, who gave him books to learn to read. His family couldn’t even stay together, and his father never had enough money to keep their farm. When he was finally able to go to America, he kept having to travel from place to place and job to job, because the white people in America thought he and his people were sex crazed, gamblers, and trying to take their women. All the hate Bulosan experienced created a feeling of hate with in him and motivated him to become a Communist, believing it to be the only way that would lead to a society where he would be treated as an equal. Like a lot of books that deal with prejudice and immigrant experience, there were parts that were hard to read and resulted in feelings of anger and not understanding how someone could be treated this way. The abuse Bulosan and his friends experience is horrifying, but it doesn’t break him and he becomes a poet, expressing himself through words.

dianaeberhardt's review against another edition

4.0

Sad tale of a Filipino family’s struggles with poverty, illness, and racism

michaelgardner's review

4.0

Carlos Bulosan beautifully and honestly renders his experience as a child and all he must accept, discover, and learn in navigating the world he was born into, and the new world he was moved to make his new home. All of these are taught, the inscription into the child, but that doesn't make them true or a reflection of the soul residing within. This is a beautiful and painful work, honestly sharing the experience of the immigrant and the made-vulnerable, by a society which creates it.