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neuroqueer_af's review
4.0
I read this because it was on This American Life. I was totally absorbed by the segment and I wanted to read more. Unfortunately, all the best bits of the essay were in the segment, so I felt like the essay was lacking for no real fault of it's own. If you want to broaden your horizons with some engaging nonfiction, this is well worth a read.
yikesbmg's review
4.0
short book, made me think about 2-3 things differently (namely calling undocumented immigrants from central america and mexico refugees, resettlement practices that recreate environments where gangs can rise). it’s honest and simple and straight to the point. nothing crazy. would recommend
sam_bizar_wilcox's review
5.0
Fucking amazing.
Valeria Luiselli's writing seethes with anger in the face of moral abjection. This essay gives a bilingual voice (written originally in English, translated and lengthened by Luisselli herself in Spanish, translated again to English for its CHP publication) to the precarious and oft-neglected lives of immigrant children. This is a narrative with no resolution. "Tell me how it ends," serves as a refrain to remark: there is no definitive ending. The prosecutions of children, family deportations, and traumas associated with the U.S. border offer no narrative conclusion. This is a book that is as harrowing as it is essential, as Luiselli tries and tries to find some way of making things work, of finding closure. Closure evades us; we are left to hang on to those titular forty questions, knowing that what happens after is so often unknowable.
Valeria Luiselli's writing seethes with anger in the face of moral abjection. This essay gives a bilingual voice (written originally in English, translated and lengthened by Luisselli herself in Spanish, translated again to English for its CHP publication) to the precarious and oft-neglected lives of immigrant children. This is a narrative with no resolution. "Tell me how it ends," serves as a refrain to remark: there is no definitive ending. The prosecutions of children, family deportations, and traumas associated with the U.S. border offer no narrative conclusion. This is a book that is as harrowing as it is essential, as Luiselli tries and tries to find some way of making things work, of finding closure. Closure evades us; we are left to hang on to those titular forty questions, knowing that what happens after is so often unknowable.
rachaelprest's review
5.0
A gut wrenching story of what happens to child migrants on their journey across Central America and arrival in the US, told with clarity and quiet fury.