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thereadingcountess 's review for:
Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen
by Jose Antonio Vargas
In matters that are divisive, we must arm ourselves with knowledge so that we can contribute to the conversation intelligently. Dear America is an important shoot among the tangled branches of immigration.
Divided into three parts, the first part of Jose’s story about his early years in the Philippines and then later in the US was, for me, the most compelling. Learning that he arrived as a child in California with less than stellar paperwork while coming to terms with his sexuality must have been incredibly difficult as a young 16 year old. I felt for him in a way that I didn’t in the last two parts of the book, and can see how he still struggles with letting down his guard, letting people in. The last two sections he write more as a journalist, as he is trained to do, but I didn’t sign on to an article. He tried to be as open as he could in his memoir, but we seasoned memoir readers demand more. I felt that there was so much more he kept hidden during his adult years.
Regardless, Dear America is a must-read. Who is truly ‘American.?’ Why do we label people illegal?
Divided into three parts, the first part of Jose’s story about his early years in the Philippines and then later in the US was, for me, the most compelling. Learning that he arrived as a child in California with less than stellar paperwork while coming to terms with his sexuality must have been incredibly difficult as a young 16 year old. I felt for him in a way that I didn’t in the last two parts of the book, and can see how he still struggles with letting down his guard, letting people in. The last two sections he write more as a journalist, as he is trained to do, but I didn’t sign on to an article. He tried to be as open as he could in his memoir, but we seasoned memoir readers demand more. I felt that there was so much more he kept hidden during his adult years.
Regardless, Dear America is a must-read. Who is truly ‘American.?’ Why do we label people illegal?