Geographies of Home: A Novel

Rating:
Summary: I'd buy 10 copies!
Review: I spent a whole Sunday in bed reading this book. I was so engaged, I didn't even want to get up to use the bathroom! Through Iliana, Ms. Perez told a complicated story of the dreams and struggles of a large Dominican family. Geographies of Home was written so poetically that the words seemed to wrap around me and I imagined myself in each character's shoes. I appreciated learning about the Seventh Day Adventist faith and reading about a Dominican-American family that dispelled some New York City stereotypes about Dominicans (Washington Heights residents, single-parent homes, devout Catholics, etc.). Although the story started kind of slowly, it's well worth the reader's time.

Rating:
Summary: JUST BECAUSE SHE IS DOMINICAN..... DONT EXPECT JULIA ALVAREZ
Review: AN EXCELLENT DEBUT. TO THE REVIEWER WHO COMMENCED HER REVIEW PRAISING ALVAREZ AND BASHING PEREZ.... JUST BECAUSE PEREZ AND ALVAREZ ARE BOTH DOMINICAN DO NOT EXPECT PROFOUND SIMILARITIES. PEREZ WRITES FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE YOUNG LATINAS, POOR DOMINICANAS, NOT MORE AFFLUENT DOMINICANAS LIKE JULIA ALVAREZ'S FAMILY. I LOVE BOTH AUTHORS BUT THEIR STYLES ARE DIFFERENT, EACH STANDS ON ITS OWN. PEREZ FOCUSES ON THE EXPIRIENCES OF A TROUBLED, POOR IMMIGRANT FAMILY. THIS IS NOT YOUR RUN OF THE MILL POOR KIDS GROWING UP IN THE GHETTO, ITS FRESHER, ITS MORE REALISTIC. IT POINGIANTLY PORTRAYS ONE FACET OF THE DOMINICAN IMMIGRANT EXPERIENCE IN NEW YORK.

AS YOU CAN TELL FROM HER NOVEL NOT ALL DOMINICANS LIVE IN WASHINGTON HEIGHTS, ARE RAISED BY SINGLE MOTHERS OR INVOLVED IN DRUG TRAFICKING.

THE PROTAGONIST SHARES THE SPOTLIGHT WITH ALL OTHER IMPORTANT CHARACTERS AND OFTEN FADES INTO THE BACKGROUND ONLY TO REMERGE AND ADD FRESH PERSPECTIVE.

THE NOVEL TOUCHES ON UNIVERSAL TOPICS: WOMEN'S GENDER ROLES, LOVE, ACCEPTANCE, POVERTY. ITS WONDERFUL, ITS REAL THERE ARE NO SUGAR COATED HAPPY ENDINGS. THE NOVEL IS VERY INTERESTING BECAUSE IT USES SURREALISM TO PROJECT A REALITY....... READ THE NOVEL! A VERY REALISTIC , POWERFUL PORTRAYAL OF A HARD LIFE.

Rating:
Summary: Strange, haunting story, and well written
Review: At first it was a little hard to get into it, it kind of dragged. But as you get to know the characters you can't put it down. Maybe the story could have done without Pasion (he was a little extreme) but he still ended up working well with the story. Great read!!!

Rating:
Summary: Unflinchingly Bold
Review: GEOGRAPHIES OF HOME is riveting from start to finish. Loida Maritza Perez, in her evocative, attention-getting prologue alone, establishes a tone of richness and depth. What follows is a story well beyond conventionality. She presents a compelling tale that flows beautifully as if it were an intimate, personalized character analysis of members of a very complex family. The author has structured a work both mystical and convincingly realistic about a severely troubled Dominican family. Perez, in my opinion, is brilliant first, in creating complicated, authentic characters and then telling their stories with graceful, inventive language. The reader shares the horrors of contemporary migration with all its incumbent trauma. However, I suggest that it is the predominance of Caribbean spiritualism that gives this story its illusive, absolutely haunting character. Loida Maritza Perez is masterful at her craft. This novel will stay with you. Very Highly Recommended. Te felicito profundamente, Loida.

Alan Cambeira
Author of AZUCAR! The Story of Sugar (a novel)

Rating:
Summary: Haunting Yet Inspiring
Review: I loved this haunting yet inspiring look at a Latino family. I've read some of the more negative reviews on this site, some of which note that it is hard to believe some of the things that motivate key characters, and therefore, dismiss this wonderful work. I completely disagree. Someone on the edge of mental breakdown could very well be pushed pass the point of no return by an event as traumatic as a rape. There are many women who, for reasons most of us will never fathom, stay in physically abusive relationships, so Pasion's story is very believable.

I think Loida Maritza Perez has drawn a detailed protrait of a family that exhibits many of the characteristics of immigrant (and other) families everywhere. They suffer heartbreaks and challenges, some of them extreme. They shift and reposition their roles relative to other family members. They have moments when love prevails, and moments when they give in to the baser human emotions and human failiings. But above all, Iliana's family is indeed a loving family, and a fascinating one at that.

The struggles they face are very familiar to many of us who are immigrants, and/or who have grown up with particular religious backgrounds. The fact that to some the motivations and actions of what I see as very well-drawn characters are unfamiliar, even strange, is all the more reason why this work is so important. It gives us an opportunity to learn about differences, while at the same time allowing us to glimpse the many similarities that tie all of us together.

I highly recommend Geographies of Home, and urge you to look for both the new and the familiar, because they are both there, evoked in beautiful language that will both haunt and inspire you to seek to over your own trials and tribulations with your families.

Rating:
Summary: geographies of home
Review: loida maritza perez has written a fantastic book. All Dominicans should find the time to read this very informative book. Twelve of the characters are real members of her family. All twelve are alive. About 95 percent of her story is true. She invented about five percent of the story to create a little drama. Marina really had a nervous breakdown because she was raped. HER VIRGINITY WAS REALLY TAKEN AWAY FROM HER ON THAT DAY. Her sister Betrise did vanish. She went away to college. She returned years later . Pasion was really a low life who manipulated the oldest sister. She married passion to prevent being an old maid and she stayed to honor her marriage vows. There were millions of happy moments and I consider her parents to be heros. They were both uneducated and yet they manage to raise twelve children. Most of them are successful, some are millionares, others own millions in realestate, some attended ivy universities, and other colleges. THEIR RELIGION HELPED SHAPED THEM INTO RESPONSIBLE ADULTS AND NINE OF THEM ARE STILL IN THE SAME RELIGION. ALL FAMILIES HAVE PROBLEMS AND YET THIS FAMILY MANAGED TO BECOME A COMPLETE SUCCESSS. LOIDA COULD NOT WRITE EVERYTHING ABOUT ALL THE CHARACTERS BECAUSE SHE HAS ENOUGH MATERIAL TO WRITE ONE NOVEL ABOUT EACH OF HER BROTHERS AND SISTERS. MAYBE ONE DAY SHE WILL WRITE ABOUT EACH ONE AND ALL QUESTIONS READERS HAVE WILL BE ANSWERED. RUN AND BUY THIS BOOK.

Rating:
Summary: Our Crazy Life
Review: this book is one of the best books i have ever read. why? because it touches on subjects that never make the new york top ten list for books. this is not michael crichton or john grisham or oprahs book club. this is life. thie is reality. she writes about subjects that are common in everyday american life whether you are latino/a or not.

perez writes with an ease that is more than natural. her writing no doubt reflects experiences that she had growing up. it is ethereal and corporeal at the same time. i felt myself reflected in her writings even though she is dominican and i am chicano. her writing was relaxed and not forced. almost as if she was speaking the words to me or as if i were watching before my eyes what was going on in the words. while she may never be compared to great classical writers her writing is the closest i have seen a modern latino/a writer in the last twenty years come to these writers. it is not as complicated or descriptive as the great russian writers but it evokes the same emotional response with a fluid writing that reaches into me and pulls out my past, a past so similar to the story. her writing captures the soul of latinos/latinas. it captures the nuances of our being. or how we act and react and live and don't live.

Rating:
Summary: Lyric prose
Review: This is a beautifully written story about a very messed up family. The prose is fluid and creates very vivid images. The character of Iliana and Aurelia are well drawn but the others are somewhat flat. It is a lovely story, and you care about the characters, which makes the ending even less satisfying. In each snapshot in the book a situation is introduced and then suddenly it's over. You want to know how things are resolved, you want more detail and more information and are left with the feeling that she simply ran out of things to say. Then she abruptly ended the book. It's a shame, because it could have been so very good. Nevertheless, it's worth reading if only for the vivid picture she creates of the lives of immigrants for whom the American Dream was only a mirage.

Rating:
Summary: Lyric prose
Review: This is a beautifully written story about a very messed up family. The prose is fluid and creates very vivid images. The character of Iliana and Aurelia are well drawn but the others are somewhat flat. It is a lovely story, and you care about the characters, which makes the ending even less satisfying. In each snapshot in the book a situation is introduced and then suddenly it's over. You want to know how things are resolved, you want more detail and more information and are left with the feeling that she simply ran out of things to say. Then she abruptly ended the book. It's a shame, because it could have been so very good. Nevertheless, it's worth reading if only for the vivid picture she creates of the lives of immigrants for whom the American Dream was only a mirage.