The Dirty Girls Social Club: A Novel

Rating:
Summary: Don't believe the hype
Review: I honestly don't understand the hype behind this book. It basically reads like an outline that's only been partially filled in, with randomly fleshed-out ideas here and there, and extremely rough character sketches. Usnavys works for a non-profit organization, yet she's a materialistic, money-grubbing gold-digger? I found that combination hard to swallow, although I may have been able to grasp the concept it if Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez had even once showed us Usvnays at her job, which she didn't.

I also had a hard time conjuring up a concrete image of Elizabeth, the super-successful newscaster/hard-core Christian/lesbian, mainly because she didn't seem to have any kind of struggle with being a Christian and a lesbian simultaneously. I do believe that it's possible to be a gay Christian, in fact I know several, but I also know that they've all experienced at least SOMEWHAT of a struggle (if not a long, difficult battle), to reconcile their sexual and spiritual orientations. It just seemed like Elizabeth's only struggle was keeping her personal life a secret from the public, and in real life, I think her struggle would be much more multi-faceted, an adjective AVR has yet to learn. I just had a hard time believing Elizabeth woke up one morning and said "Hmm, I'm feeling a little lesbianish today. Now, what should I wear to church?" Which is basically how AVR portrayed her.

Similarly, Sara's character is described as being a Jewish Cuban, yet we see nothing that illustrates that she's Jewish, other than a brief mention of the fact that she was one of the first Cuban girls in her neighborhood to have a Bat Mitzvah. I was intrigued by this combination of cultures, which-and I'll allow my ignorance to show here-I never knew existed. By the same token, I was disappointed when AVR didn't flesh this concept out at all. She seems to enjoy pinning religions (and jobs) on her characters like name tags, without giving any background or insight into how these belief systems (and jobs) affect her characters' lives.

Overall, I think six narrative characters was too many for AVR to handle. (And doesn't she know the cardinal rule of chick-lit, that women are always friends in groups of four?) All kidding aside, I think a six-narrator story that touches on big social, political, and racial issues (which AVR continually revealed herself to be not all that knowledgeable about) was a little too ambitious of a project for a writer of AVR's caliber. If, in the future, she sticks with more intentionally fluffy pieces and smaller casts of characters, she might do all right as a chick-lit writer, but I found Dirty Girls to be a huge disappointment.


Rating:
Summary: Sucias !
Review: This book is not strictly a girl's book at all ( I do admit at first it came out that way ) . To be honest I have no idea why I even got this book in the first place, but I'm glad that I did . This book has characters that you can relate to, despite where your from . It's well written ( except for a few spanish words here and there that some people might not be able to pick up ) .

The story revolves around 6 latinas that have been friends from their school days and manged to stay in touch for years . They made a pact to meet every once a year to catch up on the things that have been happening in their lives
since they parted 6 years ago . Hence they call their group ' The Buena Sucia Social Club .....

Lauren - the self-destructive Cubana . Who always tends to talk about her father , his hate of Castro and all about being Cuban . She sees a psychiatrist that keeps on telling her that she should undergo a 'cuba-dectomy' and stop talking about the past . She works for the 'Gazette' and writes a weekly Lifestyles column called ' My Life ', which is pretty much like a diary of her life . Although successful in her work, she doesn't have much success in her life in general and she's always in constant shambles through relationships that ends up nowhere ( not unless you count the bars as somewhere) .

Sara - A housewife and she has the life that all the sucias envy . Her husband Roberto is a lawyer in a successful firm and they have twin boys . Everyone thinks she has the best life as all of them, until she ends up in a hospital in a critical condition.....

Amber - The only one of the sucias who doesn't work and unsuccessful .She's an aspiring musician who's waiting for a big break . Her outlook in life changed when she met a man that introduced her to her Mexica Heritage and from there her beliefs and aspirations have changed.....

Elizabeth - A stunning dark-skinned Columbian who anchors for a morning show . Although she is one of the recognized face in the community, her job is getting in a way of her private life . She is secretly inlove with Lauren but never said so, she is also Sara's best friend who truly knows how Sara's life is and why she ended up the way she
did . As the story progress her private life is a total shock to all the sucias...

Rebecca - In all of the Sucias she's the most uptight and hence Lauren dislikes her . She is married to a caucasian man that none of the Sucias like . She owns a magazine called Ella . Despite all her riches in life , her marriage is in shambles and she is falling for another man that she knows that her parents will not approve of .

Usnavys - A really shallow person . She blames all her distrust in the male species from her father . She likes to wear expensive things despite comfort and keeps the tag on them because their not fully paid . Although she is inlove with a man, she doesn't admit it because he is poor and she says that she'd have enough of a poor life.


Rating:
Summary: Las sucias
Review: A funny, irreverent tale about a group of Latina women of different backgrounds who attended college together, The Dirty Girls Social Club dispels the age-old myths about Latin-Americans. Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez gives us a novel which is at once fresh, fun, and exciting. There women are wonderful because they aren't afraid to be who they are: You won't find any size-0 blonde models here! Lauren, Usnavys, Sara, Rebecca, Amber and Elizabeth get together to dish the dirt and talk about their lives in general. The story is told from the perspective of each of the women, as they go about their daily lives. Lauren is a Cuban-American reporter/ columnist who is a token minority at the paper she works for; Usnavys is the large, outgoing sucia; Rebecca is the do-gooder who owns her own magazine; Amber, the rock en Espanol star who says what's on her mind; Sara, the stay-at-home Jewish mom who seemingly has a million things going on at once but always appears perfectly put together; and Elizabeth, the black Latina who grew up in Columbia and is now a born-again Christian.

Rating:
Summary: 3 1/2 stars for good writing
Review: This book got on my nerves! That said, I still enjoyed it and raced through it. Rodriguez has a wonderful talent for writing in many ways and her pacing and diaogue are quite good. Where the book failed for me is that I wasn't particulary drawn to all of the characters. Two of the characters (Sara and Amber) feel more like they were included to make points about spousal abuse and politics. They aren't very real characters and their voices get lost. Maybe instead of six characters, there ought to only have been four.
Maybe I am critical b/c I am like the women in this novel: an American Latina in her late 20's. I know women like the ones depicted here and the novel is broad in its appeal. The characters have different nationalities, skin tones, and religions. That is all reflective of the Latina U.S. experience. However, how come everyone in this book has money to burn? That certainly is unrealisitc considering their age. And what's up with the men? Absolutely no development there. Again, the men feel like book characters; even though that's what they are, as a reader I was super-conscious of the fact.

This book is escapist fun and has enough happy endings to satisfy a beach reader. Literature it's not, but it is a nice addition to the chick-lit genre.

Rating:
Summary: more than a good 'beach read'
Review: All in all, a very enjoyable, engaging read. The book was not at all stereotypical or trite in its portrayal of six contemporary Latina women. They were well-developed characters with distinct identities and lives. Of course, I had to wonder at one point: How would such incredibly diverse women ever become (and remain) friends in the first place? There was plenty of drama and conflicted romance to keep one engaged. Although parts of the plot were a little implausible, there were realistic situations and conflicts. It was easy to picture these women and relate to certain aspects of their lives.

Rating:
Summary: FANTASTICO!!!
Review: Ms. Valdes-Rodriguez's debut novel about the ups and downs in the lives of six friends is a good one. Each and every character had a distinct and compelling personality.....introducing the soucias:

Usnavys - ghetto-fabulous with a successful career, she wants the best of everything...in life and love. But the two greatest loves in her life were her two greatest losses, and she doesn't dare trust a man with her heart anymore......

Elizabeth - breathtakingly beautiful, her career as Boston's most beloved anchorwoman masks a secret personal life that could put her career and the love of the other soucias in jeopardy...

Sarah - rich and beautiful, she appears to have it all. Married to a successful lawyer and her childhood love with two beautiful children, she is a stay-at-home mom whose eye for interior design could put even Martha Stewart to shame. But it's all a facade, and the secret Sarah harbors could cost her her life.....

Rebecca - Successful CEO of a popular Latina magazine, Rebecca is a control freak stuck in a loveless marriage. When love arrives with a handsome ebony face in the form of her benefactor, millionaire Andre Cartier, will Rebecca find the courage to throw caution to the wind?..........

Amber - A struggling musician, Amber makes the rounds, playing her music in different clubs with love of her life Gato. But then success comes calling, and money for the first time is no longer an issue...but her personal life begins to fall apart. Could it be that all that Amber needs is the music after all?

Lauren - After catching her admittedly unattractive fiancee in the act with a girl ten years her junior, Lauren sets out on a course of self destruction. But that road leads her directly to a impossibly handsome Dominican drug dealer...who could be just what she needs to mend the hole in her heart.


Slow at times, this tale picks up speed toward the middle, after which there is no looking back. The ending was such that I am holding out hope for a part two to "Dirty Girls"...dare we dream?



DYB