My Time Among the Whites

A sharp and vulnerable collection of personal essays detailing Crucet's experiences as a modern Cuban-American. An eye-opening and sympathetic set of stories. A great addition to the diverse voices we are hearing these days. Looking forward to meeting the author at this year's Decatur Book Festival.

I loved this book! The daughter of the daughter of Cuban refugees, she explored in her essays issues of race and culture in a nuanced yet very readable way. I loved the stories about her family and when she went further afield her sense of humor and self went with her.

I found this one very autobiographical. Certainly it was meant to be an account of the author's experience as a Cuban-American, but my first impression was that it was very insular, as if she didn't really engage with the world outside of her own bubble.

As it went along, there were some insights of what it's like to be a non-white American, specifically Cuban. I found her experiences of Disney parks very interesting and her wedding planning made me want to slap her mother, while what she did in her later apartment when the sound of receptions of other people's weddings blasted through the walls was highly amusing.

While it follows the experiences of just one woman, through college, through marriage and through a holiday at a ranch in Nebraska where she was subjected to Fox news and racist comments from the owner who perceived her as white, it provides a window into how these experiences are seen by a Cuban American from Miami.

I also enjoyed reading about the Miami attitude towards hurricanes, which I found similar to that of Californians about earthquakes. An interesting fly-on-the-wall look into a world far removed from my own experiences.

An intimate raw look at life as a. Cuban American.Honest open emotional a book that is drawn from today’s headlines an important read.#netgalley #macmillanpicador

My Time Among the Whites, a book of essays by Jennine Capo Crucet, is so, so good. The essays center around what it means to be American and who gets to be called one. The daughter of Cuban refugees, Crucet grew up in Miami, and only started to feel Othered when she went to Cornell for college. Her essays examine life in a white supremacist society, especially after Trump's election, including being confronted by a white student crying about "reverse racism" and a trip to a ranch where the rancher denigrates Mexicans, but is really referring to all Latinx people. Crucet is super smart and a fantastic writer, but she's also really funny. I especially liked her essay on her lifetime adoration of Disney World (and the consequences of buying into the fantasy), as well as her essay on trying to meld Cuban and white cultural mores while wedding planning (and her subsequent wedding crashing habit after moving into an apartment building that doubles as a wedding venue). Oh! And her essay on her parents naming her after a Miss America runner up was wonderful as well. (I also love the Microsoft Word red squiggles under her name on the book cover.) She writes about being a first gen college student, working in academia, her relationships with her family, and the consequences of sexual violence. I flew through this book but I think it should definitely be read more than once. I'm excited to read her other books now. Highly recommended.

Thank you to Macmillan-Picador and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Beautiful, intimate prose that deeply touched me - I am not a POC, but grew up a foreigner and cultural outsider in the US, raised by parents that were in many instances clueless about what that meant for me as their (oldest) child. The remarkable openness with which the author reflects on her upbringing, what shaped her, and the mindsets she encounters is in turn hilariously funny, touchingly vulnerable, achingly familiar, and a challenge to those that do not need to contend with being obviously an outsider.

Highly recommended!

This essay collection flows so smoothly from piece to piece, it's almost like reading a novel with characters who just happen to exist in real life.

Witty, interesting writing. I found myself wanting the stories to be a little more connected or flow together but I enjoyed them still. Really liked the Disney story in particular - it will stick with me a long time. So much food for thought and also made me laugh out loud. That’s a hard combination to execute!