REVIEW: How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water

A short review of How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water by Angie Cruz.

“Desahogar: to undrown, to cry until you don’t need to cry no more.”

This book has been on my list since it came out. For some reason I never actually went through with buying it before this past week, which was a huge mistake. This is one of the best books I have read this year. 

We listen to Cara Romero tell the story of her life over 12 sessions with a job counselor as she has recently lost her job at a factory and is looking for work. Set entirely in the first person, we hear Cara tell us about her relationship with her son, her sister, her mother, and the people who have lived in her building with her for many years. We hear about how Cara immigrated to America, losing her job during the recession, and how she views the gentrification of New York City. We hear about her heartbreaks, her successes, her hopes, and her tears. 

The absolute best thing about How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water is the voice. The book is written in an unusual way, entirely as monologues from Cara herself. Although she is in conversation with the job counselor, we only hear her. This creates an incredibly vivid picture of her personality, and makes the reader feel so personally attached to her life. It is as though I could hear her speaking to me, as though I were the job counselor in her story. 

I also appreciated this completely different view of living through the recession in New York City. It’s rare to hear a voice like Cara’s speaking about it, even though it was people just like her who were most affected by it. I was tired of hearing about it from big corporations, or Wall Street bankers; it was powerful to hear it from the voice of someone who was not in the center of the economic forces at play.

Without spoiling it, the most powerful part of this book was Cara’s relationship with her son. The picture of an immigrant mother, stuck in their ways, is normally shown from the point of view of the child. Here we get the mother’s voice. The cultural changes she must adjust to when moving, the sacrifices she must make as a single mother supporting her child, the pain, fear, worry, and sense of protectiveness of doing it alone, and the absolute heartbreak of familial rejection.

Cara is a flawed character, but that makes her even more special to the reader. It makes her real.

I would recommend this book to everyone and anyone, and if you cannot pick up a physical copy, I have heard that the audiobook is incredibly well done.

Happy reading!

4.5 stars

Where to buy online: https://www.waterstones.com/book/how-not-to-drown-in-a-glass-of-water/angie-cruz/9781399806893

Support your local bookshop and go in and buy it there if you can!