Reviews for Fitting in

The average rating for Fitting in based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2010-06-11 00:00:00 John Sawyer I didn't expect this book to be as good as it was. I've been reading up on Mexican-American history in the greater Los Angeles area, and this book of fiction--actually, thinly veiled autobiography--came up. It concerns a Mexican-American family living in a shack in the Red Camp, which was a real-life camp built in the early 20th century by a citrus company in La Habra, in north Orange County. It was built in order to provide a ready work force for the nearby citrus fields. The hygienic conditions in the camps were appalling. There was no hot water. The running water was collected outdoors at a water pump, and the bathroom facilities were outdoors. Chickens, ducks, and goats wandered the grounds of the camp. Because the shacks were built of redwood, the children called it The Red Camp. Thankfully, the company tore down the shacks in the early 1960s, to make way for a trailer park. Author Diaz draws a portrait of camp life that opens the reader's eyes to conditions for Mexican-Americans of the 1960s. It follows the story of a family of six, including two parents and four daughters. The father is a drunk, the mother hears voices, and the children are screwed up in various ways, as would be expected. Still, there is love, there is hope, and there is a story that reads like real life, almost certainly because it is Diaz's real story. Having lived in the area, I know that the details match. Everything matches the real-life details: the street names, the school names, the shop names, everything. It even feels real. One of the girls hangs out with two other girls, and they hang out together at recess, pretending they are a herd of horses, galloping and whinnying. We had some girls at my elementary school who did just that. The writing is clear and strong, even if it isn't literarily sophisticated. Never mind that. The author knows enough to only include the interesting stuff, the dysfunctional, passionate, deeply painful stuff of which lives are made. Most of the action takes place during the years of childhood, but there is a coda that brings the characters back 20 years later, as well. In a way, it's a kind of Mexican "Catcher in the Rye," with rebels and phonies and emotional elbows being thrown. For Mexican-Americans, it's an education on what our forebears went through, but it is a highly human story, too, that will captivate those whose skin tones are less brown. It is a short read, only 126 pages, and easily consumed. Still, I want to go back right now and read it again. It's that good.

Review # 2 was written on 2012-05-02 00:00:00 Jeff Bayless A beautiful heartfelt story that takes you to a place in time during Spanish colonization in Mexico where a Spanish priest listens to the last confession of an old Aztec woman by the name of Hummingbird. In this book you’ll be shown the suffering and the fall of the Aztec empire through Hummingbird’s eyes while also seeing a friendship between the Priest and the Aztec woman build. Not only is this a must read for all those of Mexican decent like me, but I would highly encourage and recommend for everyone to read this book. If we could all open our minds and hearts to see the suffering of other people through their eyes, we can defeat ignorance and hate. This book will inspire understanding and love.