America's Dream : Novel, A

It's 1996, and Amrica Gonzalez is a hotel housekeeper on Vieques, an island off the coast of Puerto Rico, cleaning up after wealthy foreigners who dont look her in the eye. Her alcoholic mother resents her; her married boyfriend, Correa, beats her; and their fourteen-year-old daughter thinks life would be better anywhere but with Amrica. So when Amrica is offered the chance to work as a live-in housekeeper and nanny for a family in Westchester, New York, she takes it as a sign to finally make the escape she's been longing for.Yet, even as Amrica revels in the comparative luxury of her new life--daring to care about a man other than Correa--she is faced with the disquieting realization that no matter what she does, she can never really escape her past.Deftly written and fiercely resilient, this novel explores the ever-shifting definition of what it means to be American and exemplifies the spirit of every immigrant who has dared to realize the American dream.