How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water: A Novel

Amazon.com Review
An Amazon Best Book of September 2022:Narrated by Cara Romero, a 56-year-old Dominican woman in the Bronx,How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water is not just a breath of fresh air but a steady and wry portrait of a woman navigating loss (“a husband that almost killed me, and a son that will not return home”), friends, eviction, the seduction of internet scams, and unemployment. The novel is structured around Cara’s unemployment counseling sessions, during which she expounds vivaciously and honestly about her life—her coffee rituals, the son who abandoned her, the harsh reality of her childhood—when she’s asked simple and straightforward questions like “when can you work?” The result is gloriously funny (and also devastating) vignettes that shrewdly demonstrate how much our government institutions overlook the cultural, social, and economic differences of those who are not white, wealthy, and educated. An exuberant novel, unlike anything I’ve ever read, that I gulped down in one sitting. —Al Woodworth, Amazon Editor
A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITOR'S CHOICE · REVIEWED ON THE FRONT COVER
From GMA BOOK CLUB PICK and WOMEN'S PRIZE FINALIST Angie Cruz, author of Dominicana, an electrifying new novel about a woman who has lost everything but the chance to finally tell her story
“Will have you LAUGHING line after line...Cruz AIMS FOR THE HEART, and fires.” ―Los Angeles Times
"An endearing portrait of a FIERCE, FUNNY woman." ―The Washington Post
Cara Romero thought she would work at the factory of little lamps for the rest of her life. But when, in her mid-50s, she loses her job in the Great Recession, she is forced back into the job market for the first time in decades. Set up with a job counselor, Cara instead begins to narrate the story of her life. Over the course of twelve sessions, Cara recounts her tempestuous love affairs, her alternately biting and loving relationships with her neighbor Lulu and her sister Angela, her struggles with debt, gentrification and loss, and, eventually, what really happened between her and her estranged son, Fernando. As Cara confronts her darkest secrets and regrets, we see a woman buffeted by life but still full of fight.
Structurally inventive and emotionally kaleidoscopic, How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water is Angie Cruz’s most ambitious and moving novel yet, and Cara is a heroine for the ages.