Publisher's Weekly Review
Catapult magazine editor and memoirist Chung (All You Can Ever Know) and Catapult founder Demary (coauthor, Let Love Have the Last Word) show how "literature can provide a pathway to greater empathy and understanding" in this collection of essays gleaned from the magazine's archives and focused on the theme of immigration to the U.S. (and, in one piece, Canada). It features writers from the world over, including both documented and undocumented immigrants, as well as first-, second-, and third-generation Americans. Some contributors, such as Sharine Taylor writing about her Jamaican immigrant grandmother's sly use of patois, focus on older relatives ("Patois was our secret, allowing us to be in the English world and then escape to Jamaica through language"); others confront past and future choices with ambivalence ("Should I--an immigrant to, a writer in, and a critic of the United States--apply for citizenship?" Bix Gabriel asks at the end of an essay detailing her odyssey from India and concern over the Trump presidency). Other essayists relate encounters with racism, clueless natives, and fellow migrants. This collection is a vital corrective to discussions of global migration that fail to acknowledge the humanity of migrants themselves. (Feb.)
Library Journal Review
Editors Chung and Demary compile essays on the immigrant experience. Standout pieces include Cinelle Barnes's "Carefree White Girls, Careful Brown Girls," Krystal A. Sital's "Undocumented Lovers in America," and Shing Yin Khor's illustrated essay "Say it with Noodles." The literary world has seen an explosion of crossing narratives lately; it is easy to forget about the increasingly nuanced, complicated, and human ways that immigrant lives unfold after arrival. This collection contributes to the burgeoning canon of works set beyond the crossing. The essays move like ink in water, dispersing in infinite directions to illuminate psychologies, family dynamics, steamy affairs, vibrant foods, politicized accents, and particular kinds of losses. Most powerful of all is its subtle work of demonstrating that violent immigration policies implicate everyone in a country, immigrant and citizen alike. Victoria Blanco conjures this in "Why We Cross the Border in El Paso," writing of the deaths that take place in the Rio Grande. VERDICT A standout collection that adds new dimension and depth to the lived experiences of immigrants long after they settle in a new community.--Sierra Dickey, Ctr. for New Americans, Northampton, MA
