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gray_05_sea's review against another edition
1.0
Self-referential and trying too hard. Any man who describes himself as wildly creative should not write a memoir… it was simply too reflective and held no accountability.
unidentifiedgemstone's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
i really enjoyed reading this, super provocative stuff if you like thinking about a) revolution, in all of its practical and ideological messiness b) bilingualism, particularly english and spanish and c) cultural identity, ie what it means to be US american or latin american or a political refugee, and where the lines between different cultural and linguistic selves begin to blur. i like thinking about all of these things, so i thoroughly enjoyed this memoir, and i annotated the shit out of it. dorfman has invaluable insight, and a wealth of latin american literary, philosophical, and political references to draw on that make his insight nuanced and place it in conversation with the thoughts of his contemporaries. that being said, as many other reviewers have pointed out, he has a fetishistic and somewhat deluded view of the working class for which he so often professes his love, and his writing was at times incredibly overdramatic. in spite of this, i found so much value in this memoir, and will be recommending it to just about everyone i know
leecalliope's review
5.0
I really really enjoyed this book. The way the stories came together and the use of language as inherent in and a counterpoint to politics was fascinating. A joy 2 read. I regret it took me so long after it was first assigned to finish it, but I'm glad that I did.
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