2006 Book 20 - The Dirty Girls Social Club by Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez
In the process of looking up this book to make sure I'd not yet registered it at BookCrossing, I found that I had, sort of. Turns out that in my frenzy of book-buying on eBay over a year ago, I'd gotten a copy of this title in a box of "chick-lit" books and which I'd registered. Considering that at the time I'd bought them because I was selling Avon and thought it would be a good way to get the attention of women to my Avon books and business card, I'd not paid the books in the box much thought. Afterall, I'm not normally a "chick-lit" kind of reader.

Then a few months ago my husband indirectly finds out about the author of this book and starts reading her blog. I found her humor and drama-queen antics quite hilarious and decided to find one of her books once I found out she was a book author. I decided to start with this one since I believe it's her first book published, never realizing I already had a copy. Oh well! Considering the price at which I got the other one, it's no big deal!

So about the book itself. I have to admit that about from page one I was turned off. Why? The way it's written is the same as Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood or Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, where each chapter is written from the point of view of different characters. Unfortunately the opening chapter was from the POV of a character I didn't particularly like. But being the reading masochist I am, I kept reading and I was glad I did. I have to agree with the critics when they said that the book does show that not all Hispanics/Latinos are the same, whether you're talking of color, bank accounts, politics, or religion. That's a good thing.

The thing I found a little annoying is how heavy handed Valdes-Rodriguez is in all her characters to some degree or another on their scorn of how little "gringos" understand that variety. I suppose it's not surprising, though, considering that this is the author herself peeking through her characters. It comes out all the time in her blog and in interviews I've seen with her. Just as a personal observation, too, I felt a bit of a slight in how the characters of some sort of Mexican origin were portrayed. One was totally under the delusion of how we're all Aztec warriors while ignoring our European roots. Another was way at the other end of the spectrum where she liked to pretend that she was all Spanish descent and none of Native in her even though supposedly it was stamped on her face that she wasn't all Spaniard. And then there was the "off camera" minor character that was referred to as the "Texican" from San Antonio. Don't even get me started. I can't speak about the other characters from Cuban, Puerto Rican, and Columbian origin, but at least the ones I'd know about seemed like negative caricatures. I mean, I can't say that people like that don't exist, but the ones I've encountered weren't quite as unsympathetic as these three came across with me.

Those things aside, I did get wrapped up in the stories of the characters themselves and I really was interested in how they'd handle their different personal problems. I guess the other "lesson" the author was trying to get across was that they all also have the same issues as other middle-class, educated women that aren't Hispanic/Latino. I think the one I cared about the most was Sara, the battered wife whom everyone thought the perfect life with the perfect husband. One character I wish had been covered more was Rebecca, a woman caught in a loveless marriage to an immature man whom she married mainly because he was heir to a lot of money. Actually, now that I think of it, she really got off easy considering that she'd married this guy for such a shallow reason.

Oh and one last thing which is actually the first thing introduced in the book. The title of the book is The Dirty Girls Social Club, but that's probably because the publisher wanted to appeal to non-Spanish speakers (be they Anglo/Caucasian or Nth generation Hispanic). What the women actually started calling themselves when they banded in college was Buena Sucia Social Club. Valdes-Rodriguez tries to sell off the word sucias as being among Hispanic women like among black people there's the argument of whether to call themselves and own the word nigger/nigga. The whole converting of a negative word into something of your own definition. Being that most people in Hispanic cultures only consider women as either the whore or the virgin, women who are slipping and sliding off the virgin pedestal are considered sucias, or dirty girls. I just found it annoying and thin in usage.

Overall, though, it's a pleasant, light read. A good way to spend a couple of afternoons or evenings.