NOVEMBER 2018 - AudioFile
Journalist Jose Antonio Vargas may be the best-known undocumented immigrant in the United States after outing himself in the NEW YORK TIMES in 2011. Vargas’s performance of his memoir is sincere, intelligent, and thoughtful. After arriving from the Philippines at age 12, he lived with his grandparents, who were naturalized citizens. When he learns, at 16, that his Green Card is fake, his shame and fear are palpable. His story focuses on lying, passing, and hiding, experiences common to all undocumented immigrants. In spite of his undocumented status, Vargas manages to go to college and become a journalist, but the inner conflict of living a lie paired with a journalist’s pursuit of truth becomes overwhelming. Vargas exhibits passion and composure even as critics exhort him to “get in line” to become a citizen—though no such path exists from his current status. A.B. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
The New York Times - Jennifer Szalai
The moments when Vargas describes how profoundly alienated he feels from his own family are the most candid and crushing parts of the book…Dear America is a potent rejoinder to those who tell Vargas he's supposed to "get in line" for citizenship, as if there were a line instead of a confounding jumble of vague statutes and executive orders—not to mention the life-upending prospect of getting deported to a country he barely remembers.
From the Publisher
An engaging read, and a deeply moving memoir of coming of age with the odds stacked against you and not only forging a remarkable life for yourself, but becoming a voice for transformation and cultural change.” — San Francisco Chronicle
“The moments when Vargas describes how profoundly alienated he feels from his own family ate the most candid and crushing parts of the book....Dear America is a potent rejoinder to those who tell Vargas he’s supposed to ‘get in line’ for citizenship, as if there were a line instead og a confounding jumble of vague statues and executive orders.” — New York Times
“In Dear America, we get to know a young Vargas who was constantly told to stay in the shadows but whose tenacity and devotion had other plans for him.” — Los Angeles Magazine
“Vargas writes with a newspaper reporter’s spare, forceful prose, but he’s searching and highly introspective.” — Mother Jones
“[Dear America] is the voice of one man balancing between the poles of his identity. No matter one’s status, that’s something everyone can relate to.” — Providence Journal
“[A] stirring, soulful, and ultimately damning autobiography.” — AV Club
“A thought-provoking, moving, and highly personal memoir of Vargas’s struggle to belong. Recommended for all readers interested in immigration issues and American identity.” — Library Journal
“Excruciatingly timely. . . .Vargas’ frank and fearless voice thoughtfully and intentionally challenges readers to confront the call for action at the heart of this book; the urgent need for “a new language around migration and the meaning of citizenship.” — Booklist (starred review)
“A clarion call for humanity in a time of unprecedented focus on the 11 million people living in America without a clear path to citizenship. Vargas writes passionately about the undeniable intersection between race, class, and immigration and traces the bitter history of American immigratin policy.” — BookPage
“Jose Antonio Vargas’s eloquent and emotional book bears witness to a basic truth: we should not be defined by our legal status, but by who we are...His voice is an important voice that needs to be heard by all Americans, whether they are Americans by birth or by choice.” — Sheryl Sandberg, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Option B and Lean In
“This riveting, courageous memoir ought to be mandatory reading for every American...The pressing question from these pages isn’t whether Jose deserves to be a citizen but whether we, as a nation, deserve the bravery and generosity of spirit that he offers us with an open heart and mind.” — Michelle Alexander, New York Times bestselling author of The New Jim Crow
“Dear America is a daring and honest book that perhaps so many undocumented citizens wish they could write, about what is gained and lost by living in the “shadows”...You may not know where he will be when you read this book, but his story will stay with you always.” — Edwidge Danticat, award-winning author of Brother, I’m Dying
“[Dear America] couldn’t be more timely and more necessary...a deeply personal and multilayered story told so gently and with such affection and humor.” — Dave Eggers, New York Times bestselling author of What Is the What and The Monk of Mokha
“This important book could not be more timely- Jose Antonio Vargas has put a human face on one of the most defining and polarizing issues of our time: immigration. Dear America is not a book about politics or policy; it is written from the very depths of the human heart.” — Gilbert King, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Devil in the Grove and Beneath a Ruthless Sun
“Read it, feel it at a gut level, and go beyond the noise of hate politics...This is a book about America. l cried reading this book, realizing more fully what my parents endured.” — Amy Tan, New York Times bestselling author of The Joy Luck Club and Where the Past Begins
“One of the most important immigration rights activists of our time, Vargas has, in this brief book, brilliantly elucidated one of our major political issues.” — Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Alphonse Fletcher University Professor at Harvard University
“Jose Antonio Vargas’s powerful memoir is among many things a celebration of the millions of Americans who make immigrants like us feel at home in their country, regardless of our legal status, regardless of how much daily hostility we face. May this book cause their ranks to swell.” — Imbolo Mbue, New York Times bestselling author of Behold the Dreamers
Booklist (starred review)
Excruciatingly timely. . . .Vargas’ frank and fearless voice thoughtfully and intentionally challenges readers to confront the call for action at the heart of this book; the urgent need for “a new language around migration and the meaning of citizenship.
Providence Journal
[Dear America] is the voice of one man balancing between the poles of his identity. No matter one’s status, that’s something everyone can relate to.
AV Club
[A] stirring, soulful, and ultimately damning autobiography.
Mother Jones
Vargas writes with a newspaper reporter’s spare, forceful prose, but he’s searching and highly introspective.
Los Angeles Magazine
In Dear America, we get to know a young Vargas who was constantly told to stay in the shadows but whose tenacity and devotion had other plans for him.
BookPage
A clarion call for humanity in a time of unprecedented focus on the 11 million people living in America without a clear path to citizenship. Vargas writes passionately about the undeniable intersection between race, class, and immigration and traces the bitter history of American immigratin policy.
San Francisco Chronicle
An engaging read, and a deeply moving memoir of coming of age with the odds stacked against you and not only forging a remarkable life for yourself, but becoming a voice for transformation and cultural change.
Sheryl Sandberg
Jose Antonio Vargas’s eloquent and emotional book bears witness to a basic truth: we should not be defined by our legal status, but by who we are...His voice is an important voice that needs to be heard by all Americans, whether they are Americans by birth or by choice.
New York Times
The moments when Vargas describes how profoundly alienated he feels from his own family ate the most candid and crushing parts of the book....Dear America is a potent rejoinder to those who tell Vargas he’s supposed to ‘get in line’ for citizenship, as if there were a line instead og a confounding jumble of vague statues and executive orders.
San Francisco Chronicle
An engaging read, and a deeply moving memoir of coming of age with the odds stacked against you and not only forging a remarkable life for yourself, but becoming a voice for transformation and cultural change.
Gilbert King
This important book could not be more timely- Jose Antonio Vargas has put a human face on one of the most defining and polarizing issues of our time: immigration. Dear America is not a book about politics or policy; it is written from the very depths of the human heart.
Amy Tan
Read it, feel it at a gut level, and go beyond the noise of hate politics...This is a book about America. l cried reading this book, realizing more fully what my parents endured.
Dave Eggers
[Dear America] couldn’t be more timely and more necessary...a deeply personal and multilayered story told so gently and with such affection and humor.
Edwidge Danticat
Dear America is a daring and honest book that perhaps so many undocumented citizens wish they could write, about what is gained and lost by living in the “shadows”...You may not know where he will be when you read this book, but his story will stay with you always.”
Imbolo Mbue
Jose Antonio Vargas’s powerful memoir is among many things a celebration of the millions of Americans who make immigrants like us feel at home in their country, regardless of our legal status, regardless of how much daily hostility we face. May this book cause their ranks to swell.”
Michelle Alexander
This riveting, courageous memoir ought to be mandatory reading for every American...The pressing question from these pages isn’t whether Jose deserves to be a citizen but whether we, as a nation, deserve the bravery and generosity of spirit that he offers us with an open heart and mind.”
Henry Louis Gates
One of the most important immigration rights activists of our time, Vargas has, in this brief book, brilliantly elucidated one of our major political issues.
Henry Louis Gates Jr.
One of the most important immigration rights activists of our time, Vargas has, in this brief book, brilliantly elucidated one of our major political issues.
Library Journal - Audio
02/01/2019
"After twenty-five years of living illegally in a county that does not consider me one of its own, this book is the closest thing I have to freedom." When Pulitzer Prize-winning Vargas declared his undocumented status in 2011, Bill O'Reilly labeled him "the most famous illegal in America." Twelve-year-old Vargas left Manila, in the Philippines, in 1993, unaware he would arrive without legal documentation to live with his maternal grandparents in California. Enabled by the kindness of strangers—teachers, mentors, colleagues—Vargas's successes kept multiplying, until the cost of "lying, passing, and hiding" grew into the realization that "coming out is letting people in." For such a revealing, even dangerous memoir—"I don't know where I will be when you read this book"—Vargas is the obvious narrator. He reads with a slight uplift between phrases, adding a sense of immediate intimacy, as he lays bare his life with the aim of practicing radical transparency. While insisting that the book is not about the politics of immigration, Vargas nevertheless adroitly and patiently educates readers, proving "how difficult, if not downright impossible, it is for undocumented people to 'get legal.' " VERDICT With immigration policy constantly in the news, Vargas's journey provides an illuminating antidote to inaccurate sociopolitical rhetoric. ["A thought-provoking, moving, and highly personal memoir of Vargas's struggle to belong. Recommended for all readers interested in immigration issues and American identity": LJ 10/15/18 starred review of the Dey Street: HarperCollins hc.]—Terry Hong, Smithsonian BookDragon, Washington, DC
NOVEMBER 2018 - AudioFile
Journalist Jose Antonio Vargas may be the best-known undocumented immigrant in the United States after outing himself in the NEW YORK TIMES in 2011. Vargas’s performance of his memoir is sincere, intelligent, and thoughtful. After arriving from the Philippines at age 12, he lived with his grandparents, who were naturalized citizens. When he learns, at 16, that his Green Card is fake, his shame and fear are palpable. His story focuses on lying, passing, and hiding, experiences common to all undocumented immigrants. In spite of his undocumented status, Vargas manages to go to college and become a journalist, but the inner conflict of living a lie paired with a journalist’s pursuit of truth becomes overwhelming. Vargas exhibits passion and composure even as critics exhort him to “get in line” to become a citizen—though no such path exists from his current status. A.B. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2018-08-13
As if to dare the attorney general to come find him, Philippines-born immigrant journalist Vargas, a winner of the Pulitzer Prize, owns up to being "illegal"—but not criminal.
As the author's account opens and closes, he has been arrested in preparation for a "removal proceeding," the consequence of his mother's decision to put him on a plane with a supposed uncle and send him to the promised land of the United States at the age of 12 in 1993. That uncle was a smuggler, and the life Vargas found wasn't all that it was supposed to be; neither did he have the papers—real ones, anyway—to support things like getting a driver's license or going to the polls. Given the mood of the nation, which, as the author notes, officially no longer characterizes itself as "a nation of immigrants," it's understandable that he is perplexed and worried at his situation, perhaps less intuitively so that he should confess it in a book that almost certainly will not change many minds: Those opposed to immigration, illegal and legal, will dismiss his pleas, and those for it will share his indignation. Of more interest to readers on the middle ground, if there are any, is the author's account of how few and technically complex the supposed paths for legal immigration are these days—and how easy it is to be deported. Thus he had to wrestle when, having appeared on-air to discuss his plea, he was invited by Nancy Pelosi to be her guest in Congress, an invitation that an immigration-lawyer friend urged him to decline: "It took .25 seconds for the Breitbart website to pull up 725 articles under the search ‘Jose Antonio Vargas.' Breitbart runs immigration policy in the United States." Though in fact detained, the author was released and now lives in a kind of legal limbo while waiting to see what, if anything, will happen.
An unusual firsthand report from the immigration wars.
