Point of View

Cristina Henriquez tells her novel “The Book of Unknown Americans” from the first-person perspective, from the point of view of no less than 11 different individuals. Most of the chapters are narrated by Mayor and Alma, weaving back and forth between the two, and interrupted periodically for the stories of various members who live in the apartment complex, from building manager Fito to photographer Micho. This is done to give a voice not only to “unknown Americans”, but what merely would have been tertiary characters (and thus, “unknown characters”) in the novel if they would not have had their own chapters to themselves to describe their own life stories. Because the experience of immigration is a deeply personal, and sometimes deeply internal thing, Henriquez allows their characters to personally narrate their own stories, rather than acting as an intermediary.

Language and Meaning

Cristina Henriquez tells her...