The novel works because Valdes-Rodriguez has compassion for her characters; each is faulted, but none is culpable. She also has an eye for the telling detail, as when Rebecca tries to befriend her white husband's stuffy family: "His sister took step classes with me and we shopped for clothes together on Newbury Street and went to the Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum one afternoon with Au Bon Pain sandwiches in our handbags." Something about those sandwiches makes the whole enterprise seem more poignant. On the down side, Valdes-Rodriguez is so eager to make things work out for her ladies, her writing sometimes beggars belief. Men actually say things like "Swear to me you're happily married, and I'll stop pursuing you." Yes, Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez is, in fact, the Latina Terry McMillan. That is, if McMillan were a slighty guiltier pleasure. --Claire Dederer

Product Description

Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez wrote her book with an admirable idea in mind - portray Latina women as strong, diverse people with interests and goals other than those portrayed by mainstream media. However, she sorely fails in reaching her own lofty goal. Her main character, Lauren, is without a doubt the most unsympathetic charater I have ever had the misfortune to read. The premise surrounding Rebecca's story was just ridiculous (I wish I could find someone willing to just throw a one million dollar check at me after one meeting!), as were the circumstances surrounding Sara's spousal abuse. Usnavys was just plain ludicrous, inside and out, and completely fell into the money-hungry, label-seeking sterotype that many people have of Latin women.

The most compelling parts of the story, while still having their roots mired in the same unbelievable muck as Sara's, were Elizabeth's. She's also, ironically enough, the most sorely underused character in the book, and the only one I would have liked to see more of. However, it would have been nice if Valdes-Rodriguez remembered that Boston, for all of its surface conservativeness, is actually more liberal than the story allowed it to be, especially with the large Gothic presence in the colleges.

As a Latina myself, I couldn't imagine sitting through this book again, and am SO not looking forward to the movie. Technically, Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez is a good writer. I'm not convinced, by this offering anyway, that she has what it takes to be a great author.


Excellent debut - well worth its hype   April 9, 2003
 39 out of 55 found this review helpful

THE DIRTY GIRLS SOCIAL CLUB is a juicy, profound, well-written, and emotionally riveting novel about six professional Latina girlfriends who are all going through various stages of life. From Rebecca, a magazine owner who is trapped in a marriage she cannot stand, to Elizabeth, the attractive television anchor who has a secret that threatens her career, the sucias (dirty girls) all have hurdles to jump, decisions to make, new lessons to learn.

When the manuscript was on submission, this book caused a bidding frenzy and after reading, it's easy to understand why. The Dirty Girls Social Club is destined to earn a lot of attention. It's culturally rich, yet relatable as it deals with the universal themes of women, friendship, family, work, and relationship issues. The content is heavy on the Spanish, but it's a very sophisticated novel, textured, detailed, and is eye-opening in many ways in terms of exposing cultural stereotypes uncommonly known.

Some scenes caused the hair to rise on my neck and I couldn't turn the pages fast enough. Fantastic plot twists, great description that places the reader in the scene (whether you're in Boston, LA, or Rome), there are dozens of compelling scenes, and so many elements of life and love which ring with honesty regardless of your ethnicity.

This is the book to get, the book to read, the book that will cause tongues to wag from the East Coast, to the West Coast and beyond. It's a kicker of a novel, one of those types where the more you read, the better it gets, and the warmer you feel. Women all over will be cheering for The Dirty Girls Social Club.


oh c'mon!!   April 17, 2003
 23 out of 40 found this review helpful

An abused wife whose friends don't notice the bruises and broken bones? A beautiful newscaster who is basically run out of town once she's outed in a contemporary city (uh, like Liz Smith? David Brudnoy?) This is so clearly an attempt to copy Terry McMillan and Amy Tan's success it's just silly.


Erk...choking on underdone tortillas & badly chopped guac...   May 6, 2003
 19 out of 23 found this review helpful

I can safely say I did not dispose of this as I did Amy Tan's pantheon to mediocrity, "The Kitchen God's Wife" - that is, as fireplace fodder for my midwinter snuggle with two teenaged bottles of cabernet. Mother and daughters this is not, but more along the lines of "Sex in the City" meets "Tortilla Soup" meets...oh hells, let's just say it - the book [wasnt good]. The language, far from being lyrical or sweet, was stilted, as if someone listened to the language of young women in a Mexican restaraunt and decided that was the way of all female Hispanic vocabulary. The plotlines weaved to and fro in a quite predictable manner (shock! People toss you out on your [rear-end]! Musical greatness is fleeting! Ambition steals your soul! And gosh, all of these are so much harder as a Latina!) I am curious as to why the Dirty Girls seemed so vital to the others. Sorry, but Ms. Valdes-Rodriguez is apparently a much better columnist than a novelist - at least with the column you KNOW the end is coming near before you get so disgusted with the characters that you stop reading.


Save your money!!   January 20, 2004
 19 out of 24 found this review helpful

Stereotypes busted? Yeah, right. More like stereotypes ad nauseum reinforced.

According to this ridiculous book:

"...all the Puerto Rican ladies you see on the street are wide as a damn bus." - Yeah, right, which is why a Puerto Rican actress such as JLo is consistently voted internationally as having one of the best bodies in Hollywood, and there have been 4 Puerto Rican Miss Universes, the same number as the famed Venezuelan beauty queens. (Oh, and JLo bought the movie rights for this book, which is absolutely baffling.)

"...chronic, mother-sanctioned infidelity among Latin men. It's not just a stereotype." - Sure, 100% of Latin men cheat.

"...I know what a Pueblo Indian looks like. And Rebecca Baca, with her high cheekbones and flat little butt, fits the description." - Sounds like a stereotype, doesn't it?

"Nothing thrills me more than when people...assume I'm from a typical, moneyed Cuban family in Miami." - Typical Cubanspeak, since ALL Miami Cubans are moneyed, obviously.

The stereotypes run rampant throughout the book, but the above are just a few examples. Then you have the blatant errors that appear throughout the book, such as:

"..though nearly half the nation of Columbia is black, and same with Costa Rica, Peru and Cuba." - According to the CIA World Factbook, the actual percentages are Columbia (mulatto + black + mixed black-Amerindian = 21%), Costa Rica (3%), Peru (black, Japanese, Chinese and other = 3%) and only Cuba is over 50%
(mulatto + black = 62%).

"To the exiles, there is no country more fascinating and important than Cuba,...with a population of eleven million. That's about two million less than live in New York City." - Since when does NYC have 13 million people living there? It's more like 8 million.

The publishers paid the author an advance of approx. $500,000, an obvious overpayment for such rubbish passing as "New Latina Literature." Don't make the same mistake. If you must absolutely read this book, save your money and borrow it at the library and laugh at what a joke a "progressive" half-Latina who has said in interviews that "There's a part of me that wants to vomit to be called a Latina writer..." thinks would appeal to up-and-coming educated Latinas.

Not worth the paper it's written on....