How to Leave Hialeah (Iowa Short Fiction Award) [Paperback]

Jennine Capo Crucet (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2009 | Series: Iowa Short Fiction Award

United in their fierce sense of place and infused with the fading echoes of a lost homeland, the stories in Jennine Capó Crucet’s striking debut collection do for Miami what Edward P. Jones does for Washington, D.C., and what James Joyce did for Dublin: they expand our ideas and our expectations of the city by exposing its tough but vulnerable underbelly.

Crucet’s writing has been shaped by the people and landscapes of South Florida and by the stories of Cuba told by her parents and abuelos. Her own stories are informed by her experiences as a Cuban American woman living within and without her community, ready to leave and ready to return, “ready to mourn everything.”

Coming to us from the predominantly Hispanic working-class neighborhoods of Hialeah, the voices of this steamy section of Miami shout out to us from rowdy all-night funerals and kitchens full of plátanos and croquetas and lechón ribs, from domino tables and cigar factories, glitter-purple Buicks and handed-down Mom Rides, private homes of santeras and fights on front lawns. Calling to us from crowded expressways and canals underneath abandoned overpasses shading a city’s secrets, these voices are the heart of Miami, and in this award-winning collection Jennine Capó Crucet makes them sing.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this engrossing collection—sometimes intense, at other times darkly humorous—debut author Crucet portrays the daily challenges, heartbreak and family ties that penetrate Hialeah, a working-class Cuban-American neighborhood in Miami. In El Destino Hauling, a young girl pays witness to a night-long family funeral for a father who was run over by his son, perhaps by intent. The Next Move follows a grandfather left to struggle through the day without his wife while she's visiting family in Cuba. In Men Who Punched Me in the Face, a woman repeatedly drawn to abusive men convinces herself she enjoys being hit. A story set in the Cuban countryside finds a young woman struggling to make ends meet with just three prized possessions: a rooster, a bar of soap and Kotex maxi pads. Crucet details vividly the daily struggle that leads Cubans to prize their heritage above much else, but also illuminates a powerful need to escape the past. (Sept.)
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Review

“What a joy it is to read the work of a writer who has a powerful voice, a sense of humor, and a feeling for local histories. Jennine Capó Crucet’s stories start with Cuban American neighborhoods and cultures and then sail off into the direction of the great themes: love, familial bonds, aging, and death. And resurrection. This is a wonderful collection.”—Charles Baxter

“This is definitely a young writer to watch for, sassy, smart, with an unerring ear for a community’s voices, its losses, its over-the-top telenovela extravagances, and its poignant struggles to understand itself in a new land. I was glad not to have to leave Hialeah right away, but to stay long enough to hear its many stories as told by a gifted writer like Jennine Capó Crucet.”—Julia Alvarez, author, How the García Girls Lost Their Accents, In the Time of the Butterflies, and Return to Sender

“Jennine Capó Crucet is an electrifying new talent—she’s funny, she’s smart, and she knows how to tell great stories. I fell in love with this terrific collection from the first paragraph, and I was still smitten on the last page.”—Curtis Sittenfeld, author, American Wife

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Product Details

• Paperback: 184 pages
• Publisher: University Of Iowa Press; 1 edition (September 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1587298163
• ISBN-13: 978-1587298165
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #791,416 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Visit www.jcapocrucet.com for press, upcoming appearances, interviews, and more.

Jennine Capó Crucet was born to Cuban parents and raised in Miami, Florida. Her highly-acclaimed debut story collection - named a Best Book of the Year by both the MIAMI HERALD and the MIAMI NEW TIMES - won the Iowa Short Fiction Award, the 2010 John Gardner Award, and the 2010 Devil's Kitchen Reading Award in Prose. She's been a finalist for the MISSOURI REVIEW Editor's Prize and the UC Irvine Latino Literary Award. In addition to writing, she's currently a college counselor at a nonprofit community-based organization that works with teens in South Central and downtown LA. A graduate of Cornell University, she divides her time between Miami and Los Angeles.


Jennine is the recipient of the Winthrop Prize & Residency for Emerging Writers and scholarships to the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. Her stories have appeared in magazines such as PLOUGHSHARES, EPOCH, GULF COAST, the LOS ANGELES REVIEW, the SOUTHERN REVIEW, and others, and her book reviews have appeared in the L MAGAZINE, a New York City bi-weekly.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fantastic collection..., September 1, 2009

By 

P. Mountford - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: How to Leave Hialeah (Iowa Short Fiction Award) (Paperback)

I can't recommend this collection strongly enough. These stories have a rare and captivating energy -- the author's voice is so vivid and entertaining that I found it impossible to stop reading. Vibrant, at times disturbing, and often hilarious, these stories beautifully capture the complexity of these characters lives, as well as the larger community of Hialeah.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It Should Have at Least Ten Stars, January 2, 2010

By 

C. E. Selby "Eric Selby" (Miami Beach, FL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: How to Leave Hialeah (Iowa Short Fiction Award) (Paperback)

Up until now, of all the fiction I have read by Cuban American writers about Cuban Americans, my favorite was Tomorrow They Will Kiss by Eduardo Santiago--and I give it five stars as do my students who read it in my writing classes at Miami Dade College. But ow to Leave Hialeah may be even a little better. The book consists of several stories, many told in first person. One of my favorites is about a funeral. Hilarious! But maybe the favorite is told by the narrator of "The Next Move." Let me give you just one paragraph. He is talking with his married daughter after having dropped his wife, Nilda, off at MIA to fly back to Cuba to visit her sisters: "I was on the kitchen phone since it had the long cord, and I'd taken off my socks to clip my toenails while we talked. It needed to be done. I've always liked clipping off the nail in one whole piece, so that I can make a pile of these thick yellow half-moons on the table, which made it easier for Nilda to clean up. she always complained about it, but she never realized I was trying to make it easier for her."

And know this too: he is dedicated to his new Tai Chi class!

This is just too wonderful a read. And I will be using a couple of stories in my next semester classes.

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Collection, October 25, 2009

By 

Yvette Ward-Horner (Rocky Mountains, USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: How to Leave Hialeah (Iowa Short Fiction Award) (Paperback)

This is a stunning collection of earthy, uproarious stories that force you to smile even as they break your heart. Ms. Crucet doesn't hold back at all in her intimate depictions of the lives of Cuban immigrants in Miami.

I first encountered one of the stories in this book in an online literary journal and was captivated by the writer's honesty. If you're not sure whether or not to buy this book, go and look up Low Tide first. It will give you an appetite for more. There's a link to it on my blog.