Book Club - October - Solito

Seven of us gathered on Wednesday the 16th at Sally Smith's house to discuss “Solito” by Javier Zamora. We all really liked this book, with only a few complaints, such as the untranslated Spanish sprinkled throughout the narrative, which interrupted the reading for those who wanted to look up the words and left those who didn’t look them up unsure of what they were missing. The book feels long, and is packed with innumerable details that can seem repetitive, but we agreed that this choice fully immersed us in the boy’s seven-week experience attempting to enter the US illegally. We appreciated the fact that there was not a lot of violence, and in fact there was a lot of kindness and caring, which made the hard parts easier to bear. We admired the now-adult Zamora’s skill in depicting the point of view of a 9-year-old, with his sense of vulnerability, need to trust, embarrassments and naivete, fears and coping strategies, adaptability and intelligence. And we wished we knew more: about his parents and why they left El Salvador, how he adapted to life in the US, what became of the three fellow migrants who composed his fake family.