Make Your Home Among Strangers

Crucet's first novel (after the collection How to Leave Hialeah) chronicles the fraught relationship between insightful, smart Lizet Ramirez and her complicated Cuban-American family, all of whom get caught up in a politically tinged situation at the dawn of the 21st century. After Lizet's older sister, Leidy, gets pregnant in an attempt to get her high-school boyfriend to marry her, Lizet announces that she's been accepted with partial aid to a prestigious university in New York. Rather than see it as an opportunity, the family considers her leaving a betrayal. Shortly before Lizet departs from Miami, her father, Ricky, divorces their mother, Lourdes, and sells their house, forcing Lourdes, Leidy, and baby Dante to move to an area of Miami that's popular with recent immigrants. As Lizet tries to find her footing at school both socially and academically, Lourdes becomes obsessed with the case of Ariel Hernandez, a little Cuban boy whose mother died trying to get him to the U.S. Based on the real-life case of Elian Gonzales, Ariel's father, a Cuban national, wants him back. Ariel is being housed by relatives down the street from where Lourdes lives, and she quickly shuns her daughters and grandchild in favor of helping Ariel's relatives campaign for his right to stay in Florida. There are a couple of bland threads involving boys, namely Omar, Lizet's Miami beau, who wants her to come home, and Ethan, a senior at her university who seems destined for great things; Crucet's story is best when focused on Lizet's family dynamic. The dialogue is particularly superb, bristling with realistic tension. Lizet may not always be the most likable character, but this only adds to a story that always rings true. (Aug.)