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Adobe DRM
Product Details
Scribner, September 2009
eBook, 400 pages
ISBN-10: 1439166250
ISBN-13: 9781439166253
Description
Just Like Us tells the story of four high school students whose parents entered this country illegally from Mexico. We meet the girls on the eve of their senior prom in Denver, Colorado. All four of the girls have grown up in the United States, and all four want to live the American dream, but only two have documents. As the girls attempt to make it into college, they discover that only the legal pair sees a clear path forward. Their friendships start to divide along lines of immigration status.
Then the political firestorm begins. A Mexican immigrant shoots and kills a police officer. The author happens to be married to the Mayor of Denver, a businessman who made his fortune in the restaurant business. In a bizarre twist, the murderer works at one of the Mayor’s restaurants—under a fake Social Security number. A local Congressman seizes upon the murder as proof of all that is wrong with American society and Colorado becomes the place where national arguments over immigration rage most fiercely. The rest of the girls’ lives play out against this backdrop of intense debate over whether they have any right to live here.
Just Like Us is a coming-of-age story about girlhood and friendship, as well as the resilience required to transcend poverty. It is also a book about identity—what it means to steal an identity, what it means to have a public identity, what it means to inherit an identity from parents. The girls, their families, and the critics who object to their presence allow the reader to watch one of the most complicated social issues of our times unfurl in a major American city. And the perspective of the author gives the reader insight into both the most powerful and the most vulnerable members of American society as they grapple with the same dilemma: Who gets to live in America? And what happens when we don’t agree?
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1. Author Helen Thorpe discusses her new book Just Like Us02:2543799269001
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“Thorpe puts a human face on a frequently obtuse conversation, and in so doing takes us far beyond the political rhetoric."
-- O Magazine.
"Just Like Us beautifully and powerfully reminds us of the individuals whose lives lie at the center of the chaos that is our approach to immigration. Helen Thorpe has taken policy and turned it into literature."
-- Malcolm Gladwell
"With a gaze that is tender and ever alert, Helen Thorpe follows the lives of four young women -- Mexican and American -- so alike in their coming-of-age, but separated by the ironies of geography, the border that cuts through the heart."
-- Richard Rodriguez, author of Brown: The Last Discovery of America
"This is a penetrating, fair, and refreshingly personal examination of the passions that fuel the immigration controversy in this country. Helen Thorpe measures the arguments on both sides of this national debate against the actual human costs imposed by the status quo. This book will find a central place in this debate."
-- Lawrence Wright, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11
"With a perfect combination of narrative and reflection, empathy and analysis, Helen Thorpe tells both a particular story of four irresistibly engaging young women, and a universal story of the struggle between human aspiration and intractable obstacles. If this book gets widely read, our national conversation on immigration could make a shift from 'shrill and draining' to 'thoughtful and productive.' In this book, the force and power of journalism reach their peak."
-- Patricia Nelson Limerick, author of The Legacy of Conquest and Something in the Soil
Examiner.com, April 26, 2011
...Examiner Do you like this Article? In an appearance sponsored by the Women and Gender Studies Program, Journalist Helen Thorpe will be presenting her book Just Like Us: The True Story of Four Mexican Girls Coming of Age in America on ...
New West, April 20, 2011
...drinks, the crowd moved to the reading area, where Ted Conover received several introductions, beginning with one by Helen Thorpe, author of Just Like Us (her book, which I’ve been ordering you to read for ages, will be out in paperback ...
Greeley Tribune, April 17, 2011
...Monday evening, the Greeley community was treated to a book discussion and signing by Colorado’s first lady, Helen Thorpe. Thorpe, a well-known journalist and author, came to the Farr Regional Library and reviewed the evolution of her ...
New West, March 28, 2011
...Kerouac did in On the Road, Denver native John Fante did in his early novels and stories, and Helen Thorpe did in Just Like Us, her nonfiction book that follows the lives of a group of young women in Denver. NW: You write The Ringer from two ...
Miami Herald, January 6, 2010
...JUST LIKE US: The True Story of Four Mexican Girls Coming of Age in America. Helen Thorpe. Scribner. 400 pages. $27.99. Just Like Us is a deeply affecting tale of ...
Denver Post, October 4, 2009
...Journalist Helen Thorpe has written for national magazines. Normally shy and retiring Helen Thorpe, wife of not-so-shy-and-retiring Mayor John Hickenlooper, stepped up in front of an audience Thursday at RedLine Gallery for ...
5280, September 24, 2009
...In a new book, political journalist Helen Thorpe writes that former Colorado Governor Bill Owens, a conservative Republican, was sympathetic toward Jesus Apodaca, a young honors student who made headlines when he was refused in-state tuition ...
Denver Post, September 23, 2009
...Bill Owens asked one of his biggest donors to foot Apodaca's tuition. A new book written by Helen Thorpe adds a footnote to the story of an Aurora honor student, brought to the U.S. illegally by his parents, who found himself at the center ...
Denver Post, September 23, 2009
...Bill Owens asked one of his biggest donors to foot Apodaca's tuition. A new book written by Helen Thorpe adds a footnote to the story of an Aurora honor student, brought to the U.S. illegally by his parents, who found himself at the center ...
Denver Post, August 23, 2009
...with the same passions, worries and ambitions as any young women finding their place in the world. In Helen Thorpe's first book, the longtime writer (and wife of Hizzoner John Hickenlooper) demonstrates her mettle as a storyteller by weaving ...
Denver Post, August 23, 2009
...with the same passions, worries and ambitions as any young women finding their place in the world. In Helen Thorpe's first book, the longtime writer (and wife of Hizzoner John Hickenlooper) demonstrates her mettle as a storyteller by weaving ...
