“When she embarked on her galvanizing book, Helen Thorpe had a policy wonk’s interest in immigration, leavened with her own ‘odd sense of dual identity’ as someone who herself arrived in the United States as a child. As her eyes are slowly opened to the catch-22 aspects of American immigration law, ours are, too…. Thorpe puts a human face on a frequently obtuse conversation.” (O Magazine)
“Thorpe vividly chronicles the coming-of-age of four Mexican-American teenagers in Colorado. The young women struggle to reconcile an elusive American dream with the irony of their situations—only two of them have immigration papers, an invisible distinction that sets them at odds with one another…. Thorpe personalizes an often generalized problem… ” (The Atlantic Monthly)
“Thorpe is meticulously observant, always attuned to the poignant ironies of her topic.” (The New Yorker)
Just Like Us can be ordered from your local independent bookstore, Amazon, or Barnes and Noble.