Impossible-to-define but highly digestible ... The novel could easily slip into a text too dark to enjoy ... It’s a relief, then, that Crucet’s prose is so sprightly and joyful.
The miracle is not that Say Hello to My Little Friend works, so much as that it enlarges our sense of the possible, recalling the vanity of human aspiration not through a lens of ridicule but through one of empathy. The chorus of voices, the point-of-view shifts—all of it allows Crucet to imagine her way to a larger authenticity ... Crucet insists that we rethink our models for engagement, with one another and with the world at large.
There is something quixotic in watching Izzy spin himself and those around him into remakes of culture, but this, too, is true about the immigrant experience, which Capó Crucet details with breathtaking precision ... [Capó Crucet] also has a rare knack for metanarrative, a skill that allows readers to think about Izzy’s story as a story without ruining its intimacy.
The goofiness of his plan is balanced by Crucet’s vivid and plausible delineation of Lolita’s inner life, imbuing the gonzo plot with genuine emotional depth. This is an impressive feat.
