Top Highlights

• The phony solidarity of having a “Latin” culture in common with other writers was something that always repulsed her.
• The Q&A session ended with a big round of applause.
• “Come thirsty, and bring an appetite for Nordic delicatessen!” This was the last line of the invitation she’d found in her campus mailbox.
• American universities shared certain essential values with historic zoos, where diversity was a mark of attraction and distinction. By playing the part of an overeducated Latina adrift in Trump’s America, Mona experienced academic captivity as a sort of serene freedom.
• There was a niche sort of glamour to it, like being a rare specimen of an endangered species—as though her mysterious DNA were a tiara encrusted with rare pearls, and the universities each a massive ark navigating the Great Flood of the United States, heroically fulfilling their mission to save two of each beast.