Barbarian Nurseries by Hector Tobar

This is a really good book--and deserving of it's place on the New York Times Notable Books of 2011 list (I had been on a streak of reading fiction that I did not feel belonged there, but this ended it). The main, fascinating characters are Araceli and her employers, the perfectionist stay-at-home mother Maureen and her software programmer husband Scott. Scott is a second generation Mexican American who has been living the SoCal dream. He has a family, an enviable house in a good neighborhood and a good job. The problem is that when the economy took a turn downwards, the Torres-Thompson family was caught unawares. They had been living a little above their income, not paying off their credit cards, and employing a gardner, a cook, and a nanny. Suddenly they need to economize. Scott doesn't quite spell out how bad it is to Maureen and Maureen doesn't really know how to juggle financial decisions, and pretty quickly they are in worse shape than when they started to cut back, they are not speaking to each other, they have left the dook in charge of the kids, and unbeknownst to them, neither of them is home. Only Araceli. What happens next is a roller coaster of the life that foreign workers in the US face when one thing sets them off the rails and they have to cope with the political and legal systems as a result. The book is nuanced, filled with striking visual imagery and the deep political rifts that are a real part of America along it's border with Mexico. The Barbarian Nurseries is a must-read, knitting together the wealth and poverty, privilege and furtiveness, fear and joy of living in Southern California today.