I was looking forward to reading this book after hearing so much about it from my colleagues. While it was an interesting approach to the subject matter (especially in what i assume is suppose to be an academic book), both Behar and the book get tedious.Although I appreciate Behar's efforts to relate her life to Esperanza's, somehow the book ends us being about "me, me, me." She just goes on and on about how horrible Esperanza's life is, and how her life is very similar to it. It comes off as a bit of a stretch, especially since Behar is benefitting by writing about the struggles of this woman's life. The book is self-centered in a very subtle way. But, by the end of the book, I just didn't care anymore about what happened to Esperanze, Behar or the book.There are both a lot of critics and advocates of this book. I wasn't able to for an opinion strong enough to join any of those two camps.