"White, machine-made fog appeared for a few seconds; but as the fog cleared out, a tall, blonde, blue-eyed woman descended onto Earth — in a spaceship."
"Now, I finally did feel and look like the new girl in school, just like in the movies. I definitely looked like Alicia Silverstone from Clueless — but a Brazilian version, of course."
"Together, Pizza Hut and the ice skating rink were like an American snow globe in the middle of tropical Rio de Janeiro."
5 min
About First Lady of the Mall
From the publisher's feed
In telling her story of immigration from Brazil to the United States at the age of 15, Bruna Massadas recreates an adolescent world overwhelmed by Americanized fantasies: the kind ruled by…
blond-haired, blue-eyed beauties; the kind filled with laugh tracks, dramatic closeups, and the inevitable happy ending. But she also depicts the actual America she soon encountered: high school halls crowded with immigrants and teenage hormones; nights plagued by typical worries over fashion and boyfriends, but complicated with anxieties over language and cultural assimilation.