Synopsis
The violent world of the underclass and the daily battle with
hopeless poverty, drug addiction, and other urban horrors come vividly
to life in a collection of stories about being young and desperate in
the South Bronx. A first collection. Original.
Reviews
YA-- In an era of multicultural awareness, this collection of seven Hispanic short stories will make an impact. The teenagers in Rodriguez's world are not attractive; raised in poverty, they exhibit the problems of the inner city--teenage pregnancy, drug addiction, and petty crime. But more universal traits shine through. In the title story, the narrator , who refuses to salute the American flag because his father has taught him to resent U. S. imperialism in Puerto Rico, learns that adults don't have all the answers and that the world is run on compromises. Nilsa, in "No More War Games," is torn between childhood and sexual awareness as much as any middle-class 12-year-old. Gritty street language, phonetic spelling, and graphic descriptions enliven this as a "real-life" picture of the Bronx and provide the basis for lots of discussion.
- Diana C. Hirsch, Prince George's County Memorial Library System, MD
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
In seven stories that chronicle growing up Puerto Rican in
the South Bronx--surrounded by violence, promiscuous sex, and
casual drug use--Rodriguez captures the quick, jagged rhythms of
street life.
In the title piece, the narrator, who wants to be a writer,
becomes enamored of his father's stories about American
imperialism and refuses to salute the flag. After a big brouhaha,
the authorities finally bring the father, intimidated and ready
for compromise, into the situation, and the boy, diminished but
aware of the world's complexity, capitulates. ``No More War
Games'' introduces a 12-year-old girl, Nilsa, who--in a few
pages--grows up fast, moving from ``war games'' (bottles and
rocks thrown with a vengeance) to an exploration of her emerging
sexuality. ``Babies'' is a gritty underbelly-of-life fiction
about a female narrator, a 16-year-old junkie, who, denying the
strength of her habit, watches one friend give away a baby before
getting pregnant herself and choosing an abortion. Likewise, in
``Elba,'' Rodriguez dramatizes the way a young mother tries to
raise her baby and make a life with the father, but then, in
despair, leaves the baby so that she can have a night out. In
``The Lotto,'' one of the most powerful stories here, Dahlia
loses her innocence amid dreams of the Lotto but tests negative
for pregnancy, whereupon pregnant Elba (who reappears) breaks off
the friendship. ``Birthday Boy'' shows a kid's descent into petty
crime and indifference after a childhood of betrayal, desertion,
and abuse. ``Short Stop,'' about Marty the motorman, is more
buoyant than the others, mostly because Marty, accosted on all
sides by crazies, goes about his business and survives.
Occasionally derivative in its use of dialect, but a debut
that's almost always striking in its bleakness, its empathy, and
its convincing detail. A couple of these pieces previously
appeared in Story. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Rodriguez chronicles the lives of Hispanic residents of the South Bronx in this harshly realistic and powerful debut collection. A 12-year-old girl crosses over into precocious womanhood while playing "war games" with the boys amid the broken brick of abandoned buildings. A 13-year-old boy celebrates his birthday with a "brand new police record" after committing his first burglary. A teenaged drug addict with dreams of having a baby gets an abortion instead after a series of events result in a negative epiphany. The first two stories are weakened by rhetoric about "oppression," but Rodriguez's sympathetic descriptions of his characters illuminate their fleeting joys. The author has a flair for street slang and the telling detail ("For free! Whea else but in America?" sasses the drug addict about a roach-ridden bureau she salvages from the street) and for portraying several different points of view; these enhance the narrative tension throughout and impress his vision on our memories. Author tour.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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