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Dark Dude | 
 enlarge | Author: Oscar Hijuelos
Publisher: Atheneum
Category: Book
List Price: $16.99
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Rating:  20 reviews
Sales Rank: 134817
Media: Hardcover
Reading Level: Young Adult
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 448
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.5 x 1.3
ISBN: 141694804X
EAN: 9781416948049
ASIN: 141694804X
Publication Date: September 16, 2008
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Product Description
He didn't say good-bye. He didn't leave a phone number. And he didn't plan on coming back - ever. In Wisconsin, Rico could blend in. His light hair and lighter skin wouldn't make him the "dark dude" or the punching bag for the whole neighborhood. The Midwest is the land of milk and honey, but for Rico Fuentes, it's really a last resort. Trading Harlem for Wisconsin, though, means giving up on a big part of his identity. And when Rico no longer has to prove that he's Latino, he almost stops being one. Except he can never have an ordinary white kid's life, because there are some things that can't be left behind, that can't be cut loose or forgotten. These are the things that will be with you forever.... These are the things that will follow you a thousand miles away. For anyone who loved The Outsiders -- and for anyone who's ever felt like one -- Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Oscar Hijuelos brings to life a haunting choice and an unforgettable journey about identity, misidentity, and all that we take with us when we run away.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 15 more reviews...
 Dark Dude by Hijuelos December 23, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book is recommended for ages 12 and up, but the simple writing style could easily be read by even younger kids. The dialogues are fairly realistic, and the characters are true-to-life. This book is highly recommended for teens and pre-teens in an increasingly diverse America.
 Coming of Age in the New America December 10, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Although set in the late 1960s, this coming-of-age tale of a Harlem-born cubano who runs away to live on a farm in Wisconsin will resonate strongly with today's young readers. In Rico Fuentes's journey of self-discovery, Hijuelos has crafted an engaging, first-person narrative about issues that continue to be relevant to teens' daily lives: duty to one's family, budding adolescent desire, ethnic tensions and self-identity, and both the inspiration and the burden of one's cultural heritage.
There are at least two ways in which Hijuelos expands on the coming-of-age tale to address the complexity of teens' lives in the "new America." The first has to do with his protagonist, Rico, who, although Cuban by blood, looks like a "white boy." The paradoxical experience of being a "white Hispanic" leads Rico's peers to brand him as the eponymous "Dark Dude." Yet whether in Harlem or in Wisconsin, it is precisely this in-between sense of self that enables Rico to question prevailing notions of race and identity in America. Throughout the story, Hijuelos underscores Rico's struggles to come to grips with being *both* Cuban *and* American, both "white" and "cubano." Thus, out of the mixing of people and cultural traditions that characterizes this "country of immigrants," Hijuelos crafts a protagonist whose life experiences show that his culture is cubanoamericano, and not one or the other.
The second elaboration on this long tradition of storytelling has to do with Hijuelos's use of streetwise, teen-friendly language throughout the novel. In a first-person narrator such as Rico, we have a fleshed-out character who speaks the language of his environment, whether that be hardscrabble Harlem or the (seemingly) benign Midwest. One of the distinct pleasures of reading *Dark Dude* is to hear how Rico's voice changes as he becomes acclimated to life out in farm country. No matter where the story is set, though, Hijuelos is careful to remember that Rico is a young man who grew up on the streets and won't shy away from uttering the odd swear word or two. (True to their characterization, Rico's older peers have an even more developed "adult" use of language, talking about things like drugs, sex, and alcohol.) As someone who places a premium on not shying away from the realities of young people's lives, it was a breath of fresh air for me to read a coming-of-age story that reflects how actual teens would/do talk among themselves.
*Dark Dude* is a welcome addition to the bildungsroman canon -- and one that, much like its vaunted predecessor *Adventures of Huckleberry Finn*, is uniquely "American" in both narrative and form. Highly recommended.
A Different Kind of Runaway Story December 5, 2008
In Dark Dude, Hijuelos has written a very different kind of runaway story. Rico is living a life of fear and hopelessness in New York City and thinks the grass is greener in Wisconsin where his surrogate big brother has escaped to college, so he runs away to join him. But instead of trials and tribulations, Rico finds that the grass is pretty green, give or take a drama or two. The process of making the transition from urban to country life and the decision whether or not to go back again, the thoughts and feelings and friendships that are all part of Rico's journey--the focus of any teenager's journey--are compellingly and sensitively drawn. An honest, somewhat gritty book that will appeal to teens who like to step inside the lives of other kids for awhile.
 Sorry, but no sale! November 25, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I wanted to read this book because I like to recommend titles for my kids who range in age from 5 to 20. I particularly hoped to see if this was a book for my soon to be 13-year-old daughter. That hope ended with this first sentence of the book, "Well, even if the say life can be (vulgarity deleted), you really don't know the half of it until you've dug up an outhouse." Unfortunately, the author regularly used cursing and sexual comments on every page of the book.
The author is a Pulitzer winner for "Mambo Kings..." that Hollywood made into a film. This seems to be his first entry into the now lucrative "young adult" genre, which might explain his book jacket picture showing a twenty-something year old author as opposed to his actual fifty-something year old self.
The author states in the book jacket "This is the kind of book I wish I'd read when I was a teen." Unfortunately, it seems that placating the author's nostalgic needs is too often the point of this story. It involves the relationship between two Hispanic youths, Rico and Gilberto. The former is the star and voice of the story. The latter is the older-wiser mentor. The author is Cuban-American as is Rico. Gilberto is merely the older side of Rico, i.e., they are the same person if you excuse a psychoanalytic view of the story.
"Dark Dude" (a street jargon meaning a person who is actually very light skin) takes place in the 60's, which is the same time in which the author would have been a teen. There are likely other personal comparisons that justify my using a "Freudian" view, but that is not itself a criticism as the same can be said of many fiction (and non-fiction) writers.
What does bother me is the author's frequent use of Hispanic stereotypes such as the drunken father, drug using friend, the hysterical mother. Additionally, Rico's light skin is apparently due to his mother's sexual dalliance with a non-Hispanic, but that part of the narrative is left hanging. I've come to expect and demand more from Hispanic authors. Yes, there are people like this in the Hispanic community, But, except for media portrayals, they are not the Hispanic community. It is not enough to say that you are writing "honestly" when the writing distorts and demeans what is actually happening in the general community. That is not "honesty" in the dictionary sense of the word, but a rationalization in the clinical sense of the word.
As for the story, the narration is often clever, but suffers from the sense that the author is trying too hard to sound authentic. The last third of the story is particularly difficult as it seems Hijuelos is searching for a means to tie the loose ends into a conclusion. He particularly struggles with trying to find dimension to Gilberto and at one point takes him into a negative area of life that is inconsistent with his up-to-then well-manicured characterization. When completed, Rico is the only one with more than a surface level of depth. If this book had been written in the 60's, when the author had wished he had such a text available to read, it would have been groundbreaking and shocking. Now, it merely seems cliche ridden with vulgarities for vulgarity sake.
I would like to have recommended this book because as the publisher states in closing to the text, "We believe that the Latino community...is renewing the American spirit*** [and] this literature defines a whole new world in a promising new millennium." I agree with this sentiment. I just wish that the publisher considered that "new world" need not continue worn out negative stereotypes and there is much more to know about Latinos. (Note: this is not a book for young teens or immature older youths.)
 A Typical Coming of Age Story November 21, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
While the author writes that this is "The kind of book I would have liked to have read when I was growing up," I can't really envision that this is true. It is filled with the same meaningless platitudes that all coming-of-age stories have: Be yourself, learn to be vulnerable around those who you can trust, there are people who care for you, family is forever, etc. These statements are only useful after you've already figured them out...before that, you are too arrogant to think that they apply to you. Coming of age stories, therefore, are best read by those who have just reached maturity and want to see others on the journey, or by those who are nostalgic. This book is no different.
The parts of this that are supposed to be geared to the Latino audience (for make no mistake, this is THE book that announces the intention of Atheneum Press to make Latino voices HEARD) seem superficial, as if they could have been added by a kid in the Midwest with a half-decent internet connection and a few days of research on Wikipedia. None of them seem remotely integral to the plot. It is unclear whether this is an attempt at making the story universal (which defeats the purpose of its Latino background) or it was merely poorly executed (which is unfortunate). I almost get the feeling that the editor kept saying, "Make it more ETHNIC!" and then at some point s/he said, "Whoa, tone it down a little bit, we don't want to offend our audience."
Seriously, there is no happy middle ground in this kind of thing. Either you are going to relate to an ethnic study or you aren't, and that's all there is to it. I praise Atheneum on their intention (if it is to represent Latino voices that aren't heard often enough in literature, and not to merely capitalize on America's fastest growing ethnic group), but I do not praise their actualization of this goal. Here's hoping their next effort is better.
C
Harkius
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