Dark Dude, Oscar Hijuelos, Book

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Product Details

Pub. Date: September 2009
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
Format: Paperback, 464pp
Sales Rank: 112,213
Age Range: Young Adult

ISBN-13: 9781416949459
ISBN: 1416949453

Synopsis

Rico Fuentes tiene 15 años, vive en Harlem y es norteamericano de primera generacion. Estamos a los finales de los 60 a principios de los 70 del pasado siglo. Su padre y su madre son cubanos, de procedencia muy modesta y oscuros de tez, su hermana pequeña es tambien mulata. Su padre tiene problems con el alcohol.

Publishers Weekly

Hijuelos, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, has said that his first YA novel is a novel he wished he'd read as a teen. His themes are classic-alienation, the search for identity-but his approach is pure Hijuelos: Cuban-American, musical and very, very funny.

Rico Fuentes, his 15-year-old narrator, is a "dark dude" in late-'60s Harlem, a Cuban-American so light-skinned that, he says, he carries " 'get-jumped,' money 'cause I attracted both Latino and black takeoff artists who saw my white skin as a kind of flashing neon sign that said 'Rob me.' " His best buddy Jimmy, who illustrates Rico's "homegrown" comic-book stories about superheroes like "El Gato" and "the Latin Dagger," is becoming a junkie. Rico's mother pretends not to understand his English, blaming him for the childhood illness that put the family in debt. Kids get shot at school ("an incident involving gunplay," as the principal describes it) and his dad wants to send him to his uncle's military school in Florida.

Rico, an outsider par excellence, is good at finding paths still further out. He's got Huckleberry Finn from literature as one type of guide and Gilberto from the neighborhood as another. Gilberto, "the big brother I never had," has won the lottery and used it toward tuition at Milton College in rural Wisconsin. Grabbing Jimmy, Rico lights out for Gilberto's place, in search of his freedom, like Huck and Jim. Hijuelos gives Rico months on a communal farm with hippies, a small-town girlfriend with a cop brother, and encounters with racists before his a-ha! moment ("Where you are doesn't change who you are"). Like Dorothy returning from Oz(an adventure also referenced here), the inevitability of the conclusion doesn't matter: it's the smooth, jazzy flow of the narration, the slides between Rico's rootlessness and the book's strong sense of place that count. Ages 12-up. (Sept.)

More Reviews and Recommendations

Biography

With its lush writing and Proustian sensuousness, Oscar Hijuelos�s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, established him as a great literary stylist. In subsequent books, Hijuelos, who enjoys experimenting with form and voice, has continued to explore memory, assimilation, and identity in the rich language that has become his trademark.

More About the Author

Customer Reviews

Reader Rating:
Ratings: 4Reviews: 2

Catcher in the Rye's Kid Brotherby oraymw

Reader Rating:
See Detailed Ratings

June 11, 2009: I cannot think of any situation where I would rather read this than The Catcher in the Rye.

Essentially, this book is a cheap knock-off of Catcher in the Rye. The voice is nearly identical, except that Oscar Hijuelos swears a lot more (by a lot I mean about every page). The main character, Rico, is Holden Caulfield with Cuban parents. The story is very similar, kid runs away to find himself. The setting is similar until Rico runs off to live on a farm. The main point is that this is a cheaper, more shallow version of Catcher in the Rye.

There is no plot, so if you really like a strong plot, then this isn't you. If you like beautiful prose, this isn't for you. If you like deep characters that have some sort of realization, this book isn't for you. If you like to read about people swearing, drinking, and smoking pot, then this book is for you.

I Also Recommend: The Road, Catcher in the Rye, The Giver, Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy, The House of the Scorpion.

Reviewed by Cana Rensberger for TeensReadToo.comby TeensReadToo

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October 27, 2008: How many teens have wished they could escape the darkness of their lives and live in a land of milk and honey? Rico Fuentes does just that in DARK DUDE by Oscar Hijuelos.

Rico is one-hundred-percent Cuban, yet he struggles daily to identify with his Cuban peers. His mom and little sister have brunette hair and cinnamon colored skin. His dad has both dark wavy hair and dark eyes. But Rico, with hazel eyes and fair skin with freckles, looks white. In Harlem, that pretty much guarantees daily harassment.

When Rico has to change to a public school, he is exposed to drugs, crime, and violence like never before. Early in the school year, a student is shot and Rico watches in shock as his new classmates celebrate a day off. Soon Rico's skipping school to avoid random beatings. When his pops finds out, he warns Rico that he'll be spending the summer with his military uncle in Florida.

It's not until his friend Jimmy is rushed to the hospital due to a drug-related accident that Rico realizes he has only one way out. He must find a way to Wisconsin to stay with his friend, Gilberto, on his farm. When Jimmy is released, Rico talks him into going to Wisconsin with him. After a road trip to remember on the way to the farm, they wonder what they've gotten themselves into when Gilberto immediately puts them to work painting the outside of the dilapidated farmhouse in exchange for their room and board.

Rico finds farm life in Wisconsin to be much slower than in Harlem. He spends a lot of time re-reading his favorite author, Mark Twain. Then he finds himself attracted to a girl whose father has a drinking problem. He'd never realized that his own experiences with an alcoholic dad could be helpful to someone else. As the months go by, Rico begins to look at himself, and those around him, differently. More importantly, he begins to accept himself.

DARK DUDE is a gritty read. The projects, the bars, and the backstreets of Harlem become real to the reader as Mr. Hijuelos drops you into each scene, and he creates a character with so much promise, but with so much working against him, that we cannot stop at each chapter break. Instead we read on, praying that nothing bad will happen to Rico, and when it does, we find ourselves urging Rico on, to find the best in himself, to reach for those dreams we know he wants. This is a realistic yet inspiring read for anyone who wants to find a way to make a different choice, to find the person they really want to be.

Fact File

Name:
Oscar Hijuelos

Current Home:
New York, New York

Date of Birth:
August 24, 1951

Place of Birth:
New York, New York

Education:
B.A., City College of the City University of New York, 1975; M.A.,1976

Awards:
National Book Award nomination; National Book Critics Circle Prize nomination; Pulitzer Prize for fiction, 1990; Guggenheim Fellowship, 1990

Biography

While reviewers often liken Oscar Hijuelos� dreamy, rich novels to the works of Gabriel García Márquez, Hijuelos himself takes exception to the comparison. These reviewers are �myopic,� he told a writer for The New York Times. �I love Yeats and Flann O�Brien.�

And the language in Hijuelos� novels is indeed as poetic as the language of his Irish heroes. When The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, the story of two Cuban brothers who move to Spanish Harlem in the 1950s to make their mark as singers, appeared in 1990, readers and critics waxed ecstatic about Hijuelos� writing.

Hijuelos, a second-generation Cuban-American who was born in New York City, writes about assimilation and identity, love and loss, and the power -- and pain -- of family life. In Our House in the Last World, Hijuelos� first book, he explores the world of memory and displacement, following the fortunes of a Cuban family transplanted to New York in the 1940s. In The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, for which Hijuelos received the Pulitzer Prize, Hijuelos created the Castillo brothers, Nestor and Cesar. Their story was recounted through Cesar�s memories and fantasies, as he lived out his last days in a seedy hotel. In researching the book, Hijuelos steeped himself in Latin music from the period and in his own remembrances of his childhood on Manhattan�s 118th Street. The result is a highly charged yet tender distillation of past, suffused with a crystalline sense of detail that brings Nabokov to mind.

Hijuelos attributes some of this obsession with memory to his heritage. �Latins are predisposed to thinking about the past,� he told the Times. �Catholicism has a lot to do with it because Catholicism is a contemplation of the past, of symbols that are supposed to be eternally present.�

With The Fourteen Sisters of Emilio Montez O�Brien (1993), he took his exploration of memory in a different direction, telling the story from the perspectives of several female narrators, and stretching them across several generations. In 1999�s Empress of the Splendid Season, he switched perspectives again for the story of a cleaning woman whose life is a stark counterpoint to that of her wealthy employer�s. Three years later in A Simple Habana Melody, Hijuelos returned to "when the world was good," in 1920s Havana with a love story told by a Cuban composer whose infatuation inspires him to write the most famous song of his career.

Good to Know

Writers Donald Barthelme and Susan Sontag were among Hijuelos�s teachers at City College of the City University of New York.

From the Publisher

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.

Publishers Weekly

Hijuelos, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, has said that his first YA novel is a novel he wished he'd read as a teen. His themes are classic-alienation, the search for identity-but his approach is pure Hijuelos: Cuban-American, musical and very, very funny.

Rico Fuentes, his 15-year-old narrator, is a "dark dude" in late-'60s Harlem, a Cuban-American so light-skinned that, he says, he carries " 'get-jumped,' money 'cause I attracted both Latino and black takeoff artists who saw my white skin as a kind of flashing neon sign that said 'Rob me.' " His best buddy Jimmy, who illustrates Rico's "homegrown" comic-book stories about superheroes like "El Gato" and "the Latin Dagger," is becoming a junkie. Rico's mother pretends not to understand his English, blaming him for the childhood illness that put the family in debt. Kids get shot at school ("an incident involving gunplay," as the principal describes it) and his dad wants to send him to his uncle's military school in Florida.

Rico, an outsider par excellence, is good at finding paths still further out. He's got Huckleberry Finn from literature as one type of guide and Gilberto from the neighborhood as another. Gilberto, "the big brother I never had," has won the lottery and used it toward tuition at Milton College in rural Wisconsin. Grabbing Jimmy, Rico lights out for Gilberto's place, in search of his freedom, like Huck and Jim. Hijuelos gives Rico months on a communal farm with hippies, a small-town girlfriend with a cop brother, and encounters with racists before his a-ha! moment ("Where you are doesn't change who you are"). Like Dorothy returning from Oz(an adventure also referenced here), the inevitability of the conclusion doesn't matter: it's the smooth, jazzy flow of the narration, the slides between Rico's rootlessness and the book's strong sense of place that count. Ages 12-up. (Sept.)

Children's Literature

What a simply fantastic book! How many times in your life have you wanted to just walk away and never look back? How many times have you not liked who you are? Many teens feel this in their darkest moments, and they come to a crossroads where they can make a decision that will have a tragic outcome or somehow survive and learn they can't run away from who they are. Rico is a young Cuban boy who inherited his Caucasian traits from his grandfather. As a teen living in Harlem and wanting to fit in, his white skin prevents this from happening. He is exposed to drugs, fights and goes to a public school where a student is shot in the hall. Jimmy, a good friend, draws wonderful comics and Rico keeps trying to tell him that they are good enough to be published. Believing this will never happen, Jimmy turns to selling drugs to get his money. When Rico has to rush his friend to the hospital after he is burned in one of the drug deals, Rico realizes that he has no future where he is and can only come up with one plan—running away. His plan develops and when Jimmy is well enough to go home, he talks him into running away with him to Wisconsin where his best friend Gilberto, who used to reside in Harlem, lives. After making it there safely and staying for some time, Rico again faces those who don't like something about him and he gets beaten within an inch of serious injuries. One day in July, something happens that makes both him and his friend Gilberto set out to retaliate as though they still lived in Harlem. Does Rico manage to go back home and become the Cuban that he is or has he honestly forgotten his heritage? The author does an amazing job at drawing the reader into each page. He doesnot pull any punches when describing events and this helps make the story so unbelievably real. Most of us want to believe that good overpowers evil and hate, but many live in environments where this is just simply not true. I know I was cheering for Rico throughout the book and absolutely could not put this book down. It is inspiring, poignant, realistic, and readers will be able to identify with the strong emotions found deeply embedded throughout the story. I highly recommend this book for both teens and adults. Reviewer: Kathie M. Josephs

VOYA

Winner of a Pulitzer Prize for The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love (Farrar Straus Giroux, 1989), Hijuelos joins the group of well-established literary authors who have intentionally written a young adult novel. Borrowing aspects of his own Cuban American youth-early illness, Spanish Harlem, 1960s television iconography-Hijuelos weaves a compelling and insightful tale of one outsider's coming-of-age. Unlike his friends and family, Rico's white skin sets him apart in the eyes of the street. Tiring of a high school where little learning can happen and beatings are meted out from African American and Latino guys who see him as Other, not quite Latino, Rico and his friend Jimmy, a reformed heroin addict, flee to Wisconsin to live in the hippie farm household organized by their older New York friend Gilberto. Rico works through his guilt at leaving his stern Moms and often drunk Pops, his frustration at being unable to have his comics writing taken seriously either by publishers or Jimmy, a relationship with a troubled girlfriend, and continuing issues arising from ethnicity and appearance. Hijuelos throws a lot of issues into Rico's path, and the resolution is quick and tidy, but the imagery is rich and the content sure to engage teen readers. Reviewer: Francisca Goldsmith

KLIATT

Rico Fuentes is a struggling New York City high school student. Although he is Latino, he is cursed with the fair skin and hair of an Irish ancestor and in 1960s New York that makes him the enemy. In his public high school he is a victim. Tired of being bullied, by classmates and by his mother, Rico decides that the time has come to leave New York. One of his older friends, Gilberto, has taken lottery winnings and is in Wisconsin to go to college. Rico decides that if it is good enough for Gilberto, it is good enough for him, so he convinces his friend Jimmy, another victim of abuse, to join him. The two hitchhike their way cross-country to the farm that Gilberto rents in Wisconsin. There they become part of a commune of artists and students who live in a house without indoor plumbing. For Rico this is an eye-opening experience. High school readers will appreciate the struggles and the humor of being a "fish out of water." Rico becomes seriously involved with Sheri, the daughter of divorced parents, whose father is a drunk and whose mother offers to help Rico complete his high school diploma. But in the time away from New York City, Rico is still having a hard time determining his identity. Along with deciding what to do about his high school diploma, he also has to decide what to do about who he is. Reviewer: Janis Flint-Ferguson

School Library Journal

Gr 9 Up

Rico Fuentes, 15, hasn't had an easy life. He spent part of his childhood in a hospital, his mother blames him for her misery, his loving father is a drunk, and, because of his light Cuban skin, he's hassled by peers. With escalating problems at his 1960s New York City school and his friend Jimmy spiraling dangerously out of control because of drugs, Rico decides to run away, taking Jimmy with him. They head for Wisconsin and Gilberto, who's gone off to college and is living on a hippie farm. There, in the "land of milk and honey," Rico saves Jimmy's life and finds acceptance-by others first and, ultimately, of himself. The protracted narrative is by turns sentimental, humorous, and sad, but Hijuelos creates a memorable character who will resonate with readers wrestling with their own identity issues.-Terri Clark, Smokey Hill Library, Centennial, CO

Kirkus Reviews

Fifteen-year-old Rico Fuentes, who refers to himself as the "palest Cubano who ever existed on the planet," feels impelled by circumstances involving drugs, truancy and family to flee Harlem for Wisconsin; it's the 1960s and his good friend Roberto, a lottery winner, is attending college and has rented a farm nearby. Hijuelos, who won the Pulitzer Prize for The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love (1989), explores issues of race, identity, prejudice and outsiderness in his affectionately written, sometimes raw teen debut. Smart, confused, a good-hearted bookworm from the ghetto who feels an affinity with Huck Finn and writes imaginative comic-book superhero stories, Rico ultimately comes to see that "where you are doesn't change who you are." In spite of several graphic scenes dealing with drugs and violence, this novel is very much geared to young adults; indeed, it sometimes seems as if the author is trying to pack in too much advice, making for a somewhat loose narrative. Even so, young readers will genuinely care about Rico and be carried along on his journey of discovery. (Historical fiction. 12 & up)

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Product Details

Pub. Date: September 2009
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
Format: Paperback, 464pp
Sales Rank: 112,213
Age Range: Young Adult

ISBN-13: 9781416949459
ISBN: 1416949453

Reading Group Guide
Forewords & Introductions
Read an Excerpt
Read a Sample Chapter

Reading Group Guide

Discussion Questions

1. What are some of the main challenges Rico and his family face living in Harlem? Describe Gilberto's and Jimmy's experiences also.

2. List some of the characteristics, beyond the physical, that make Rico different. What characteristics does he show while living in Harlem?

3. How does Rico fit in his environment in Harlem? How does the community relate to him? Consider the Jo Mama School shooting, and the drug dealing and heroin use with Jimmy.

4. How does Rico view his light skin color? How does his view change from Harlem to Wisconsin? Does he feel comfortable in his own skin?

5. Rico hit a low, where he wants to escape his family, school, and street life in Harlem. He asks Jimmy to show him how to use heroin. How does this become a turning point in their lives?

6. The feelings of hopelessness for both Rico and Jimmy culminate in Jimmy catching fire. How does Rico rescue Jimmy? What do we learn about Rico?

7. Discuss the hitchhiking trip that Rico and Jimmy take as they run away from New York. Would this make you more or less likely to hitchhike yourself? Of all the characters they meet, who stands out most for you?

8. Exploring the bonds that bind a family is a major theme in this story. What torments Rico as he leaves New York? How does he relate to his family while he is in Wisconsin? How does the "family" in the farmhouse affect Rico and Jimmy?

9. The book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is Rico's favorite. How does his story parallel that of Huck Finn's?

10. Arriving in Wisconsin feels like a dream to Rico and Jimmy. Describe some of their adjustments and differences. How does Rico's feelings of beingan "outsider" continue?

11. Gilberto is a major influence on Rico. How difficult is it for Rico when Gilberto moves from Harlem to go to college in Wisconsin? Then, when Rico comes to the farm Gilberto is Rico's guide. Discuss the bond between Gilberto and Rico.

12. Blond, blue-eyed, educated Midwesterner Sharon becomes Rico's first real girlfriend. How does their relationship help both of them grow?

13. How do Jimmy and Rico feel when they complete the Dark Dude comic book and submit it to DC Comics? What does this show us about Rico? Discuss the outcome of the submittal and the letter from DC Comics. Were you surprised?

14. What do you imagine is the next chapter in Rico's journey?

15. What makes people who they are? Is it how they look? Their language? Their ethnic heritage? Where they grow up? Discuss the elements of the book that support your answers.

Activities

1. Rico and Jimmy create a comic book series with their superhero, the Dark Dude. Try creating a comic book. Create a superhero that reflects characteristics you would like to embody. Write or illustrate it yourself, or get a partner. There are good guides in the book on how to get your comic published. Do you think you could get yours published?

2. Regional language is a distillation that reflects ethnicity, culture, and class. The language of Harlem included "jive," "lame," and "dark dude." In the book the language of Wisconsin includes "outhouse," "hankering," and "neat." Find more examples from the book, making lists of New York City words and Wisconsin words. What do these words reflect about the cultures and ethnicities they come from? Can you create a list of words that reflect your region's language? Compare it to other regions.

3. Find Internet images, books, and magazines that have pictures of Harlem and also of farmland Wisconsin in the late 1960s. Try creating a photo collage that reflects the two very different environments. Then make a list of similarities and differences. How strange would it be to move from one to the other for you? How might it change you?

Forewords & Introductions