I can’t say that I have as strong of a reaction to this book as I have had with the others. I will say that I think it was a story worth telling. I wasn’t pulled in as deep as I would have liked to be in this story. The characters I knew were struggling with some very complex issues from the very beginning not to be revealed until over halfway through the book and still I couldn’t really dig in the way I usually do. A part of me thought that it could be because of Miguel’s intense need to only state the facts and tell the story exactly as it happened (through his eyes) without all the emotional mess those experiences can, will and do cause, but I don’t think that was it. Another part of me thought that maybe it was the fact that I am a white middle class female and, therefore, am a member only of one major “minority” group as a woman and just couldn’t quite wrap my head around experiencing anything like these boys had in their lives thus far, but I don’t think that was it either. I don’t really know what it was that kept me at a distance from these characters or from diving completely into the story as is my usual experience when reading a book. What I do know is that there were a lot of things that bothered me about the story. Some examples would be: the fact that Miguel and Rondell just stand and watch Mong drown himself without any reaction at all, how Miguel doesn’t even attempt to find the girls who stole the petty cash, that no one even tries to help Rondell learn to read a little more, and the end when they go back to the Lighthouse where they are promised all the legalities would be meted out for them. These things left me wanting something more, something else then what was given to really make me believe in the characters. I will say that the one scene that I felt was done very well and I bought it was when Miguel and Rondell are at Miguel’s grandparents’ and his grandmother comes in to talk to them for the second time revealing what happened with Miguel and Diego a little more which causes him to tell his story to Rondell. That scene I could see exactly. The imagery. The emotion. The struggle. The pain. Everything. Then again, this was the end of the book and I had wanted to feel that deep human connection much earlier.
Kaylin
I can relate a bit. At first I was just as lost as you were. I was for so long thinking this was going to be a book of what it was like in Juvi. But, halfway through I found the book to be entirely about emotional struggle and these guys' identities. I, unlike you, was overwhelmed with emotional struggle. You sought action with Mong and Rondell, but that's the whole point isn't it(?)--the hopelessness. And what of Miguel's constant struggle for his Mexican identity which I thought was the climactic moment for this text? And all the anger that spans the pages time and time again? Maybe it's emotion in a context that we're not used to understanding or interpreting?
ReplyDeleteKaylin, I'm glad to hear your critique. I think in academic contexts we're often taught that our personal response doesn't matter, that we should just set it aside and focus on the text in an analytical way. I've come to believe that interrogating why we respond to books the way we do has a value of its own and can open up analysis of a text.
ReplyDeleteFor me as a reader, the deep human connection you were yearning for started to take shape when I saw Miguel react to being placed in the group home. I was moved by how much he was suffering and how he needed to squash that suffering inside him. When he leaves his first meeting with Jaden and goes in the bathroom to start punching and hitting himself, and when he curses himself in the mirror, I thought, this is a kid in profound pain. That self-hatred on the inside coupled with contempt for the others at the group home on the outside, I think, is what got to me. And thinking about that led me down the path of examining what this book is trying to accomplish.
I definitely did not get that much into this book, either. While maybe you are supposed to ignore your personal experiences and be completely objective when reading, I simply cannot. When I cannot relate to a character in any way, I can't get that into a book. I think the book was written well and it was an interesting story, but I think it was just geared towards different kinds of readers.
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