Boy Without a Flag - Softcover

Rodriguez Jr., Abraham

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1571310282 ISBN 13: 9781571310286

Publisher: Milkweed Editions, 1999

Synopsis

A New York Times Book Review Notable Book of the Year

Abraham Rodriguez, Jr. captures what it's like to grow up too fast amid the crushing poverty of the South Bronx in this collection, a gritty slice of New York Latino life. The Boy Without a Flag is about the rancid underbelly of the American Dream," says the author. "These are the kids no one likes to talk about; they are seen as the enemy by most people. I want to show them as they really are, not as society wishes them to be.” In these truth-telling stories about his neighborhood of Puerto Rican adolescents growing up in the South Bronx, Rodriguez introduces us to the youth who fight every day for survival in our cities.

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews:

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.

From Publishers Weekly:

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.

About this edition

• Publisher: Milkweed Editions
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 1571310282
• ISBN 13: 9781571310286
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 120