Customer Reviews

The Buddha Book: A Novel

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

i read the review above from publishers weekly and they must have read the wrong book. this book shows the way it is for kids in the projects. it's sad, funny, violent, the story of two boys who draw comics and are trying to figure a way out of their lives. (if you like comics, there's a lot of good stuff in here--it's a little like michael chabon's novel the amazing adventures of kavalier and clay, except it's about the south bronx instead of manhattan.) anyway, read it for yourself.

I couldm't believe it at first but this was a compelling piece of fiction. Abraham's cutting realism transports to el Sur del Bronx. His sardonic humor and witty prose grabs you, and doesn't let you go. He portrays the daily battle of NY Puerto Rican youth with grace and dignity. I've been a major fan ever since I read his short story "Roaches." As a veteran of 40's, Brooklyn hooky amd house parties, the occassional blunt and graffity I could say it brought me back....

The Buddha Book was a required reading for an ethnic studies class at UW Madison, and I must say, it was an enjoyable read. Not only did the book address the the perceptions of latino and chicano by whites, it also shows the struggles between the groups. Rodriguez probes the relations of the Spanish, black, white culture while writing fascinating fiction. He tries to understand Puerto RicanCentrism, as he calls it. His prose is unique, poetic, and gives the reader superb narrative. A great story.

"The Buddah Book" is an attempt at telling a story about "how it is" in New York City, and coming from someone like Abraham Rodriguez (who's spent his whole life in the South Bronx) definitly gives it a bit of credibility. Unfortunatly, this book reads like it was written for young adults, where it's content is definitly aimed at mature readers.
Abraham's writing comes off very disjointed, and it reaches to take an artistic, experimental approach at urban writing (comma omissions, varied spacings, poetry-like passages with parenthesis), but it falls short of this goal. The characters are fairly well developed and likeable, if not a bit predictable, yet there are some serious character problems. (One character named "Stupid" changes his name to "Tico" on a whim near the end of the book, and is referred to by other characters who don't even know that he changed his name refer to him as "Tico", as does the narration..very confusing and convoluted..)
There's serious sexual undertones going on in this novel, which sometimes really go overboard or needlessly explicit. Rodriguez also expresses his views on Puerto Rican culture through character dialogue which really does not fit the character's personality traits whatsoever.

Abraham has a fairly good and impressive grasp on NYC underground culture outside of the South Bronx scene.

Needless to say, the book is quite interesting and held my attention (I read it in one sitting), and is quite entertaining. I think so many of the problems in this novel come from a lack of a good editor to pick out and sort through some of the fuzz that crowds in this novel.

This book was a very good book it has everything you would want in a fiction book. I would recomend this book to any one who likes books with violence. This book is a tale about two boys who write a comic about true things that happen in their life I could not put this book down once I started reading it. I definetly give this book five stars.