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Title: Brown: The Last Discovery of America by Richard Rodriguez ISBN: 0-14-200079-5 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 25 March, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.47 (17 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: America through a glass darkly
Comment: 5 STARS. Mr. Rodriguez is an excellent social essayist of America's many converging streams.
I have just finished reading Richard Rodriguez's new book "Brown: The Last Discovery of America" and I am contemplating how long I should wait before beginning it again. Here is a writer worth many readings. His subject and approach invite numerous visits, viewings from varied moods and perspectives.
In this (his third book) Mr. Rodrigez's takes as his theme the notion of brown as intermingled, mixed, impure and argues that it is the inevitable conclusion of America. Along the way he gives us his reading (a brown reading?) of Richard Nixon, Alexis de Tocqueville, Ben Franklin, the Latin American migration, the persistance of Puritanism, sexual politics, cubism, Melcolm X, Catholism, public space, and the American insistance on authenticy against its impulse for the theatrical. Many of these are themes Mr. Rodriguez has covered before. Here he revisits some familiar themes through the lense of brownness, turning them over by a different light, holding them up to a different horizon. He is a writer of a fugue like repetition, striking humor in one note and discomfort in the next, leaving the reader to follow the argument off the page. He is a writer who does not condescend to his readers with trite resolutions or comforting reassurances. His style is personal and political, contemplative and engaging. He is an excellent stylist of a kind rarely seen on bookshelves today.
This is not an easy read. Don't buy this book if you're looking for a quick and fun read. It is a provocative and perplexing tune Mr. Rodriguez carries. He points in directions that he leaves uncharted, exposes personal wounds that he leaves unmended. He invites us into an uncomfortable space of hanging questions.
Thoses who have read Mr. Rodrigez before will probably enjoy this newest work (assuming you enjoyed his other work). New readers may find him challanging (some friends have found his style dense or obscure). But if you are loking for an intelligent and engaging converstaion on the meaning of what America is becoming and why undermining of America's very notion of race is inevitable, then I strongly urge you to read this terrific book. "Reader, meet Mr. Rodriguez. Mr. Rodriguez, your interlocutor."
Moises Hernandez ...
Rating: 4
Summary: insightful
Comment: This memoir reminds me of many of the ideals as in other books like Poetry like Bread, etc.... Interestingly enough in this memoir there were many thoughts that were valid and everlasting.
This memoir's style reminded me of Edward Al-Kharrat's Alexandria's Girls. The fact that you can pick it up and put it down and still not be lost is present.
I found this book in the Latino studies section. As Rodriguez does say that books are often labeled as are people. His book although talks a lot about race, brown vs. black or white, etc.... he also talks generally about American, Canadian, Mexican and other cultures. Also he talks about religion, etc... This is interesting to explore throughout the memoir.
The many references were hard to follow, but inspiring. The memoir is multifarious in terms of allusions. Sometimes I felt that Rodriquez was trying to overdo it. He had to show how well rounded he was by making a myriad of electic references and using a lot of literary terms that were far out there.
Who is his audience? One finds his memori in the Latino cultural section.... If I am reading literature from that section, I am not trying to stick up for "brown" people and see how smart they are by reading how intellectual Rodriguez is!
The book was hard to follow in the beginning with the references, but for me it really picked up and was hard to put down before the Hispanic chapter.
The ending made you think about it being a semi-dream, the whole memoir...but that is a bit odd...
Rating: 4
Summary: A thoughtful book..
Comment: When I found this book in the library I was surprised by how small it was. I'd heard of it before. It took me only about three days to get through it. It was a dreamlike essay from which I found nuggets of truth glistening here and there to pick up on and think, "oh yes, I've wondered about that myself!" I'm not sure what to think of Mr. Rodriguez but he is a very good writer. Sometimes his descriptions get sort of overdone, but mostly it's a good read. I would like to continue checking out his other books.
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Title: Hunger of Memory : The Education of Richard Rodriguez by Richard Rodriguez ISBN: 0553272934 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 January, 1983 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Days of Obligation: An Argument With My Mexican Father by Richard Rodriguez ISBN: 0140096221 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: November, 1993 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Where We Stand: Class Matters by Bell Hooks ISBN: 041592913X Publisher: Routledge Pub. Date: October, 2000 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Somebodies and Nobodies : Overcoming the Abuse of Rank by Robert W. Fuller ISBN: 086571486X Publisher: New Society Pub Pub. Date: 15 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
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Title: Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White by Frank H. Wu ISBN: 046500640X Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: 25 March, 2003 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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