by Richard Rodriguez
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0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Brilliant, breathtaking, American literature at its best, 2008-06-15
Speaking from several points of view: as (1) a writer, (2) a memoirist, and (3) a reader who falls utterly in love with books that bring me to other worlds, I need to say this: Are you kidding, marketplace?!?!?!?
This book is listed the half-millionth best-selling book on Amazon. That is just wrong.
This book is a highlight of American literature. NOT just late-20th-century literature, not just Latino/Hispanic/whatever literature; but the big overarching all-things-considered American literature. Mark Twain is good. Richard Rodriquez is good; his is the American literature high school students, for one, should be reading. Writers: This book taught me the most about a graceful style that could include ANY content.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
MUST-to-have new classics, 2008-03-04
Must to read!
Especially for Californians!
We are being a witnesses of the new classics created.
Despite the tough vocabulary and not an easy writing style, author created brilliant and truly remarkable set of essays. They are not related to each other directly, which makes it somewhat easier to read and possible to skip around, moving back and forth according to your own moods and preferences.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
A handbook on battling two culture, 2007-07-20
I have read many book in short, and few have had the impact this book had on me. It was an inspiring and emotional description of how children of immigrant parents are sometimes from old world beliefs and new world knowledge. Richard elegantly describes his battle and rightfully titles his book as an argument to his father that he is no less of a mexican if he acquires other beliefs of knowledge that contradicts that of old Mexico. It was a breathtaking book that I connected to it in some level. The quotes and images of old Mexico and trying to "prove" that you are no less mexican is a reality that many of mexican american kids face today. For them, this book is a must read.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
Not For Everyone, Not As It Seems, Better Than You Think., 2006-07-07
Richard Rodriguez, is, to say the least, a dense writer. His prose overflows with allusions to the demonic Romantic founder William Blake, work ethic orientated Victorian philosopher Thomas Carlyle, with small dash of natural theologian St. Thomas Aquinas, among others. And these are only the obvious references to me. Add that to classical literature, Roman Catholic philosophy, pre and post lapsearian filters on the role of Mexican Americans in the United States, and you have a philosophical self examination that rivals Dante Alighieri. "Days of Obligation" is a purposely dense, complex, at times conciliatory and confusing allegory of examination of self via international relations. Rodriguez attempts to unravel the relationship between Mexico and California as he unravels his own relationship with the native land of his parents.
He opens his collection with his travels with a BBC crew to find his roots. He feels alienated in a place where everyone assumes he would feel most comfortable. This feeling of alienation continues throughout the collection, and extends to his observations of alienation of those around him. Father Huerta is alienated from others because of his yearning to reunite the body and head of Joaquín Murrieta. The disillusion between the tú and usted forms in Mexico. The alienation that he feels from his family. More optimistic about his life's potential than his fathers cynicism, more comfortable than his mother who dreams about better days in Mexico.
What I found most interesting about this collection is that it seemed, whether intentional or not, to follow basic Blakean philosophy. He makes a reference to a "Blakean angel" in "Late Victorians", which to me implies that he had some conscience effort go into that. One of the tenets of William Blakes philosophy is often misunderstood as duality, but its actually the opposite. In a simplified sense, Blake believed that people are neither good or bad, but both good and bad at the same time. And I think that is how Rodriguez sees himself in this collection. He is neither American nor is Mexican, he is both, living in both worlds, unable to fully commit to one or the either.
Another interesting thing that I noticed was an emphasis on work. Thomas Carlyle wrote that work was therapeutic, purification process, that made people more focused. Rodriguez seems to play on that idea in a satirical tone in `Late Victorians' when he writes that "Body building is a parody of labor, a useless accumulation of the laborer's bulk and strength" Rodriguez seems to believe that there should a reason for work, but this is such an obscure allusion that I'm not sure what to do with it. The book seems to continue with this theme also, but there is nothing specifically that I can point out that seems to obviously fit with that model.
I brought up Thomas Aquinas because Rodriguez is a Catholic apologist. As well as a gay man. I thought that tied up into the Blakean philosophy quiet well. Two forces that are generally seen as opposing forces coexisting in one being at the same time in the same place. He is constantly defending the Church, something that I'm sure many people would find perplexing giving the Church's position on homosexuality.
I greatly enjoyed the book. It was unlike any other non fiction that I have read. It doesn't concern itself with the typical "I feel--" statements that generally profusely overflow in contemporary non fiction. His style is reminiscent of Alexander Pope in a way--dense and literal at the same time; pretentious and personal. There is no doubt that his postulations will cause some people to walk away puzzled. He has no yearning to return to Mexico, as some people may assume, but is more than willing to admit that he does not understand the country as much as he would like. He's more than willing to, and does, to write above the average readers head. This alone is what most likely turn readers off. Unless one has a background in ethnic studies, theology, or English literature, the metaphors, references and allusions will go over the everyday readers head. But research into whatever questions the reader has will ultimately make reading the collection a richer experience.
Over all, I enjoyed the book, and when my next pay period comes in, I know that I will make a few purchases of his other works to get a greater understanding of his writing. And that is one of the greatest compliment I think that any writer can receive.
8 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
 English is not a toy., 2004-09-02
"European vocabularies do not have a silence rich enough to describe the force within Indian contemplation. Only Shakespeare understood that Indians have eyes." (p. 23) And how would Mr. Rodriquez know anything about the force of Indian contemplation? He doesn't allow Americans, among whom he numbers himself, to know much of anything. And what's this about Shakespeare? Didn't he just say something about European vocabularies?
Informed by his immersion in Elizabethan English, Rodriguez fashions poetry out of absurdity, misanthropy and breathtaking contradiction. He fools high school kids (and it seems a lot have been assigned this book), but the educated, well read adult will be skeptical. How can he complain that he was taught that the Indians were gone, then drag multicultural education through the mud? I'm ANGRY that U.S. history was fed to me divorced from North America. I thought Montezuma was a legend! I defend all efforts at inclusion even when some ridiculous stuff comes along with it. Keep those ideas coming!
And why is it that the people who have benefited most from affirmative action spit in its face? It's especially odd coming from a man whose parents moved to the U.S. for the express purpose of bettering their children.
Rodriguez is entertaining on the topic of alienation, but he's the perfect example of why I've yearned for a minority gripe: It gives the human soul a hook on which to hang the cloak all mortals wear, the weight of an elegiac separation from God and other people. It's not about being Mexican/American, it's about the human condition: Read the poetry of the precortesian Mexican philosopher Nezahualcoyotl, who, as King of Texcoco, was hardly a stranger in a strange land.
Warning to readers: Rodriguez saves all his personal attacks for women. If you find man-hating literature tiresome, which I do, beware misogyny from a man who waxes lyrical about bedpans.
Rodriguez strives valiantly to be Octavio Paz, and is even trotted out as our answer to Mexico's Nobel laureate. (See, we Americans can search our souls in inscrutable, contradictory ways, too!) My advice? READ OCTAVIO PAZ INSTEAD. At least he loved life.
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