Dark Dude [ハードカバー]

Fifteen-year-old, Cuban American Rico Fuentes is a Dark Dude, slang for a light skinned person. Rico is so light skinned he seems white and this causes him trouble in Harlem, both with the black and Hispanic kids in school. Plus, his life seems to be going nowhere. He wants to create comic books with his pal Jimmy, who has discovered the needle and the false joy it brings.

Rico has an old friend, eighteen-year-old Gilberto who wins seventy-five thousand Dollars in the lottery. Gilberto moves to Wisconsin, rents a run down farm for two hundred dollars a month and goes to college. Rico talks Jimmy into running away to Gilberto's farm with him.

And thus Rico's adventure begins. On the road they meet both good and not so good people. In Wisconsin Rico learns that the land of Milk and Honey has some bad people in it as well in this book that advertises itself as a young adult novel, but I'm not so young and I enjoyed every page. Mr. Hijuelos won me over with the first sentence and keep me glued to his story for a whole Saturday. It's not often I read a book in one sitting. I did this one, that's how much I enjoyed it.

Dark Dude is a well-written young adult's novel that is a coming of age story following the adventures of Rico, a very pale Cuban boy from New York City. Never really fitting in with the his darker skinned inner city peers, having a drunk father and stern mother at home, and with his closest friend, Jimmy, becoming a drug addict he decides to leave NYC and take a chance on the state of Wisconsin. Rico takes only his dreams of being a comic book story writer, a suitcase of supplies, and the aforementioned Jimmy, and they hitch their was to his friend Gilberto's farm.

Once in Wisconsin he has plenty of time to evaluate his life, and we see that both he and Jimmy spend the first couple of months just sorting things out before anything meaningful happens. For Jimmy, the changes come easier, and we can see that his future will be bright. Rico, on the other hand, has a much harder time coming to terms with the direction he wants his life to take, but ultimately makes the right decisions. Along the way are some good lessons and observations about life.

Dark Dude is told from Rico's perspective, and is done in an easy to read informal manner. His character starts out nicely developed, gets a little one dimensional in Wisconsin, but becomes strong again in the end. While Rico is a nicely formed character, my biggest beef with Dark Duke is that, besides Rico, Jimmy is the only other character who seems to be anything more than an afterthought. In fact, the only other characters for whom we get a decent amount of story development are his friend Gilberto, and his girlfriend Sheri, and even they feel a little one-dimensional. The other remaining characters, quite frankly, are stereotypical; we have the loving, drunken father, the strict, caring mother, the crazy, carefree hippies, the stern, crotchety boss, and the wholesome white folks. This is unfortunate because a story is only as good as its supporting cast, and while none of the other characters seem out of place, or get in the story's way, they don't add much to it either.

The only other issue I had with the book, and this is very personal, is that I felt there was a little too much cursing, smoking, drugs, and alcohol going on for the young adult audience to be reading about. I'm not nave enough to think that it has to be a sunshine and rainbows kind of story where only the bad guys have vices, but it seemed to be a little over the top.

All in all... Dark Duke starts out strong, lets up a little in the middle, but redeems itself by the end. A worthwhile read for young adult trying to find their way in life.

How many teens have wished they could escape the darkness of their lives and live in a land of milk and honey? Rico Fuentes does just that in DARK DUDE by Oscar Hijuelos.

Rico is one-hundred-percent Cuban, yet he struggles daily to identify with his Cuban peers. His mom and little sister have brunette hair and cinnamon colored skin. His dad has both dark wavy hair and dark eyes. But Rico, with hazel eyes and fair skin with freckles, looks white. In Harlem, that pretty much guarantees daily harassment.

When Rico has to change to a public school, he is exposed to drugs, crime, and violence like never before. Early in the school year, a student is shot and Rico watches in shock as his new classmates celebrate a day off. Soon Rico's skipping school to avoid random beatings. When his pops finds out, he warns Rico that he'll be spending the summer with his military uncle in Florida.

It's not until his friend Jimmy is rushed to the hospital due to a drug-related accident that Rico realizes he has only one way out. He must find a way to Wisconsin to stay with his friend, Gilberto, on his farm. When Jimmy is released, Rico talks him into going to Wisconsin with him. After a road trip to remember on the way to the farm, they wonder what they've gotten themselves into when Gilberto immediately puts them to work painting the outside of the dilapidated farmhouse in exchange for their room and board.

Rico finds farm life in Wisconsin to be much slower than in Harlem. He spends a lot of time re-reading his favorite author, Mark Twain. Then he finds himself attracted to a girl whose father has a drinking problem. He'd never realized that his own experiences with an alcoholic dad could be helpful to someone else. As the months go by, Rico begins to look at himself, and those around him, differently. More importantly, he begins to accept himself.

DARK DUDE is a gritty read. The projects, the bars, and the backstreets of Harlem become real to the reader as Mr. Hijuelos drops you into each scene, and he creates a character with so much promise, but with so much working against him, that we cannot stop at each chapter break. Instead we read on, praying that nothing bad will happen to Rico, and when it does, we find ourselves urging Rico on, to find the best in himself, to reach for those dreams we know he wants. This is a realistic yet inspiring read for anyone who wants to find a way to make a different choice, to find the person they really want to be.

Reviewed by: Cana Rensberger