Dark Dude, Oscar Hijuelos
Dark Dude, Oscar Hijuelos
List: $16.95 | Sale: $11.87
Club: $8.47

Dark Dude

Author: Oscar Hijuelos

Narrator: Armando Durán

Unabridged: 7 hr 31 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/16/2008


Synopsis

From Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist Oscar Hijuelos comes an unforgettable journey about identity, choices, and the way in which we all struggle to accept our true selves. In gritty, clear prose, Dark Dude captures New York City in the 1960s—violent, decaying, slouching away from the American dream—and brings to life a character who has no choice but to head out west in search of something better.Rico didn’t say good-bye. He didn’t leave a phone number. And he didn’t plan on coming back—ever. In the Midwest, Rico could blend in, his light hair and lighter skin disguising his background. He would no longer be the “dark dude,” the punching bag for the whole neighborhood. Trading Harlem for Wisconsin, though, means giving up on a big part of his identity. And when Rico no longer has to prove that he’s Latino, he almost stops being one. Except that he can never have an ordinary white kid’s life, because there are some things that can’t be left behind, things that will follow you a thousand miles away. When Rico discovers that picket-fenced apple-pie people can be just as violent and judgmental as the neighbors he left behind, he is forced to swallow an uncomfortable truth: no longer an outsider by his appearance, Rico is still an outsider.

About Oscar Hijuelos

Oscar Hijuelos (1951–2013) was a recipient of the Pulitzer Prize, the Rome Prize, and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. He was also a finalist for the National Book Award. He was the son of Cuban immigrants and was the first Latino winner of the Pulitzer Prize when his book The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love won in 1990 for best fiction. His works have been translated into forty languages. 

About Armando Durán

Armando Durán has appeared in films, television, and regional theaters throughout the West Coast. For the last decade he has been a member of the resident acting company at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. In 2009 he was named by AudioFile as Best Voice in Biography and History for his narration of Che Guevara. A native Californian, he divides his time between Los Angeles and Ashland, Oregon.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Rose

Summary: Rico Fuentes is anything but a ¨dark dude," his light skin and blonde hair separate him from the rest of his dark-skinned Cuban family. He is constantly beat up and bullied for being ¨white" even though he is actually Cuban. High school is tough for him and dealing with his best friend, Jimm......more

Goodreads review by Pete

I feel like I am sitting talking to a friend in a living room when I read the works of Mr. Hijuelos and I'm so sad that he died!......more


Quotes

“[The] themes are classic—alienation, the search for identity—but his approach is pure Hijuelos: Cuban-American, musical and very, very funny…the inevitability of the conclusion doesn’t matter: it’s the smooth, jazzy flow of the narration, the slides between Rico’s rootlessness and the book’s strong sense of place that count.” Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“[Hijuelos] proves himself to be a powerful, adept storyteller for teens…Frank, gritty, vibrant, and wholly absorbing, Rico’s story will hold teens with its celebration of friendship and its fundamental questions about life purpose, family responsibility, and the profound ways that experience shapes identity.” Booklist (starred review)

“With parallels to Huck Finn’s journey, Rico’s story of self-discovery is skillfully chronicled by Armando Durán, whose ease with accents is noteworthy. He seamlessly delivers the many Spanish phrases interspersed throughout the text and conveys Rico’s sense of alienation and bewilderment when he experiences injustice and random violence in the rural Midwestern community.” AudioFile


Awards

  • ALA Best Book for Young Adults
  • Indie Next List
  • International Latino Book Award
  • New York Public Library Book for Teens
  • Los Angeles Times Book Prize