

Dark Dude
Author: Oscar Hijuelos
Narrator: Armando Durán
Unabridged: 7 hr 31 min
Format: Digital Audiobook Download
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
Published: 09/16/2008
Categories: Children's Fiction, Children's Social Themes
Author: Oscar Hijuelos
Narrator: Armando Durán
Unabridged: 7 hr 31 min
Format: Digital Audiobook Download
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
Published: 09/16/2008
Categories: Children's Fiction, Children's Social Themes
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.
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.
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
“[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