Buried Onions by Gary Soto

CITATION: Soto, G. (1997). Buried onions. Orlando: Harcourt, Inc.

IDENTIFYING #: ISBN 13: 9780152013332

CLASSIFICATION: FICTION

GENRE: REALISTIC FICTION

CALL #: FIC SOTO

RECOMMENDED AGE/INTEREST LEVEL: YOUNG ADULT

RATING:4

Annotation: 19 year-old Mexican-American Eddie tries to make his life better, but life gets in the way of life.

Summary: Eddie lives in Fresno, and now that his father and brother are dead, he's pretty much on his own. He wants to do the right thing, and raise himself up, but something always seems to get in the way, and Fresno is a tough place for a poor, Mexican-American male to stay out of trouble. Eddie feels that Fresno's a place where onions might be buried underground, making everyone cry. When his cousin, Jesus is stabbed to death, Jesus' best friend, Angel and his mother want Eddie to help find and kill the guy who did it. Eddie figures vengeance belongs to God and tries to stay out of trouble, but trouble finds him. His employer's car get's stolen while entrusted to Eddie, and his good friend Jose is stabbed because of him. Eddie eventually learns there's more to his cousin's death than he knew, and when he finds out who killed Jesus, he learns he may be next.

Notes: On the back of this book, it says it's written for ages 12 and up. My personal feeling is that it's better suited to older teens, though, because of its dark subject matter. This book is well written with authentic dialogue--English with a sprinkling of Spanish, and very realistic. Gary Soto shows how hard it is to be good when circumstances are pitted against you. The truths of this story are disturbing. You won't end this novel feeling happy, but you will end it thinking. If you appreciate an author who "keeps it real" and talks about how things are, rather than they way they should be, with this book, Gary Soto does just that.