SuitabookDark Dude
Oscar Hijuelos
- Reading
- Before reading, discuss whether the reader wants a book containing explicit adult material and harsh social circumstances. During reading, pause after intense scenes and separate characters’ actions from the book’s treatment of them.
- Themes
- Belonging and identity: Rico is a pale-skinned Cuban American teenager who feels caught between cultures; in Wisconsin he blends in more visibly but feels less connected to being Latino. The story examines identity as complicated by appearance, place and other people’s expectations, without presenting relocation as a complete solution.
- Prejudice and community: Rico encounters exclusion and violence, while the apparently wholesome Wisconsin community also contains violent and judgemental people. The book presents prejudice and exclusion as fictional events and themes; the broader narrative treatment is not fully established here.
- Addiction and difficult choices: Jimmy is described as becoming involved with an insidious habit, while the book includes drug use, selling and a detailed heroin-injection scene. The book presents competing or mixed signals about this.
- Worth knowing
- Content needing attention includes frequent strong language, sexual references and situations, drug use including heroin injection, drinking and smoking, domestic mistreatment, serious beatings, a shooting and other disturbing harm.