Summary
A night out at a dance club, hoping to get a chance to dance with a girl, wishing he was cooler...it sounds like a typical night out for a seventeen year old boy. After Chuy compliments a guys on his yellow shoes, the guy stabs him three times and leaves him for death on a dirty bathroom floor. At this point, Chuy's ghost begins to roam around Fresno. He finds those whom he loved and others who loved him. In addition, Chuy finds other ghosts who he helps. On this journey, he finds out even more about himself and his family despite being dead.
Analysis
Chuy's story is one that reflects many different cultural markers indicative of the Mexican-American culture. One prominent marker is the language used throughout the book. By incorporating Spanish words throughout the text, Soto is able to convey a lot of culture without an overwhelming the reader. He is also able to do so without having to reference the glossary unless the readers want to. Example of this type of incorporation are: "What did you say to me, cabron?" "...me all macho..." "mocosos" "Chale!" Knowing Spanish, however, I did find that some words in the glossary in the back were not translated one-hundred percent correctly. I assume this would be for one of two reasons: 1. To tone down the language or 2. The words used in that region have slightly different meanings than the ones I'm used to.
There are many other mentions in the book that reference the Mexican-American culture. For example, "Chicano time" which means arriving late. This is a very common occurrence in Hispanic cultures. Being American, I kept arriving on time to events and finding the hosts completely surprised! There are also references to Mexican-American foods such as carne asada and chicharrones and songs such as Cielito Lindo.
While you can see the culture throughout the book, I did not notice any ethnocentrism, overloading or romanticism. While at one point Chuy and his father picked grapes for money, the owner of the farm was white with a Mexican wife. It's not uncommon to find Mexican workers in vineyards like that, so I didn't feel like it was a touristic approach or showing anglo superiority.
Review Excerpts
School Library Journal - This plethora of plot lines wafts across and past the landscape of a narrative as lacking in developed form as Chuy finds himself becoming. After a strong start, The Afterlife seems to become a series of brief images that drift off as though in a dream. Soto's simple and poetic language, leavened with Mexican Spanish with such care to context that the appended glossary is scarcely needed, is clear, but Chuy's ultimate destiny isn't.
Booklist - *Starred Review* Soto has remade Our Town into Fresno, California, and he not only paints the scenery brilliantly but also captures the pain that follows an early death. In many ways, this is as much a story about a hardscrabble place as it is about a boy who is murdered. Both pulse with life and will stay in memory.
Connections
Find more information at http://www.garysoto.com/.
Also look for other works by Gary Soto: http://www.garysoto.com/catalog.html
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