Rating: 
Summary: America through a glass darkly
Review: 5 STARS. Mr. Rodriguez is an excellent social essayist of America's many converging streams.I have just finished reading Richard Rodriguez's new book "Brown: The Last Discovery of America" and I am contemplating how long I should wait before beginning it again. Here is a writer worth many readings. His subject and approach invite numerous visits, viewings from varied moods and perspectives. In this (his third book) Mr. Rodrigez's takes as his theme the notion of brown as intermingled, mixed, impure and argues that it is the inevitable conclusion of America. Along the way he gives us his reading (a brown reading?) of Richard Nixon, Alexis de Tocqueville, Ben Franklin, the Latin American migration, the persistance of Puritanism, sexual politics, cubism, Melcolm X, Catholism, public space, and the American insistance on authenticy against its impulse for the theatrical. Many of these are themes Mr. Rodriguez has covered before. Here he revisits some familiar themes through the lense of brownness, turning them over by a different light, holding them up to a different horizon. He is a writer of a fugue like repetition, striking humor in one note and discomfort in the next, leaving the reader to follow the argument off the page. He is a writer who does not condescend to his readers with trite resolutions or comforting reassurances. His style is personal and political, contemplative and engaging. He is an excellent stylist of a kind rarely seen on bookshelves today. This is not an easy read. Don't buy this book if you're looking for a quick and fun read. It is a provocative and perplexing tune Mr. Rodriguez carries. He points in directions that he leaves uncharted, exposes personal wounds that he leaves unmended. He invites us into an uncomfortable space of hanging questions. Thoses who have read Mr. Rodrigez before will probably enjoy this newest work (assuming you enjoyed his other work). New readers may find him challanging (some friends have found his style dense or obscure). But if you are loking for an intelligent and engaging converstaion on the meaning of what America is becoming and why undermining of America's very notion of race is inevitable, then I strongly urge you to read this terrific book. "Reader, meet Mr. Rodriguez. Mr. Rodriguez, your interlocutor." Moises Hernandez ...
Rating: 
Summary: What. A. Bore.
Review: A self-indulgent, multi-syllabic, blathering bore.
I was tremendously disappointed, and couldn't stay interested enough to get through the first half. It seemed to be a rambling thesis in which every sentence begins with I. If Rodriguez were a capitivating character it might have worked, but I was unable to care about him or his alienation.
I predict this will be required reading for some unfortunate cultural anthropology graduate students, and they will dread every page, it is that kind of book.
Rating:
Summary: What. A. Bore.
Review: A self-indulgent, multi-syllabic, blathering bore.
I was tremendously disappointed, and couldn't stay interested enough to get through the first half. It seemed to be a rambling thesis in which every sentence begins with I. If Rodriguez were a capitivating character it might have worked, but I was unable to care about him or his alienation.
I predict this will be required reading for some unfortunate cultural anthropology graduate students, and they will dread every page, it is that kind of book.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing.
Review: After reading some very intriguing interviews, I was excited to read "Brown." The subject fascinates me. Unfortunately, I got the sense that Rodriguez, brilliant as he may be, has the attention span of a sparrow. He interrupts himself in mid-thought, flitting from one half-expressed idea to another and then falling back on a personal anecdote. Invariably, just as I thought he was about to get into some interesting territory he would fade off, seemingly forgetting his place. Frustrating - I'd love to read a similar book written by someone more coherent.
Rating:
Summary: The Great American Melded Pot
Review: Anyone that things that race relations as an issue has fallen by the wayside or is somehow is a moot point will be enlightened by the eloquent, poetic point of view brought forth by Richard Rodriguez' latest book. Rodriguez does not forgo the often oversimplistic Black-White issue but suggests that they were always a hybrid issue of 'Brown'. America as a dynamic hotbed of ever-Westward expansion; and once the West was won of expansion of a more global nature. Selling the 'American Dream' in an effort to conquer and re-conquer in a never-ending quest for collective conciousness. Rodriguez suggests that the issue of race is not a physical one, but rather how one responds to this conciousness brought about by assimilation. His anecdotes brings things down to a very personal level without which 'Brown' would come across as speculative and academic. Rodriguez paces things so well and his words are so graceful that one is moved not only by his observations and experiences, but also their self-awareness in a historical context.
Rating:
Summary: The Great American Melded Pot
Review: Anyone that things that race relations as an issue has fallen by the wayside or is somehow is a moot point will be enlightened by the eloquent, poetic point of view brought forth by Richard Rodriguez' latest book. Rodriguez does not forgo the often oversimplistic Black-White issue but suggests that they were always a hybrid issue of 'Brown'. America as a dynamic hotbed of ever-Westward expansion; and once the West was won of expansion of a more global nature. Selling the 'American Dream' in an effort to conquer and re-conquer in a never-ending quest for collective conciousness. Rodriguez suggests that the issue of race is not a physical one, but rather how one responds to this conciousness brought about by assimilation. His anecdotes brings things down to a very personal level without which 'Brown' would come across as speculative and academic. Rodriguez paces things so well and his words are so graceful that one is moved not only by his observations and experiences, but also their self-awareness in a historical context.
Rating: 
Summary: We're all Brown
Review: As the child of a bi-cultural marriage, I too am brown, although I'm black. I have often been disturbed by the American tendency to believe in absolute categories, and to assume that certain behaviors, opinions and tastes naturally accompany these categories. For them I am an anomaly; for me they are too. It is heartening to hear a voice speaking directly to America's mixed heritage and confronting her color/caste assumptions. Though Mr. Rodriguez meanders more than usual this time around, the final destination is worth it.
Rating:
Summary: We're all Brown
Review: As the child of a West African father and Black American mother I too am brown, although I'm black. I have often been disturbed by the American tendency to believe in absolute categories, and to assume that certain behaviors, opinions and tastes naturally accompany these categories. For them I am an anomaly, for me they are too. It is heartening to hear a voice speaking directly to America's mixed heritage and confronting her color/caste assumptions. Though Mr. Rodriguez meanders more than usual this time around, the final destination is worth it.
Rating:
Summary: Another spokesperson for Brown People
Review: I am still trying to find out who made Rodriguez a spokesman for the Latino"s. Its people like Rodriguez who profess to know all there is to know about us as a people. In the process he completely disregards the diversity within our own communities. The danger that the Rodriguez and others like him is that his audience is mostly Anglo because Latinos know that Rodriguez is but one more that professes to speak for us. I think of Rodriguez more like Al Sharpton professing to speak for African/Americans. He at least has a few relative points to make in regards to knowing his subjuects. America has to realize that just like we didnt choose all the names that identify us a people, Spanish, Hispanic, Latinos. Rodriguez is just one more educated Brown man that maybe has some of White America believing he is THE guy that speaks for us... heres a hint... HE DOSENT speak for Latinos.
Rating:
Summary: GREAT
Review: I found this book to be monumental. Compared with the author's first book this one is more truthful and easier to read. Insight is not lacking, and it shows how culture is important for people to remain united in color and without.
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