Rating: 
Summary: a good read
Review: i liked this book. it's sort of a meditation on human imperfection, through the lense of one man's life.Best, about The Last Discovery of America, is its ability to metaphorically discuss taboo-ey topics without falling into the usual PC jargen-filled analyses of the problems. If more people had the quiet, contemplative, fatalistic view which the author does, maybe there would be less conflict in the world. Or maybe not. Well worth reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Where's the meat????
Review: I was excited to get this book after listening to Mr. Rodriquez on NPR. But as too often happens, the book makes most of its points by referring to people, places, literary texts, etc. that are not familiar to a normal person with a college education in something other than literature. This book was obviously written to impress ideas on the elite, whether educationally, politically, or otherwise. If you are willing to trudge through a very lyrical, almost poetic writing style, there are some very good stories and points to be made. But reading this book just wore me out. I think if only the relevent text had been printed, it would have been long enough for an editorial, not a book.
Rating: 
Summary: Brown as A Racial Category -- Not according to Rodrigez
Review: Richard Rodrigues provides an excellent case on the creation of a somewhat mythical category of race that has come into common usage. While race is generally reserved for the major blood lines associated with the continents of the world, here in the United States we have made a complete mish-mash of our categorizations of race and ethnicity. Anyone who has recently filled out a form has likely been surveyed on the Race. We are provided with a check list. It appears to work it's way out of a very "white" (or more properly Caucasian" world-view. While we represent ourselves to be a melting pot and were founded on the principles of equality and freedom, we memers of the U.S. society too often responsible for efforts to continue to divide and categorize. Richard Rodriguez offers a clear argument on the fictive notions of "brown" and "latino" and uses his own personal life examples to illustrate his case. I have found Rodriguez writing to be much more engaging in his past two works. While he has always had a tendency to try to sound overly erudite and this has been an onstacle to enjoying his intelligent observations and beliefs about life, I found the writing in Brown to be too often strained with the "intellectualizations" that we often associate with tedious academic texts. I encourage Richard Rodriguez to allow his writing to stand on its own without the artifice of the scholarly tone. More than in his previous works, I found this to be a major distraction to his writing. Mr. Rodriguez is a brilliant man who is well-educated and articulate. He is also a man of passion and controversy. His best writing shines through the personal stories he tells. A very important contribution to the ongoing debates we continue to wage on cultures, race and ethnicity. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: We are all shades of brown
Review: Richard Rodriguez has explained why deviding people into races based on five colors, black, brown, yellow, red and white is silly, far better than I ever have. I have been looking forward to a time when race identity is no longer important. Rodriquez wold not have called the lady who won an Oscar for best actress,black or "of color." She looks light brown like most of humanity. I do not like being identified with one of the five colors. If my ancestory is of intrest it is a private matter to be discussed with people who have a real interest in me. Thank you, Mr. Rodriquez for saying the simple truth so elequantly.
Rating: 
Summary: Brown Fluff
Review: Richard Rodriguez' "Brown" clearly showcases his mastery of the essay form as well as a lack of substance that makes it an ultimately unsatisfying read. In his eagerness to validate the Latino experience this book deteriorates all too often into a name-dropping frenzy when it comes to American and European writers. It is fascinating how Rodriguez fails to mention the works of other Latino writers in what can only be seen as his effort to elevate himself above them in a most self-serving way. The book contains a number of interesting insights, but it could stand a lot of editing and would probably have been better issued as a magazine article. It's brown fluff that tries to set Rodriguez up as the major interpretor of the Latino experience by way of brown-nosing white intellectuals. Rodriguez's "Brown" has an bitter aroma that combines individual self-promotion with group deprecation. I was deeply disappointed, considering all the hype it has received in the white media.
Rating:
Summary: It's A Brown World
Review: Richard Rodriguez's Brown is a stream of consciousness journey through brown as metaphor for the very mixed world we are headed towards. As a man of mixed culture [gay, Catholic, American, Mexican descent, indian, writer, etc.], Rodriguez is the perfect person to take us on this brown journey. I know of Rodriguez's writings from the Sunday Los Angeles Times and I read this book on the strength of the newspaper pieces. It was a thought provoking read that had my head swirling and I only got bogged down in chapter 2. Be ready to hit the dictionary and the encyclopedia. I live in a brown neighborhood in Whittier, California, I teach at a brown high school in La Habra, California, and even though my students would label me Anglo [I have reddish hair and spotted skin if anyone cares], given my very eclectic upbringing and interesting ancestry, I hope that I fit in well to the brown world around me. I recommend that you read this book and let Richard Rodriguez get into your head.
Rating:
Summary: Great. Thought-provoking.
Review: Rodriguez is a San Francisco-based writer who was asked to write a book about being Hispanic in America. I doubt this was the book that the publisher had in mind when they asked. Rodriguez is a political maverick whose thesis is that America is becoming "Brown" - a mixture of Anglo, Hispanic, Black, Asian and whatever else you want to throw in. America can embrace this future (and probably will) or it can reject it and deny the reality that surrounds us all (and does it matter if you deny reality - it is still there).
I first heard of Rodriguez on C-Span. He was giving a speech at the Texas Book Fair created by Laura Bush. His speech was truly wonderful and I just had to find his book. I could go into detail on his observations, but you would much prefer if you would read it the way he put them in his book - his writing style is so fluid that he sneaks major concepts into your thoughts before you even realize that they are there. I seriously enjoyed this book - at the risk of sounding like the back of a book cover - here are some thoughts that crossed my mind while reading it - important, poignant, personal and filled with insights.
Rating:
Summary: Brown Lightnin'
Review: Strking a white guy from Montana living in the purgatory of the outlands of the West, this book understates its own goals - as it should. And overfulfills its promise. It is shewd, literate, thoughful, and filled with bright insights into our common condition. Surprise and delight somwhere on every page. A dead-on counter to the prevailing post-civil rights race consiousness that prevails in the United States. Marred only by occasional obscurity of reference, and ponderous paragraph. In another 500 years, we will all be medium brown, and will have to find something else to fight about.
Rating: 
Summary: "You're the talker, huh?
Review: That talk was OK. (At the Chicago Public Library, 5/9/2002.)
But the next time work on my right leg. It's the short one.
This great Brown intellectual chuckles all the way to the bank. En otras palabras, "a otro perro con eso hueso!"
Rating:
Summary: insightful
Review: This memoir reminds me of many of the ideals as in other books like Poetry like Bread, etc.... Interestingly enough in this memoir there were many thoughts that were valid and everlasting. This memoir's style reminded me of Edward Al-Kharrat's Alexandria's Girls. The fact that you can pick it up and put it down and still not be lost is present. I found this book in the Latino studies section. As Rodriguez does say that books are often labeled as are people. His book although talks a lot about race, brown vs. black or white, etc.... he also talks generally about American, Canadian, Mexican and other cultures. Also he talks about religion, etc... This is interesting to explore throughout the memoir. The many references were hard to follow, but inspiring. The memoir is multifarious in terms of allusions. Sometimes I felt that Rodriquez was trying to overdo it. He had to show how well rounded he was by making a myriad of electic references and using a lot of literary terms that were far out there.
Who is his audience? One finds his memori in the Latino cultural section.... If I am reading literature from that section, I am not trying to stick up for "brown" people and see how smart they are by reading how intellectual Rodriguez is! The book was hard to follow in the beginning with the references, but for me it really picked up and was hard to put down before the Hispanic chapter. The ending made you think about it being a semi-dream, the whole memoir...but that is a bit odd...
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