Autobiography of a Brown Buffalo

Rating:
Summary: A counter culture Chicano's struggle to find his identity.
Review: Acosta's Autobiography of a Brown Buffalo is a journey through the most desperate six months of his life which happen to be right in the middle of the psychadelic "drop-out" sixties. This is the story of a man whose pain is made real, whose roots are in question, and whose society seems fragmented.

We travel with him from town to town from San Francisco to Mexico in all sorts of environments. In each town he is confronted by another contact zone filled with racism, surrealism and rootlessness.

Acosta is brutally honest with himself. He calls himself the Brown Buffalo. Him and his people, killed not out of necessity but for excess. Their skins became coats and their heads were mounted on walls. They were a people used, abused and driven from their lands.Acosta ends his book where his life actually begins as Zeta, a leader to the Chicano people, the Brown Buffalos.

Rating:
Summary: A counter culture Chicano's struggle to find his identity.
Review: Acosta's Autobiography of a Brown Buffalo is a journey through the most desperate six months of his life which happen to be right in the middle of the psychadelic "drop-out" sixties. This is the story of a man whose pain is made real, whose roots are in question, and whose society seems fragmented.

We travel with him from town to town from San Francisco to Mexico in all sorts of environments. In each town he is confronted by another contact zone filled with racism, surrealism and rootlessness.

Acosta is brutally honest with himself. He calls himself the Brown Buffalo. Him and his people, killed not out of necessity but for excess. Their skins became coats and their heads were mounted on walls. They were a people used, abused and driven from their lands. Acosta ends his book where his life actually begins as Zeta, a leader to the Chicano people, the Brown Buffalos.

Rating:
Summary: A SUPRISING TREASURE
Review: Autobiography of a Brown Buffalo is a powerful book that takes the reader on Acosta's unique journey from the brown and beaten to the brown and bruised. He is a magnificent story teller and it is shines a lot of light on the struggles of the non white in this country. The writting stands alone from his fellow gonzo HST, and is equally refreshing and challenging.

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Summary: Read this and watch Fear and Loathing in Vegas again
Review: By reading this book before watching the movie, you will see what Dr. Gonzo's life was like right before he decides to become a lawyer. If you have ever felt alienated by American ideals, regardless of your race, you will relate to this book. Acosta's writing is good and he does a great job of describing what the character is feeling when he encounters life, drugs, and ulcers.

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Summary: Good saga from a good writer
Review: I heard about Oscar'Zeta' Acosta basically from reading Hunter S. Thompson's book but became quickly fascinated by Dr. Gonzo and wanted to know more about him. I was pleased to find out he had also written some books and was even more pleased to find out he was(is?) a very good writer. Truly an inspiration to anyone who has ever felt their identity as an american is something that they have had to come to grips with. Apart from that serious subtext, it also a very entertaining and amusing story that rolls along, introducing some interesting and memorable characters and situations. A passionate human being wrote this book and it is filled with all the honesty and humanity of someone bearing his soul to achieve a greater sense of genuine self which for Oscar Acosta means being "A Brown Buffalo"

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Summary: A good story at heart
Review: It is easy to dismiss this book. The hallucinations and drug-induced rants become a little exaggerated and tedious. Although, his friend and partner in crime, Hunter S. Thompson, would detail similar bizarre experiences in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, their intent seemed different. Whereas HST played with fantasy in social satire as a form of comic relief, OZA seems to want you to believe it to be fact...or at least for you to trust that he believed it.
With that said, the story is one of the most self-deprecating, odd, and entertaining autobiographies I have ever read. It can easily stand alone as study of a Mexican-American struggle for the American Dream, as well as companion book to Hunter S. Thompson enthusiasts. Regardless of your intent on picking this book up, OZA will amuse, disgust, and surprise you...making this a worthwhile read.

On a sidenote: This book truly makes you wonder, when HST and OZA joined up, who influenced who more.

Rating:
Summary: Finding Gonzo
Review: Once one gets past the multiple occurences of multi-hued vomit and the daily self-love in the shower... As autobiography, one would do well to read this with some skepticism; Acosta makes himself into an icon of the 60s and 70s, and less a faithful recorder of that time. However, the book can also function as a wonderful novel read in the tradition of pulp novels of the 70s such as Valley of the Dolls. The last chapter shifts from the searching bravado and life on the edge quality into a moving testimony of who Acosta is, and what he is. The book has become one of the important books in the growing recognition of Chicano literature, and Oscar's papers are in a collection open to the public at the University of California. There's a 60 minute videotape of him, 10 of which are Acosta reading from this book. I wonder if his virtual voice is as wild and rich as the voice of the author in print?

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Summary: wallowing in the trough of excess
Review: Once one gets past the multiple occurences of multi-hued vomit and the daily self-love in the shower... As autobiography, one would do well to read this with some skepticism; Acosta makes himself into an icon of the 60s and 70s, and less a faithful recorder of that time. However, the book can also function as a wonderful novel read in the tradition of pulp novels of the 70s such as Valley of the Dolls. The last chapter shifts from the searching bravado and life on the edge quality into a moving testimony of who Acosta is, and what he is. The book has become one of the important books in the growing recognition of Chicano literature, and Oscar's papers are in a collection open to the public at the University of California. There's a 60 minute videotape of him, 10 of which are Acosta reading from this book. I wonder if his virtual voice is as wild and rich as the voice of the author in print?

Rating:
Summary: Overhyped, Formless And Dull
Review: Strong writing in places, but Acosta's style is sometimes hard to follow. Overall, I found the book to be meandering, formless, and kind of dull. The "Chicano in search of his identity" stuff is pure marketing hype. "A Chicano in search of beer, chicks and drugs" would be more like it--but there isn't much of that here, either, in case you're looking for a story of epic debauchery by Hunter Thompson's Samoan attorney. Acosta comes off as a fairly conservative character--he was a Christian missionary in Panama at one time--and basically apolitical at this point in his life. He wanders around the country, goes to bars, tries peyote, smokes some weed, drinks a lot of beer, but it's all pretty low key and, personally, I never thought this kind of thing was very interesting to begin with. Still, Acosta is a fairly sympathetic character and he's a better writer than most. This isn't a bad book, but it isn't that great, either--read Hunter Thompson instead

Rating:
Summary: A superb book
Review: This book is one of the most memorable I have read in many years. Oscar lived an incredible life, and his ability to render it in this book is consistently amazing. I've read this book about three times, and I reflect on the trajectory of Oscar's life often.