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: 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: 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: 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: 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.
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