Rating: 
Summary: always running
Review: I think this book is well written. It tells a lot of truth about what the life is about, but i feel that rodriuez is portrayed as courageous for escaping the street life when he only left the life because he was a leva.
Rating: 
Summary: Stop running.
Review: This book is extraordinarily catching.I read it for an English class, and am glad I did. It opens the readers eyes to another world that only one who has lived it can tell of. A must read for anyone who loves poetic literature.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting subject matter but short on insight
Review: Luis Rodriguez's autobiographical account of his childhood in East Los Angeles presents an opportunity for the reader to gain valuable knowledge and insight into a culture/community that is completely foreign to many people. While the book relates numerous accounts of gang activity, sexual encounters, and drug use, it often fails to explain the emotional and psychological framework in which these events occur. As Rodriguez's writing style is choppy, the book, at times, reads like a laundry list of a child's escapades and exploits, instead of a novel that is attempting to promote social change.Nevertheless, the subject matter is extraordinarily interesting and the book is definitely worth reading. Luis Rodriguez's story is an incredible account of the perseverance of the human spirit against great adversity. Just don't expect to come away from the novel with a much greater understanding of gang mentality than you can get from reading the newspaper.
Rating: 
Summary: Gritty and compelling!
Review: Luis Rodriguez' autobiography should be required reading in every high school in America. No exceptions. I finished it today, shed some tears, and said, "wow." Mr. Rodriguez is to be applauded and respected for his candid and often heartbreaking review of his early years; he didn't have to share this story with us, but he chose to and in doing so, opened the eyes of many people, I'm sure, who have no idea what barrio life is like. This is real, it's raw, and it's sad. Teens could learn so much from reading this book - #1 thing being that you can rise above whatever is holding you down, and #2 to learn about people who have to fight with everything they've got just to survive day to day. I highly recommend this gritty account of Mr. Rodriguez' early life.
Rating:
Summary: OMG THE BEST BOOK EVER...
Review: THIS BOOK TELLS THE TRUTH OF THE STREETS, EXCELLENT EXCELLENT EXCELLENT!!!!!!!!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Complete Poo
Review: The book Always Running was a poorly written piece of literature that is only about sex, drugs, and guns. While I sympathize with Luis Rodriguez, I do feel that this book could have been a little less graphic especially with certain scenes such as when Luis is touching a girl's vagina while she is having her period. This made me ill. I can now see why this book was banned by many schools. Presently though, being a liberal, I cannot in good conscience say that I myself would ban this book. My own opinion is not that of others and if this book is what the young people today look to for guidance then our society is going to hell in a hand basket. Politically this book does have advice for young revolutionaries by giving a firsthand account of how non-violent protest can get the job done. The amount of drugs that were present in this book alarmed me but I must give Mr. Rodriguez credit that he was honest enough to admit his use of drugs.
Rating:
Summary: Quite possibly the best book I have ever read!
Review: I had to read this book for an English class a few years ago, and it was probably the best book I have ever read. Rodriguez's stories are painfully honest. Although I read in one review of this book that the book was anti-american, I must call attention to a preface in the book that says that the majority of the stories were written during a few years of his youth. He is telling the stories from a 15-year old's point of view. I don't think that a gang member is likely to think that police would be his friends, and I think that it was entirely possible that he was a victimized latino. Civil rights and attitudes were not at all like they are today.
Rodriquez's book takes place in the 1960's, and, as we know, was the height of civil disobedience!
Anyway, I think that this book is great because it is very real, and a lot of people would be able to identify with it, not only because of the gang situation, but because of the feelings and attitudes portrayed in the book.
Rating:
Summary: realistic and uplifting
Review: Luis Rodriguez is able to draw a vivid and realistic picture of ganglife in east la. not only that, he proves that there is another way. for me, this was one of the first books that i read on my own and i am glad. it is a classic chicano literature that really speaks to the streets. the book is filled with the passion of east los angeles and had me reading for hours. all in all it is an accurate portrayal of ganglife in east la and i recommend this for anyone who understands what it is like growing up poor, or for anyone who would like to try to understand.
Rating:
Summary: It's About Transcending
Review: When someone makes charges of "blaming" his environment on Luis Rodriguez, I can only wonder what book they were reading and what kind of background this person has in order to level such a charge. First, there can be no doubt that conditions that exist in such areas as East LA and surrounding areas for those of Mexican heritage aren't even comparable to those in, say, Beverly Hills. So, "taking responsibility "for one's own actions only goes so far. Things aren't ëqual "much less "fair" in America, and this is evident. Just look at how we have a privileged person in the White House. Second, and related, Rodriguez does nothing of the sort in terms of äbsolving himself because of the conditions in his youth. It's interesting that instead of seeing Rodriguez's story as one of transcendence, this reader instead focuses on a negative, conservative viewpoint, rather than the positive, very human story of transending. It all depends upon what one's reference points are. Stories such as Rodriguez's and Piri Thomas's, Malcolm's, Claude Brown's... are inspirational. They point the way for others in similar situations and show that with the help and attention of others in the community, young people in bad situations can go far, much further than those with narrow minds who sit back and see negativity in transcendent examples.
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Summary: Race as an Excuse for Failure?
Review: No doubt Rodriguez had a tough life, but in blaming all his problems on police officers and school teachers he has absolved himself of any personal responsibility for his own life. He has allowed his race to become not just what he is, but who he is, to the extent that he believes that being Mexican is the reason he did poorly in school, the reason his brother was violent, the reason that he ended up in jail repeatedly, etc. Maybe all this had more to do with the fact that his mother used physical means of disciplining her children, that his father had 8 children by 4 different women, or that he crossed the border multiple times, never settling long enough to establish good study habits or become involed in after school activities. His family was also evicted from their homes many times beacuse they were poor and Latino. Could it have been because they failed to pay the rent? Or beacuse they squeezed 11 people into a 2 bedroom house? Or because on one occassion his sister attacked her husband with a nail file, splattering blood all over the walls and putting her husband in an ambulance? Of course not! They were evicted for being Mexican. This "poor-victimized-Latino-me" perspective has also resulted in an incredibly anti-American, anti-White outlook. He brags of how he and his friends harassed white kids on their way to a football game, admittedly out of boredom or lack of anything else to do. He then claimed that racism is what made the police arrest him and his friends, while sending the white kids home. Interesting choice of activities. Maybe he and his friends would have benefitted more by joining their school's football team insteaded of assulting the kids who did play or who supported their school's team. He was crude, admitting to putting snot and urine in the food of cranky customers at the restaurant where he worked as a bus boy. There is no excuse for this, no matter how rude that customer may have been. Rodriguez did this repeatedly to many restaurant patrons, claiming again that he was treated like a second hand person because of his race. Could it have been because he was working a second hand job? Anyone who has ever worked in a minumun wage job (myself included) knows that patons will often take their anger out on you, sometime simplly because they themselves are having a bad day. Rodriguez's passive-agressive way of dealing with these people hardly makes me feel bad for him.
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