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Summary: This is a great book!
Review: The reason I like this book is because it never ceases to have something exciting going on. The drugs, violence, and gang activity make this book wonderful. My favorite quote from the book is, "I did it because I love you." If you read the book you'll understand why I say it's a good quote. You will get a shock when you see how the book starts to change in the middle and the whole plot has changed by the end. The characters become something totally unexpected. All in all, I think you will read this book and not be able to put it down.
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Summary: On the REAL
Review: I cannot write objectively about this work because I grew up in the same hoods and am now proud to call Mr. Rodriguez my friend. What can you say about a work that rips away the falsity of this government, this facade of humanity that masks its bigotry in values such as "the bottom line" and "social darwinism"? Mr. Rodriguez's great achievement lies in being real -- perhaps an oversimplification, but look around you. In a world where we're taught that we aren't skinny enough, our teeth aren't white enough, we don't smell fresh enough, and we have to drive an SUV or be banished to the outer siberia of an economy car... in the midst of all that comes sober words. Heartfelt words. A lyricism born in flame, forged in battle, cooled in the triumph of the mind. To say that ALWAYS RUNNING is "just a book" is like saying that UN CHIEN ANDALOU is "just a film." And, ALWAYS RUNNING reminds me of Breton's assessment of Cesaire, which is quite applicable to Mr. Rodriguez: "He bears that unmistakable major tone that distinguishes great from lesser poets."
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Summary: A must read - An Urban Classic
Review: A must read autobiography written by Luis J. Rodriguez who was once involved in the gang life of Los Angeles. Teachers, politicians, racist brutal police officers, and an unforgiving society that despised immigrants helped create the explosive vortex that gave birth to La Vida Loca. Luis Rodriguez fought his way out of La Vida Loca by the help, sweat, blood; and sacrifice of victims before him and positive role models that slowly chipped away at the negative walls that imprisoned him. His struggles for basic human rights such as: education, housing, and employment helped paved a road for others to follow. This autobiography contains honest brutal descriptions of gang initiations, drug hazes, parties with homeboys and "rucas", gang wars, police brutality, first love, 60's style walk outs, marches and struggles fought against the educational school system. His writing is poetic, urban, vibrant, and full of the unmerciful urgency that consumes the lives of the young people in the barrio. An explosive whirlwind ride that keeps turning and dipping with every page. Luis is a Vato Loco, a painter, a leader and an exceptional writer who finally is able to give his community a voice. I have read this book five times and each time it has managed to move and touch me.... An urban classic.
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Summary: An autobiography that reads like an action story
Review: "Always Running" is an autobiography about Luis Rodriguez's life in Los Angeles. The book starts out when Rodriguez's family migrates to the U.S. from Mexico. Luis's father was a licensed teacher in Mexico, but due to the lack of job opportunities the family had to go to the U.S. in search of a better life. The story gets really interesting when it talks about Luis's childhood. When Luis started elementary school, he was an outcast because he did not know English fluently. That is when Luis started to hate school. It didn't get any better in middle school, because that's when he started getting involved with gangs. After Luis finally got out of middle school, he started high school. In high school Luis dropped out after his sophomore year. After many trials and tribulations, Luis finds out that the gang life isn't the life for him. When Luis was about seventeen years old he decided that he needed to graduate high school, so he went back. While at school Luis had got involved with a Chicano group that organized a walkout due to the fact that the school had no Chicano history classes and teachers. Through these positive acts, Luis turns his life around and realized that the streets aren't anything but trouble. This book is a very entertaining read; it goes by really fast and smoothly. Rodriguez tells his life story in a manner that reads like an action story. The best part of the book has to be the use of slang and terminology; they give readers and authentic feel, unlike a lot of other authors who often try but fail. People who aren't familiar with the Hispanic culture and the gang lifestyle will probably feel confused at first, but by the time they are into a couple of chapters they will grasp what is trying to be said.
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Summary: Always Running
Review: Always Running , by Luis Rodriguez is a very inspirational novel, I really enjoyed reading it. It is about a young man named Luis, how he lived with his family, in poverty and a rough childhood in East Los Angeles. His parents tried to provide the family with a good living environment, but it wasn't working out. Luis decided to join a gang and it gave him a sense of support and awareness. At one point, he thinks that the whole world revolves around his universe. Towards the end of the novel, he thought that joining a gang was a bad idea and there were teachers that helped him. Eventually, he got out of the gang and he realized the difference between right and wrong. I would really recommend this novel to someone to read.
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Summary: Great book!
Review: This is the first book I've been able to finish in the past few years. It tells the story of a Mexican-American guy caught up in a life of crime. It's a bit steamy in parts so I wouldn't recommend it to anybody's grandma but it's pretty captivating.
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Summary: Great book!
Review: The book Always Running touches on a lot of hard topics such as sex, drugs, racism, and police brutality. A man who was in a when he was young wrote this book to get his son out of a gang. This book is very believable because it really happened really happened to the author. I think this was a great book but I wouldn't recommend it to people who mind graphic scenes about sex, drugs, and violence.This book is really well written you can see everything that's going on. He does a very good job of letting you see what's going on in the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Always running
Review: I read Always Running by Luis J. Rodriguez. Rodriguez wrote an autobigraphy about his life growing up in LA. Always Running has an inclusion of Spanish and a journal format. Which, I think, makes the autobiography really enjoyable to read. The inclusion of Spanish gives you a feel for the culture Rodriguez lived in. With him and all his friends being Mexican, you see how they talked to each other and the different Mexican related clubs they were in during high school. It really gives you a good feel for Rodriguez's life. Rodriguez uses a journal format to write his autobiography. It makes the autobiography interesting to read. And how he explains about everything he did. But, at the same time he never went into great depth about any one thing and that was a limitation of the novel. The inclusion of Spanish and journal format were just a few good things about this book. It was very well written and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to get a new view on life in LA.
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Summary: Pretty good book!
Review: I read Always Running by Luis Rodriguez and i thought it was very good. This book really lives up to its La Vida Loca title. It depicts gang life in the 1970's in Los Angeles pretty accurately. I thought that it was very cool that Rodriguez turned an action book like that into an actual autobiography about himself. Rodriguez was in a gang and he wrote this book because he wants to tell everyone what it's like to be in a gang and to try and discourage that idea. I think this book is a very good autobiography - because it's not boring and it packs a strong message at the same time. Never ever join a gang and if you do, you will pay dearly for it by means of life in prison or losing a friend. Several characters died in the book (20+) and you can bet how their friends felt.
Rating:
Summary: Always Running
Review: Always Running is the story of one man's journey through the gang infested strets of Eastern L.A. I really enjoeyed the book; it was frighteningly realistic (the author writes it exactly how he remembersit, even using Spanish when necesary), in the way he described the violence that tok place, the astonishing frequency of drug use, the segregation between the Mexicans and the Whites. As the story progesses, Luis realizes he is taking the wrong path in life. He fights to get off the road he is taking, and attempts to find a good education. In this way it is very compelling, in how the character can realize the errors in his ways after he's been in the middle of it for so long, and stand up to it, fight it and finaly defeat it. The book does have it's downfalls, however...it became somewhat annoying having to frequently look to the back of the book for the Spanish-English dictionary. But more importantly, the books major limitation was it's tendency to get deep into a particular story, cut off, and go somewhere entirely new. I'm not quite sure why the author did this, maybe to keep us guessing, or maybe he doesn't want us to know everything that happened. I find the latter very unlikely, however, because he describes almost everything that happens, makng this a very vivid autobiography. This book will hopefully reach out to the readers that I think it is most aimed at, which is the youth of today that will make the decision whether or not these gangs wil continue, or put an end to gangs for the next generation.
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