Buried Onions

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Summary: Brown is a favorite target
Review: I think the book Buried Onions is a good one. I recommend this book to all teeagers. Gary Soto tells you what a Mexicano or Chicano have to live just because our skin is brown. I was raised in the town of Cicero and I know how living in the street is, I know that any day my life could be taken away. But, that is the risk I have to take when I am out there with my home boys. I also have to look out for the police because brown is one of their favorite targets to arrest or beat up. Life in my town is like Fresno. Some of the gangs are small, but there are some crazy home boys that just don't care if they take a life or two. Life is nothing easy, but you have to learn how to live it. Some times you have to throw down to get your respect, and sometimes you have to steal to survive, but that is life. Most of my home boys are drop outs and some didn't even start high school, but everybody chooses their own way of living. Some have jobs, but not careers. Some are professional thieves. I liked the way this book mixed Spanish and English together, that is the way I was raised and my homeboys, too. I liked that the book is written in realistic language. I liked the way the book ended. Sometimes that is the best thing to do, fly away with the wind.

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Summary: Buried Onions
Review: It's a sweltering summer and the streets of Fresno stink: like violence and onions. "This onion made us cry. Tears leapt from our eyelashes and stained our faces." Nineteen-year-old Eddie lives by himself in a decrepit apartment downtown where he is barely surviving the heat of the sun or his neighborhood. Simply living is enough to render him lethargic, but not just on account of the heat.
Having dropped out of City College, Eddie now makes a paltry living painting addresses on the curbs of rich Fresnons. There isn't much money left at the end of the day, so Eddie fills his stomach with little more than Top Ramen and cheap soda. Though he is doing his best to stay clean, trouble keeps seeking him out in his hood. Gang bangers want to jump him, a client thinks Eddie stole his truck, and his aunt wants him to knock off a cholo who supposedly killed Eddie's cousin. Growing violence and danger mixes with the heat and, in a state of near deliria, Eddie is forced to make a choice between staying in town and possibly being murdered, or escaping the only way he knows how.
Through the doubtful hero Eddie, Buried Onions depicts the narrow space between improving one's life and giving up completely. Author Gary Soto employs the setting of a highly Chicano-populated metropolis in order to illuminate the dangers and temptations waiting around every corner of the city to attack Chicano youth and drag them into disgrace-gangs, drugs, mindless sex, homicide. To Eddie, these menaces are like the vapors of a giant onion growing beneath the streets of the agricultural-oriented city, threatening to choke the city's population with hopelessness and hate.
Although Eddie often feels this sense of hopelessness in life, and although a great deal of unfair things happen to him, Eddie keeps struggling to overcome his lethargy and the rank of the onion. He hopes to separate himself from the foul fates of so many of his Chicano friends and neighbors.
Soto does not insult his readers with a blissfully happy ending. Indeed, Buried Onions proves a raw and difficult read. Yet, Buried Onions does give us a hopeful promise: free will. Soto illustrates that, even if our better option is not of the gilded Hollywood variety, even our smallest choices can give our lives direction.


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Summary: I really appreciate Soto's gift and challenge!
Review: Soto delineates nineteen-year-old Chicano boy who has no luck in his life despite his continuous efforts to improve it. In contrast to the serious plot, Soto's narrative tone is modest, restrained, and, at times, humorous, similar to less serious books he has written before, and his insight is vivid and precise. His challenge in this work has been triumphant!

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Summary: Review by E.T.
Review: The book Buried Onions, is so interesting and full of action. It is about a young Mexican-American boy named Eddie, who lives in Fresno on his own. He is in good shape until his cousin Jesus was killed. His neighbors, friends, and relatives wanted Eddie to get revenge, but Eddie does not want anything to with it. He tries to get away from all the violence but it keeps coming back to him. He is reunited with a friend from school named Jose. Jose gets into Eddie's problems and is stabbed. Before long Eddie started to think, he was bad luck. Gary Soto makes this all seem so real. After I read the book, I called up some relatives in Fresno and asked, if it was really like that. To my surprise, they said yes. I recommended the book to any who likes violence, trouble and excitement. I think this book would be great for everyone and anyone. Many people who read this book can relate to it. It is a fiction story that is easy and enjoyable. It also has Spanish words and this book makes looking up those words easy since it has a glossary in it. You can discuss this book with anyone, family and friends. If you are not sure you will like you should trust what I say, then you will agree with me.

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Summary: You gotta read it
Review: The book i read is Buried Onions. Buried Onions is a very great book that everyone would like to read. It's a book that you would get into and wanna go back and read it over and over. This was my frist time reading Buried Onions. I'm very happy that i did read it if i had another chance to read it i will. So anyone out there that wants to read a very good book you gotta read Buried Onions cause it's a book that you'll like. let me tell you a little something about it. It's about these young boys living in Fresno Califorina and that are in a gang. we'll Eddie wants to get out and better himself. He's asking God to come into his life. He was attening Fresno City College but things weren't going as good as he wanted to. So Mr. Stiles asked him if he wanted a job and was willing to dug holes and plant tress. He was going through a lot because his cuz had passed away and he wanted to find out who killed him and why? Did he ever find out? Yes he did ? But now its time for you to read it and find out who and why? So go and buy the book and read it!!!!!!!!

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Summary: Buried Onions
Review: The experience of reading such a great novel Buried Onions has been such a gratitude to me and how reality is based on and what some of the people go through everyday and knowing that nothing is free. I really think that Eddie was one of a million people today to succeed in life from who he hung out with, and from where he came from. Being in something that you can't get out of is pretty hard but he made a choice he decided that he wanted to finish school and to stop hanging out with people that he knows he can get in trouble with or is bad influenced. I think that being in a gang is a big road block and an issue that's stopping you from succeeding. Being in a gang isn't important as being in college and making something of yourself in life. I can relate to this story because I know how Eddie feels and what he is going through I know that he is trying real hard to finish school and find that special someone at the same time. but I know anything is possible.

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Summary: Absolutely riveting
Review: The kids love it! Finally found a novel that all my eighth graders will read. Soto really paints a picture with words which is what I am trying to teach the kids. Great book we all love it!

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Summary: THE TEENAGE TIMES, THEY ARE A-CHANGING
Review: The times have changed from when those of us went to elementary and middle school (junior high) back in the sixties and seventies and were assigned certain books for reading and discussing. Although there are many "classics" assigned for literature readers of the same age in this new era, the world of teenage books truly screams out for stories that are more timely. I believe it is through literature teenagers can come to see other cultures, other lives, and other situations more than if we keep waving newspapers in front of their faces. Literature sings a new song, and if the song is well written, the mind can dance to it. Buried Onions is such a novel. My son was assigned it as summer reading and he was so absorbed in it, I decided to read it myself. It is timely. Soto brings the character of Eddie to life by revealing both his small rays of hope and his overpowering sense of hopelessness to the reader. The struggle he faces to remove himself from the violent gang environment and into vocational school and eventually a job. His best efforts fail due to outside influences and he must make a decision which will chart the course for the rest of his life. The ending of the book, revealed above in the canned review, I feel is deliberate, much like the ending of "The Giver." The reader was pointedly forced into wondering what really happened after the book was closed. What a great hook to make someone think. Even more than Eddie's story, the ending opens up wonderful opportunities to discuss the story and the different avenues Eddie's life may have taken AFTER the conclusion in the book. It's a different age, a different time in history and while it's wonderful to revisit the classics, it is vital young people have the opportunity to delve into some of the very real issues all kids are facing. If your kid has this as an option on a reading list, encourage them to choose it. They (and you) will be engrossed and it's an excellent jumping off point to discuss life choices.

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Summary: Tight!
Review: This book is awesome, I was hooked in the first seven pages. His reason for calling it buried onions is interesting. I've actually read a book that I can try to tell everyone else to read. Especially if your in high school and your mexican. It helps because you can somewhat relate to the book.

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Summary: A boy who ovvercomes obstacles that make him stronger
Review: This book is intresting. He talk about the truth about inner life. He showed life from another person life. He did not have a nice home and he does not have a car. Not only was it a great story ,but he made it so easy to understand. He made a great statement that can make it even if you are in a bad city and not very rich.