parrot in the oven: mi vida

Reader Response to Parrot in the Oven: mi vida by Victor Martinez

The back cover reads:

Dad believed people were like money. You could be a thousand-dollar person or a hundred-dollar person--even a ten-,five-, or one-dollar person. Below that, everybody was just nickels and dimes. To my dad, we were pennies.

Fourteen-year-old Manny Hernandez wants to be more than just a penny. He wants to be a vato firme, the kind of guy people respect. But that's not easy when your father is abusive, your brother can't hold a job, and your mother scrubs the house as if she can wash her troubles away.
In Manny's neighborhood, the way to get respect is to be in a gang. But Manny's not sure that joining a gang is the solution. Because, after all, it's his life--and he wants to be the one to decide what happens to it.

My Rxn:
An alright book. I don't know what it is with me and Latino books. I just like them a lot. This one could be a male counterpart to The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. Similar themes and situations. I'm a little disappointed with the plot and the ending. I thought that the book would focus more on the harsh reality of gang life. Instead, it gives us an initiation beating and the stealing of an old lady's purse... and it doesn't show up in the story until the last 3 chapters. Martinez really cuts us off abruptly at the end. I'd like to see a little more action. With Manny. He seems like a complex enough character, but Martinez doesn't do much with him. I think he's started something wonderful, but really needs to develop it further.

Nonetheless- the book was CHOCK FULL of descriptive language:

"even the walls sweated. Mom's shrieks chased away the panicked air; Dad's voice was coarse paper shredding to pieces" (27).

"He stared hard at me, like I was weeds growing wild in a field that some day he'd have to chop" (35).

"The sun was miky when we finally got going, and the air had a weight that made me swallow hard. Then a little wind came, but instead of being cool it snapped hot sparks in my face" (43).

"Perico, or parrot, was what Dad called me sometimes. It was from a Mexican saying about a parrot that complains how hot it is in the shade, while all along he's sitting inside an oven. People usually say this when talking about ignorant people who don't know where they're at in the world. I didn't mind it so much, actually, because Dad didn't say it because he thought I was dumb, but because I trusted everything too much, because I'd go right into the oven trusting people all the way--brains or no brains" (52).

"He roamed his eyes around the kitchen, opening his arms as if expecting the walls to agree with him" (55).

"When we stopped, finally, the sun was prickling like a hot rash on the back of my neck, and a piece of lava was wedged in my spine" (76)

"Ropes pulled at her from the ground when she walked and her sighs sounded like roots releasing from moist earth" (80).

This next one is my favorite:

"The sun was as bright as an egg yolk leaking an orange finger across a porcelain plate" (83).

"I touched Grandma's hand. A lump of salt caught in my throat, closing it like a fist, as I studied the bark skin of her face--each crack sealed with perfect makeup. She will flake away into dirt, I thought, just as the sun does the bottom of a pond during a drought. her shadow will be erased, and ehr sould will drift to heaven like the fluff of a dandelion in the wind. And then it will blossom in another garden, so bright the colors will hurt your eyes. That's how I imagined it. For Grandma, that's how I wanted it to be" (89).

"Most kids act like your fingers are made of hot glass when you touch them, but not Pedi" (95).

"Mom looked like she'd been poked in the chest with an icepick" (105).

"As he passed, the white students cold-stared Lencho like he'd just peed on the Queen of England" (114).

"Albert couldn't punch the air out of a soap bubble" (118).

"He spoke with braids of lightning in his voice" (122).

"Except for Albert, the guys I hung with thought that if they even flicked through the pages of a book, ink would rub off on their hands and mark them sissies for life" (125).

"The noise in the gym sounded warped, like a blackboard bending, about to splinter and crack" (127).

"The girlish pitch of their voices sliced through the noise like a paper cut. It touched down softly on my heart and opened a tiny slit that spilled sweet and aching all around inside me" (131).

"Her feet had enough callouses to step on my dad's cigarette butts without making her wince" (160).

"Dorothy looked cool and fresh, as if carved from night air... I was being deliciously licked all over by tiny tongues of flame" (179).

"I remember seeing her at school, her hair in the sun glowing like a fiery blue jelly" (186).

"I knew she believed me about as far as she could throw the refridgerator" (200).

Rarely are books written with such a style that I have to stop and write down awesome quotes. There are also a few excellent vocab words in here as well, like brusque. I remember learning that in Mrs. Brown's class in 10th grade! heh.

The only risky thing about the book is the main character's underage sister becomes pregnant and has a miscarriage in front of him. It's kind of graphic and gross... but not as bad as Tolkien's description of the dead marshes (that made me dry heave!).

I would certainly use this in my classroom and recommend it to students. however, due to the level of disappointment, this one does not receive the Word Nerd Seal of Approval.