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A Natural Man

By Gary Soto

6 x 9 in; 96 pp ;
Paperback
Published in August, 1999
ISBN 0811825183
ISBN13 9780811825184

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$13.95  

Reviews

Reviews from: Publisher's Weekly

Express Books

National Book Award finalist Gary Soto (Junior College) continues his colloquial, sometimes-pugnacious portrayals of Chicano life and culture in A Natural Man. Soto rolls up his metaphorical sleeves to take on the blue-collar/white-collar workplace divide; the hardships of dilapidated apartments; the consolations of folk religion; the hidden meaning of body-piercings; and "The Effects of Abstract Art." Addressing the lingering myth of Pancho Villa, Soto asks his reader, "What happens after the heroes die?"

by Anneli Rufus
In his new poetry collections, A Natural Man, Gary Soto writes of armpits and urges and boys who push rocks up their noses. Relishing what he calls the "joy of those years," Soto recalls the "teenage werewolf" he once was, whose wanderings in a world of sighing sprinklers and girl who make prank calls lend sweet anguish to these lines. "It's different from the joy kids get nowadays," say the National Book Award finalist. "So many gadgets have replace kick-the-can." On the Fresno streets of his youth, "we knew everything. We played from morning till evening. We fought from morning till evening. If you stayed inside, something was wrong with you."