Always Running #2

This book is SO intense. After the scene already set at the beginning, a very grim mood has been set that continued through the last section of reading that I did. Luis is now in his early-teens (the book jumps around a lot, anywhere from 13 to 16 years old), and his life has gotten even more rough than before. Luis and his family are still moving a lot, and besides leaving schools because of that, Luis has been kicked out of a bunch of schools as well. Fights, vandalism, gang involvement, sex, and drugs are starting to take over Luis' life.

"Hypodermic needles, spoons, matches and bags of powder were on the table. I looked around and saw about five people, including two women. They had dark circles beneath their eyes, tattoos like old pachucas, and collapsed veins along the inside of their arms." (page 130).

"I clasped the screwdriver and walked up to the beaten driver in the seat whose head was bleeding. The dude looked at me through glazed eyes, horrified at my presence, at what I held in my hand, at this twisted, swollen face that came at him through the dark. Do it! were the last words I recalled before I plunged the screwdriver into flesh and bone, and the sky screamed." (page 111).

"Payasa fought all the time at school. Whenever she lost, her older brothers would slice her tongue with a razor. She wasn't ever supposed to lose. This made her meaner, crazier - unpredictable." (page 106).

These quotes, for me, illustrate scenes that are full of death, destruction, and hopelessness. Rodriguez is describing places and events that nearly defines the lifestyle of the "hood." Violence and other terrible things involved with gangs run people's lives in the wrong direction. I read passages like these and wonder how people can live like that. However, elements like these make the book completely unpredictable, with action and unsuspecting events at every turn of the page, which I enjoy. (And it's still just as exciting the second time through surprisingly!)

word up homie g peace