Module 3 - Novel by Gary Soto w/Latin Focus - TWU - Multicultural Literature

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Soto, Gary. 2003. THE AFTERLIFE. Orlando: Harcourt, Inc. ISBN 9780152047740.

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This is the story of 17-year old Chuy. While on a date with a girl that he really likes, he goes into the restroom of a night club, compliments a "boy wearing yellow shoes," and ends up being stabbed to death. He then finds himself a ghost that is able to move around using the wind. He can walk through walls, make people feel his presence by blowing on them, and see other ghosts like himself. Chuy begins to realize that his ghostlike existence is limited, as his ghostbody starts to slowly disappear. He makes his way to all of the people that he really cares about to say good-bye, and even goes to a Raiders football game, and gets a kind of close-up experience like no other. Chuy learns some life lessons, and to feel sympathy for those who are suffering. He is able see life with a different perspective and learn more about himself.

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I am normally very excited about Gary Soto books, stories, and poetry, but this one was a huge disappoint for me. It started out very exciting, and I kept thinking, where is he going with this ghost story, but I never really found out. The Chuy ghost just went way, and the bad guy got away, and there was just no resolution to the story. This book was one of those that I just thought, "huh?" It didn't impress me and I am not sure how to approach students with it, other than to just say it is a ghost story.

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There are several Spanish words in the story, and due to my high school and college Spanish classes, I was able to keep up, but for those who don't know a little Spanish, I think that turning to the glossary in the back is going to be cumbersome. There was one Spanish word that I came across that wasn't even in the glossary. That confused me.

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Some of the words were either explained right in the same sentence, and could be figured out through the use of context clues, like "This was better than a telenovela. I watched the scene while kicking back in the recliner, feet up. I had to agree he was a cabron, a weak-brained guy making a scene in front of his children. And in the apartment complex, the neighbors were probably dunking pan dulce into their coffee and gossiping. Such was the pastime of neighbors--all chismosos and chismosas--with time on their hands."

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This book felt Latino, in the way that Gary Soto described the California setting and the characters. The characters describe themselves as Mexicans, and there is mention of Latino food and family member names in Spanish. This book starts with violence, and there is the suggestion of more of it, as Chuy's mom wants his cousin to seek retribution for his death. She gives him a big gun, and begs him to do it as some type of family honor thing. Gary Soto tries to make this feel like this is part of the Hispanic culture. There is also the mention of Mexican Americans working as field hands in the California vineyards and farmlands. Chuy's father had him do this type of manual labor one summer so that Chuy could see how tough this was, and hopefully work harder in school.

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Here is an example of how Gary Soto sets the scene for the Latino influence on this story. "From the Section Eight apartment, I drifted toward Angel's house, or tried to drift, because the October wind blew me westward to Chinatown, where the bars were now open--Mexican rancheras were hollering for attention from jukeboxes. A couple of gold-toothed borrachos staggered down the street, slurring in Spanish. "

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I can not argue that Gary Soto's book, poetry, and stories are not culturally authentic, because he writes about what he knows, lives, and is. I think that the stories do reflect real Mexican American characters, life, and situations. In this regard, this book may be enjoyed by those wanting to see more of their culture reflected in literature, or readers wanting to learn more about the Latino culture in America. This book would be useful for that purpose.

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I am sorry to say that I just did not like this book. The story did not make sense to me. I wanted it to be good, and it was set up to be good, but it just did not go anywhere. For my high school students coming to the library and looking for Gary Soto books, I will give this one, and even for those wanting a ghost story, but I will not be able to recommend it as a really cool story. I will let the students judge for themselves, and it will be interesting to see if they feel the same way I do, or if they think differently.

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From School Library Journal

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Grade 6 Up-Soto's twist on the emerging subgenre of narratives in the vein of Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones (Little, Brown, 2002) offers a compelling character in the person of 17-year-old Chuy, murdered in the men's room of a dance hall the evening he plans to connect with the girl of his heart's desire. Unfortunately for both Chuy and readers, what happens after death is that the teen's once engaged and engaging spirit seems to dissipate along with his "ghost body." He floats around Fresno, CA, making seemingly random sightings of his murderer, local kids, and-only after a couple of days and at a time when his ghost body is beginning to dissolve limb by limb-other ghosts. He finds a new heartthrob in the form of a teen who has committed suicide and is befriended by the wise ghost of a transient whose life he tried to save. Grieving friends and family unknowingly are visited by Chuy, and he is startled to discover that his mother wants violent revenge for his death. This plethora of plot lines wafts across and past the landscape of a narrative as lacking in developed form as Chuy finds himself becoming. After a strong start, The Afterlife seems to become a series of brief images that drift off as though in a dream. Soto's simple and poetic language, leavened with Mexican Spanish with such care to context that the appended glossary is scarcely needed, is clear, but Chuy's ultimate destiny isn't.Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA