This book is ostensibly about "Mexican White Boy" Danny Lopez, but it is also about a "Mexican Black Boy" named Uno. The chapters swing between the two young men who have a lot in common and nothing in common. Both are lovers of baseball and both feel a certain disconnect within their communities due to their mixed heritage. Both want a stronger connection with their fathers. But Uno is a talker, a deal-maker, an entrepreneur in the making. Danny is troubled, lost and a true phenom. While I found the book difficult to get into (baseball ... I am ~~so~~ not a sports person) it was the relationship between these guys and their inner struggles which finally got me hooked. Worried about the stereotypes depicted in the opening pages I began to see deeper through Danny's eyes -- what that community is like when they are amongst themselves. A minor quibble with the book included a violent act which comes out of nowhere near the end of the story and disappears just as quickly, seemingly put there for no other reason than to advance the plot. The characters and the setting, however, feel real. This is what you might see driving through a Latino neighborhood which is less well off, but Matt de la Pena is gently asking the reader to see the full dimensions of the people who live here. His characters are complicated, tremendously imperfect and he doesn't clean anything up. Many threads in the story are left unanswered. But, in the end, that is real life.
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