BURIED ONIONS by Gary Soto

Bibliography
Soto, Gary. 1997. Buried Onions. San Diego: Harcourt Brace & Company. ISBN: 0152013334
 

Plot Summary
Nineteen-year-old Eddie is a Mexican American living in a poor section of Fresno, California. A City College dropout, Eddie tries to walk the straight and narrow by seeking an honest job. However, the odds are against him, and it is a struggle to stay out of trouble as well as alive. With his cousin, father, two uncles, and best friend all dead, can Eddie make an honest life for himself?

Critical Analysis
Fresno, California is a tough area to live in. Although the book was written fifteen years ago, recent demographic reports still show that Fresno has a high crime rate, higher than state and national rates (CityRating.com 2012). Therefore, Eddie’s story of being a victim of the “onions” of sorrow, bad luck, and poor surroundings in his neighborhood is believable. Although the book lacks a solid plot, it is engaging in that one does not know what will befall Eddie next. He is a good kid, always running scared out of his wits, and rightly cautious of all things. He is trying to escape Fresno and get a chance at a better life, and we follow his journey of trying to discover a way out. However, it seems as if everyone, even his loved ones, is preventing him from doing so. His aunt wants him to avenge her son’s death by shooting the murderer, he gets accused of stealing his boss’s vehicle, and his mother tries to set him up with a girl who already has a child.

Soto writes strictly about Mexican American life in Fresno. Eddie identifies himself as Mexican on the second page, and the culture unfolds. Eddie describes the brown skin of those in his neighborhood. Characters have names such as Juan, Belinda, Angel, José, and Jésus. The mixture of the Spanish language into Eddie’s storytelling and the dialog between characters is natural. There is a glossary of terms at the end just in case the reader cannot understand the meaning of the Spanish words from the contextual clues or lack of.

This story may not be for everyone. Derogatory language and violence abound. Also, it is bleak, but what I like about it is that it rings true. I have relatives who speak about the same mala suerte that Eddie talks about. It’s not bad luck. Sometimes the environment prevents the best of people from having a good and decent life.

Reference
CityRating.com. 2012. “Fresno Crime Rate Report (California).” CityRating.com. Accessed October 15. http://www.cityrating.com/crime-statistics/california/fresno.html#.UHy_ba47T6k.

Awards Won & Review Excerpts

• YALSA Best Books for Young Adults, 1998 - American Library Association
• YALSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers, 1998 - American Library Association
• Booklist: "The "buried onions," which Eddie imagines as the underground source for the world's tears, pervade the tone and plot, but the unvarnished depiction of depressed and depressing barrio life is as important as the positive images of Latinos Soto has created in his other works."
• Kirkus Reviews: "A valuable tale, it's one that makes no concessions."
• The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books: "The conclusion is swift and somewhat ambivalent, but Eddie is a character with whom readers will empathize as they alternately grieve and hope for him."
• VOYA: "Buried Onions is Soto's best fiction yet."

Connections

• Other books by Gary Soto:

          Jesse. ISBN 015240239X
          Summer on Wheels. ISBN 059048365X
          The Afterlife. ISBN 0152047743

• Poems by Gary Soto:

          Partly Cloudy: Poems of Love and Longing. ISBN 9780152063016

• Short Stories by Gary Soto:

          Baseball in April and Other Stories. ISBN 015205720X