EAST SIDE DREAMS LETTER.

The book East Side Dreams, by Art Rodriguez starts in his adolescent years. He talks about partying with his friends, getting pulled over by cops, and getting into to serious fights with people. It seems as though thats all his life consisted of. Then he speaks of his family more and life at home. He has three siblings and hes kind of the middle child. His Mother was the loving one, and his father believed in tough love. He recalls alot of his fathers beatings of him and his siblings. Art then talks alot about his neighborhood, San Jose. He says that in those days there were alot of racial seperations. He says there were Blacks, and whites, but mostly Mexicans. alot of mexicans. Being mexican-american himself, Art was very popular and had alot of friends. Most of his time was spent drinking and doing drugs, and of course fighting. Art seems to be in love with fighting.

I love the way Art Rodriguez writes because when hes telling stories it feels as if your there expieriencing it with him, its very realistic. I also like the way the chapters go back and forth. One chapter will be about his time hes doing in jail and the next chapter will be about a childhood memory. He pretty much does that the whole book and its a good transition. I think as a young teeneager, art wasnt a bad person but he definately was with people who didnt help him make the best choices. When he writes now you can tell he's definately tell he has matured greatly.
The main point of the story is Art going to jail. One night he gets into a big fight with a bunch of his friends at a party. Later some people that he faught eventually die, so it becomes a murder case. They sentence him even though there not forsure that he actually killed those people. He first goes to juvie until the court decides to prosecute him as an adult. Then he gets transferred to a prison that kind of a waiting place to be tooken to an even bigger prison. Mostly he talks about the fights he gets in in prison. So far, its a verrrry good book.