BIBLIOGRAPHY
Soto, Gary. 2003. The Afterlife. Orlando, FL: Harcourt Books. ISBN-10: 0152052208 ISBN-13: 978-0152052201
PLOT SUMMARY
The Afterlife is the story of Chuy, a high school guy, combing his hair in the dirty bathroom of a club where a dance is being held. He makes the mistake of telling the guy next to him that he likes his shoes. The guy in turn stabs Chuy to death. Here Chuy begins to discover the living, a new romance, and his family’s love. Told by Chuy, a ghost, with humor, sadness, regrets, and love at last while finding out what is really important after dying.
CRITICAL ANALYSIS (INCLUDING CULTURAL MARKERS)
The Afterlife takes place in the Chicano ethnic region of southeast Fresno, California. Fresno is a center of Mexican American culture, with a population that is 40 percent Hispanic or Latino. “When you’re an ordinary-looking guy, even feo, you got to suck it up and do your best.” (Soto, pg. 1) The story begins with Chuy in the Club Estrella looking forward to meeting Rachel when as fate would have it he gets stabbed to death in the bathroom and as the blood pours out of him, looking like pomegranate juice, wonders why me. As he is leaving his body, he comprehends that his life is over. Soto addresses the unknown of senseless murders and the effects on family members and friends. Questions arise as to understanding why and what happens when one dies.
Soto intermingles Spanish words with the text which allows the reader to understand the ethnic background of Chuy’s life. The use of these words help to enhance the tone and leads for authenticity of the setting. The Spanish words are printed in italics and there is a glossary of word and phrases at the end of the book. You can experience the cultural markers with words like panaderia(bakery), Tio(uncle), mi carnal(my blood brother), chicas(girls), la chota(the police), mi papi(my daddy), tonto(stupid), and many more. Another cultural marker is the names – Jesus, Chuy, Angel, Julio, Fausto.
The neighborhood where Chuy is from is mostly Hispanic from the references. “My father and mother didn’t show up, though I knew they were probably crying in the shadows of our house in southeast Fresno, homeland for Mexican and Hmongs mostly.”(Soto, pg. 11) There is also a reference to People en Expañol, menudo, churros and the slang language. Gary Soto also has a wonderful way of creating symbolism with phrases like “the sun rose pink as a scar”,and “laundry hung like the faded flags of defeated nations,”.
Chuy is really a very likeable soul in life and death. He exhibits compassion for a homeless guy, regret over mistakes with his family, lost friendships, empathy for Yellow Shoes, encouraging words and complements to friends, and his reward in meeting Crystal, another ghost, who just committed suicide. Here is finds the love he wanted in real life and is able to continue in his journey to the afterlife.
A love story, this is the sequel to Soto’s popular novel Buried Onions.
REVIEW EXCERPTS
Amazon.com Review
Not many authors kill their main character on page two, but when Gary Soto does in The Afterlife the tactic results in a richly textured coming of age story. Chuy is a normal teenage guy, making his way in the barrios of Fresno, California, and hoping to impress a pretty girl. Carefully combing his hair in the restroom at Club Estrella, he only has a few moments to consider his "loverboy" strategy before his young life is (literally) cut short by a knife-wielding stranger who misinterprets a compliment.
Soon Chuy is floating above his bleeding body, embarking on a journey of personal exploration. As he drifts though his hometown (tightening his stomach muscles so as not to get blown off course) he manages to achieve many of the things he didn’t when he was alive--recognizing how much he is loved by family and friends, saving a life, punishing a thug, and even falling in love (with a ghost-girl who has committed suicide).
Soto has a knack for particularly apt comparisons ("the sun rose pink as a scar," "laundry hung like the faded flags of defeated nations,"), which brings beauty and clarity to this dangerous world of cholos and cabrones (and if you don’t know what those are, there’s a glossary in the back). Aside from a couple plot points left dangling, The Afterlife offers a tangibly detailed portrait of a young life worth living. (Ages 13 and older)--Brangien Davis --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From School Library Journal
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
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Booklist
*Starred Review* Gr. 7-10. Combing his hair in the dirty bathroom of a club where a dance is being held, 17-year-old Chuy makes the mistake of telling the rodent-faced guy next to him that he likes his shoes. The young man returns the compliment by stabbing Chuy to death. Where any other story would end, Soto's begins. It follows Chuy for several days after his death, as the teenager recounts what he sees and experiences. His parents grieve, and his mother asks a cousin to kill Chuy's assailant; then he goes to his high school's basketball game and sees the effect his death has had on his friends, realizing their sadness will be fleeting. He saves the life of a homeless man, albeit only temporarily, and improbably, he finds his first girlfriend, Crystal, a specter who died from an overdose. Crystal's character is not as well developed as Chuy's, but their relationship is beautifully evoked, with Chuy grasping every thread of love he can as he slowly disappears. Soto has remade Our Town into Fresno, California, and he not only paints the scenery brilliantly but also captures the pain that follows an early death. In many ways, this is as much a story about a hardscrabble place as it is about a boy who is murdered. Both pulse with life and will stay in memory. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
AWARDS/HONORS
The Skipping Stones Honor Awards 2004
Americas Award Commended 2003
California Recommended Readings in Literature List 2004
CONNECTIONS
Check out Gary Soto’s website
http://www.garysoto.com/
Death makes a person appreciate life more. Create a poster or picture that represents the afterlife. Be sure to include a written page explaining your poster or picture.
What do you think it would be like to be a ghost? Write a paper or poem with your description. You can also illustrate, make a poster, etc.
Other book by Gary Soto
Buried Onions. ISBN-10: 97801520651 ISBN-13: 978-0152062651
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