Behind the Eyes

Reviewed by Preston Ward (age 14) for Reader Views (6/07) This story takes place in the projects of El Paso, Texas, which is where our main character Hector had lived his 16-years of life. Hector was from a broken home; his father, who had died a few years earlier, was an alcoholic and was never happy with his life, and his brother Filiberto was headed down the same path. Troubles started up for Hector when his brother started to get mixed up in a gang, and he started to have a liking for the gang leaders' girl. When Hector himself became mixed up with this gang, The Discípulos, he is sent to Furman which is a school for students with a troubled past. He keeps to himself there, not trying to stir up trouble, getting through classes, just wanting to get out, and then El Topo arrives. Hector is almost sure he is a hit man sent by The Discípulos. The story starts here and Hector begins to realize what it takes to survive in this world. The author, Francisco X. Stork, put together the story in what seemed a confusing way at first, not always giving you the details, and sometimes he would tell you everything that happened, before he told you what caused it. But in the end everything wrapped itself up very nicely and turned out to be great. The story in "Behind the Eyes" is written for an older audience, due to very harsh language, and some of the things that the characters talk about, or do.

Growing up in a violence-ridden housing project, sixteen-year-old Hector Robles kept his head to the ground. A studious boy, he was the last person anyone would expect to end up on the wrong side of a feud with the local gang. However, when his impulsive older bother sets his sights on Gloria, the neighborhood knockout and on-again, off-again girlfriend of Chava, leader of the Discípulos, that's exactly what happens. Victim of his own impulsiveness, Hector gets caught in what seems to be a never ending cycle of violence. When he realizes that leaving El Paso is the only thing he can do to protect himself and his family, Hector agrees to go to Furman, a reform school one step away from a juvenile detention facility. The influence of the Discípulos is far-reaching and, even with the protections that Furman offers, Hector knows that he is not completely safe. A coming of age story centered around finding inspiration in unexpected places, building internal discipline, and the importance of overcoming fear, Behind the Eyes charts Hector's rocky journey to manhood and self-knowledge. Throughout the novel, Stork juxtaposes the present with the recent past, allowing the reader to gain insight into Hector and the reason he is at Furman while Hector is struggling to understand his own part in what happened in El Paso. Peopled with a vast array of fairly realistic characters, the novel explores the all-too-real struggles of children growing up in the inner city. However, while the story is interesting and compulsively readable, it lacks a sense of urgency. Despite being set both in the projects of El Paso and within a military-style reform school, Behind the Eyes fails to be as gritty as expected. Though this may be because the book is targeted to a young adult audience, one can't help feeling that the book has been somewhat sanitized. That being said, an unexpected ending does give the novel - and Hector's character - substance.

Sixteen-year-old Hector Robles's life will never be the same again. Living his entire life in the projects of El Paso, Texas, he's always stayed away from the gangs--but his brother Filiberto brought an end to that. A little more than a year after the death of their father, Hector, Fili and their younger sister Aurora have a run-in with some members of the Discipulos. Hector would like to keep out of their way after that, as would Aurora, but Fili sets his sights on Gloria...Who just happens to be dating Chava, leader of the Discipulos. Fili just can't let it go. His conflict with Chava escalates until one night, he ends up dead. In less than a year and a half, Hector has lost his older brother and his father. Even though it's not something he could have imagined himself doing, Hector goes after Chava. Chava does more damage to Hector than Hector does to him, leaving Hector with various rather serious injuries, including the loss of his hearing in one ear. When he recovers, a social worker has some rather grave news for him: Chava wants him dead. The only way he can keep safe, as well as protect his mother and sister, is to leave town. Mrs. Garzo, the social worker, tells him there's one good place for him to go now. He's charged with the aggravated assault of Chava, and there's a school in another city that accepts kids who have been in trouble with the law. There, he'll be safe from the Discipulos, he'll get a good education, and his mother and sister won't be involved with the gangs anymore. Hector makes a decision: he'll go to Furman. There, he makes friends with a colorful cast of characters, and could maybe have a fresh start and a new life...If his past can ever stop following him. BEHIND THE EYES is divided up into three parts. The first and last part deal with Hector's time after his brother's death, and the second part takes place before Fili's "accident." Francisco X. Stork tells the story of whatever is going on in each section of the book in the past tense, and flashbacks are in the present tense, which threw me a little at first, but I quickly got used to it. The non-chronological division of the book was also a little odd, but I did like the way it was divided, and, in the end, it made sense. Stork is a brilliant writer, and BEHIND THE EYES is a page-turner. It's told in a fresh, captivating voice, and the story itself is a fascinating one. It was inspired by Stork's own time living in the projects of El Paso, and some of the Chicano teenagers he knew there. That Stork knows what he's writing really shows, and it adds an extra dimension to an already wonderful book. The characters are diverse, fascinating and believable, each one well-thought out and three-dimensional. It's a character-driven story, and a fantastic one. This is definitely one of my favorites of 2006. Reviewed by: Jocelyn Pearce

Behind the Eyes by Francisco X. Stork is a quick but thoughtful read, and a window into the difficulties that face adolescents, especially those living in housing projects. Behind the Eyes tells the story, in an flashback-filled fashion that builds suspense, of sixteen-year-old Hector Robles. Hector grew up in a housing project in El Paso, TX. He lives with his mother, older brother, and younger sister, his father having died a year earlier. Hector is a good student and even an altar boy, who has spent his years trying to stay out from under the radar of the local gang, the Discipulos. His older brother, Filiberto, is not so careful, however, and drags the family into trouble. The book begins in compelling fashion: "Hector missed his brother's wake. He missed the funeral. Dr. Hernandez, the intern who treated him in the emergency room, had told him it would be at least a week before he could leave. The ear, the ribs, the spleen, all had to be evaluated. All needed stillness in order to begin to heal." Though we don't know the details at first, it becomes clear that Hector has gotten himself into trouble over the matter of his brother's death. Both legal trouble and trouble with the Discipulos. A social worker offers him an out, one which he has little choice but to accept: admission/sentencing to Furman, a San Antonio school for troubled youths who are believed to have some chance of redemption. Furman is a military school, one with locks and wire fences, filled with an array of juvenile delinquents. Hector has a rough start, but eventually finds himself learning from the teachers and the other students. He also encounters an unexpected enemy, and must use his new skills and friendships to save himself from disaster. I liked Hector a lot. His reaction to his own intelligence is in some ways matter-of-fact - he just does better in school than other people. His family set him aside from an early age as the smart one, his parents learning English so that they could make sure he spoke English well, his father saving for him to go to college, working in a job that he didn't like to protect his younger son's future. And yet he has some ambivalence about the whole thing, too, about how differently things turned out for his brother, and about his responsibilities towards his mother and sister. And about fear and anger and courage. Hector ends up learning his biggest lessons from a convicted murderer named Diaz, from whom he takes "Dumbells for the Mind" (an exercise and mediation class). Here is an excerpt, in which Diaz talks to Hector: ""For me, the way toward fearlessness was to go back over my life and look at the things I was afraid of. Not with blame or anger, but with the strength and calm concentration that the weight lifting had given me. The toughest part was facing the different ways I had been, was, and would always be a coward in one form or another." Diaz's words shocked Hector at first. Then, after a moment, he felt the block of

A lovely book which is the perfect marriage of style with story. It is a young adult's book, yes, but that's to say Huck Finn is a young adult's book. It is, but there's something there for those of us who find young adulthood a fond memory. Hector, the main character comes of age in that he has aged quickly when his brother is killed and takes a sort of revenge that lands him in what used to be known as a reform school. But Hector is an individual, with brains, feelings, insights, and enormous powers of observation and that is the charm of this. To take someone that many of us would overlook on the streets or on the subways and show us that he can be complex, suffer pain, have decisions put upon him that are difficult to make and make them and make them in the right way is what makes this as much of an adult book as a young adult's book. Don't be fooled by the simple language, there was simple language in the Old Man and the Sea, wasn't there? So buy this and enjoy and appreciate Hectors everywhere struggling not to come of age, but to come out of themselves into a world that will age them too quickly.