Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida

Parrot in the Oven: On Belonging, Learning, and Life The cover of Parrot in the Oven captures the eye with its title emblazoned in flashy green letters. Only after you recover from the shock of the flamboyant avocado-green do your eyes drift down to a black and white photograph, as subtle as the title is obtrusive. The picture is of a young boy, leaping into a clear lake. His arms are outstretched with all the exuberance of one embracing life, and a jubilant smile stretching across his tanned face. It is funny just how misleading this cover is given the plot. Victor Martinez, the author of the novel, dives right into the story, getting us quickly acquainted with the main characters of the book. The protagonist, Manuel Hernandez or "Manny," is the narrator of the story. He begins by describing his family. He has an older brother who is everything Manny is not: handsome, athletic, and all-around "macho." He has two sisters; an older one who bullies him and a younger one he tries to look after as best he can. His mother is quiet and overwrought tying to look after her children, managing the household, and trying to pacify her husband when he comes home drunk. The fact that Martinez writes in first person via Manny is very important, because it allows us to see Manny's relationships with his family through his eyes, and also how they directly affect him. Manny's father "believed weasely guys already owned the world, and anything you could do to get over on them was useless" (25). His father's distrust and disdain for wealthy people is key, because it acts as a reference point for Manny's own feelings. Manny is clearly conscious of where his family stands in the socio-economic spectrum as a disadvantaged Hispanic family living in America. His father sneers at the idea of charity and is enraged at any type of charity towards them. Manny on the other hand, while aware of these issues, is more calm and open minded than his father is. He shows great maturity in the face of several obstacles related to the socio-economic issue and the problems in his home. As Manny deals with inner conflicts regarding his family's place in society, he also is forced to deal with a turbulent home front. One afternoon his father comes home from the bar in a foul mood, and gets out his rifle. He attempts to shoot his wife, despite Manny's pleas that he stop: "you have to understand, you'll only get in trouble" (57). True to this statement, the police arrive and arrest his father. But it is only a matter of time before he is released and returns home. Given these factors, it makes perfect sense that the key theme of the novel is Manny's quest for acceptance and reprieve from alienation. During the course of the novel Manny is exposed to a variety of situations, during all of which he feels like he doesn't belong. On one end of the spectrum is Manny's experience among the illegal immigrants. He and his brother decide to work in the pepper fields to earn some money. But he

It's hard to review a book that fairly reeks of excellent prose. When you encounter a really GOOD writer, the temptation is to read the pretty words and pay little to no attention to the plot. Victor Martinez fits this category perfectly. Reading, "Parrot in the Oven" is difficult if only because the descriptions in the story are pitch perfect every time. I found myself so continually overwhelmed by the lush characters and interesting metaphors that I would completely forget to pay attention to the narrative and plot. Fortunately, in the case of this particular book, they were perfectly up to snuff. The tale follows the life and realistic adventures of Mexican-American Manuel Hernandez. Manuel's a good kid. He has a slacker older brother, an older sister that flirts with danger, and a baby sibling that doesn't understand the ways of the world just yet. His father is unemployed leaving him regularly drunk and belligerent. His mother, not quite up to facing the problems surrounding her, stays by his side despite the effects of his actions on the kids. But mostly this is Manny's story. It's a look at a sometimes painful adolescence and the world of classism and racism in which everyone lives. That and it's a beautiful read. I'll give you a taste of what I'm talking about. For example, after doing painful yard work with his brother the book reads, "When we stopped, finally, the sun was prickling like a hot rash on the back of my neck, and a piece of lava was wedged in my spine. My brother's face was swollen and burnished as a new penny". Another favorite passage of mine speaks of Manny's sister's friend. "She was in love with Nardo, but he didn't pay her any mind, mostly because blocks of fat sagged on her hips like a belt of thick Bibles". Descriptions like these don't appear out of thin air. It takes a skilled eye with a sense of humor to come up with such passages. As I mentioned before, it would have been easy for Martinez to rest on his descriptive selections and pay little or no attention to character development and plot. Fortunately, this is not the case. While the plot is less a single tale of a boy becoming a man and more a series of significant vignettes in that boy's life, it still is a stunning piece of work. There are elements of painful realism in this tale, such as Manny's father attempting to shoot his mother in a drunken stupor and his mom defending that same husband to the police moments later. Characters act stupidly, nobly, or a little bit of both from time to time. The best way to determine how well you'll understand this story is to read the first chapter. If you finish it and don't feel that the author is monumentally gifted, you may as well move on and not bother with the rest of the book. Yet I'm confident when I say that people who don't recognize this book's beauty will be few and far between. Great writing deserves a great audience. As it is, "Parrot in the Oven" is supposedly a teen no

I really enjoyed reading the book called PARROT IN THE OVEN. I would recommend any one to Read it, because it keeps the reader wanting to read , and it is not a boring book . I wish there were more series and I could read them all. This book was about a boy that has the worst life growing up. Although his family needs help they still manege to keep living .Manuel the main character has a dad who is very mean and cant keep a job. He also has a mom who cares about the family and tries to convince Magda his sister to not do things she would regret . He also has a little sister and an older brother. This book was a great book. I enjoyed reading it.

This is a semi-autobigraphical story of a poverty-ridden, dysfunctional family that many urban, American-born Hispanic students aged 12-18 years old may well identify with. I taught it to grades 6-8, and students were mesmerized by the poetic language (Mr.Martinez is a published poet), realistic episodes, true-to-life characters, and Jerry Springer-like trauma-drama.These characters may appear trailer-trash types, but the main character Manny, overcomes his emotional restraints bythe end of the novel. He's a strong, young, Hispanic male character, and we need more of these. The similies and metaphors alonemake this book worth reading.

I was suprised to have read a young adult book that was so true to itself that defied a category. Martinez shows us the conflicts of being poor, from a minority, and trying to grow up around circumstances that are difficult at best. In the traditional sense, life has it own rules, but they often clash with those rules imposed by its sorrounding community and we are all enriched by learning of other's experiences.