Dark Dude, by Oscar Hijuelos, is about a Cuban boy, Rico, with white skin who leaves his family in Manhatan to live with his friend in Wisconsin. Dark Dude previews some race-based issues, like in the book Hurricane Song (Paul Volponi). Before Rico leaves New York City, he goes to a school which he feels very uncomfortable in. That's because there are lots of African-American and Hispanic kids there, with only a few white kids. I like how Rico describes it as a "bowl filled with about five thousand black beans and brown beans, and then sort through it, to find a few white ones here and there." And then it goes on about how the African-American and Hispanic beans go out of their way to hassle the white beans, and one of those few white beans is him. Another issue in Dark Dude is that Rico's friend, Jimmy, shoots heroine and has been smoking for seven years, since he was ten. Jimmy's father beat him, so he started to do heroine. He said it makes him feel good, like the best person on Earth, compared to the crummy life he really leads. A lot of people do drugs in Dark Dude, like the manager of this restuarant, or kids at school. Oscar Hijuelos really brings out the issues in Dark Dude.
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