Set in the weeks before and during riots in a large city reminiscent of Los Angeles, Dagoberto Gilb’s The Flowers is a bildungsroman written in a frank, magnetic, energetic voice. Reading these riveting pages, you’ll find it difficult to turn away from the consciousness of their protagonist, Sonny Bravo, an observant 15-year-old with some growing up to do, and his lively mother, Silvia. When Silvia marries Cloyd Longpre, the sleazy landlord of an apartment complex named Los Flores, they move into the building, and Sonny becomes involved with others in the complex, eventually contending with racism, violence, and his sexual impulses. Among the building’s inhabitants to whom he’s repeatedly drawn are his sexual interest, Cindy, a provocative married woman; his love interest, Nica, a teenager who looks after her little brother while her parents are at work; and Cloyd’s friends Bud and Mary, a couple who carry a pronounced tension between them.
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