Luis Rodriguez, author of the award-winning and bestselling classic
memoir Always Running, chronicles his harrowing journey from a
drugged-out gang member to one of the most revered figures in Chicano
literature.
Hundreds of thousands of readers came to know Luis J. Rodriguez through
his fearless classic, Always Running, which chronicled his early life
as a young Chicano gang member surviving the dangerous streets of East
Los Angeles. The long-awaited follow-up, It Calls You Back is the
equally harrowing story of Rodriguez starting over, at age eighteen,
after leaving gang life--the only life he really knew.
The book opens with Rodriguez's final stint in jail as a teenager and
follows his struggle to kick heroin, renounce his former life, and
search for meaningful work. He describes with heartbreaking honesty his
challenges as a father, and his difficulty leaving his rages and
addictions completely behind. Even as he breaks with "la vida loca" and
begins to discover success as a writer and an activist, Rodriguez finds
that his past--the crimes, the drugs, the things he'd seen and done--has
a way of calling him back.
When his oldest son is sent to prison for attempted murder, Rodriguez is
forced to confront his shortcomings as a father, and to acknowledge how
and why his own history is repeating itself, right before his eyes.
Deeply insightful and beautifully written, It Calls You Back is an
odyssey through love, addiction, revolutions, and healing.
