Autobiography. Latino/Latina Studies. A soldier at the age of eleven. An honorably discharged veteran at the age of thirteen. A miner, a cotton-picker, a shepherd, and a graduate of Hollywood High. Luis Perez lived an incredible life and then shaped his story into a vividly realized autobiographical novel. Mr. Perez gets down more of the meaninglessness, the waste, and the melancholy charm of life in [combat] than half a dozen historians...The whole nostalgic maladjustment of the American-born Mexican is brought out in the last pages of the book with remarkable economy and absolute ease -- New York Times Book Review.
