Las Cucarachas

By Yongsoo Park

Book Overview

"In his second novel, Park . . . paint s] a painfully honest and often wickedly funny portrait of a young boy growing up in a crumbling, multi-ethnic New York City housing project in the 1980s." --Publisher's Weekly

Life isn't easy for 12-year-old Peter Kim. The super and other thugs in his neighborhood are out to get him. His best friend suddenly hates his guts. And he's stuck wasting his summer babysitting his weirdo little brother. But things hit absolute rock bottom when his family's apartment gets burglarized and he loses his most-prized possession.

Undaunted, Peter tries his best to forget about the burglary and move on. But his misfit friends, all members of the Warriors, just won't let him. Spurred on by his friends' teasing and the desire simply to shut them up, he reluctantly sets out to find out who ripped him off.

Set in the bowels of the 1980s, Las Cucarachas is a coming-of-age story that documents the most important 48 hours of a boy's life.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1888451564
• ISBN13: 9781888451566
• Release Date: June 2004
• Publisher: Akashic Books, Ltd.
• Length: 220 Pages
• Weight: 0.43 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.4" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Two thumbs up

Although I probably read more than the average person, I've never written a review before and in fact I avoid reading them in general, particularly before picking up the book or seeing the movie upon which a review is based. I just finished 2 of this author's books, "Las Cucarachas" and "Boy Genius," and out of curiosity I decided to read what others had to say. Interestingly, many of the reviewers take time comparing this book to other books. I'm going to frankly describe what I myself thought rather than make these comparisons. First of all, both of this author's books are worth reading, and they should be read as a pair. I would recommend reading "Las Cucarachas" and then "Boy Genius," in that order. I was born and raised in New York City, and I'm from approximately the same generation as the main character in "Las Cucarachas;" to me it's incredible how well the author brings to life what my own childhood was like, growing up and hanging out in the streets of New York- not desperately poor, but poor enough so that the kids from what was called the "middle class" seemed rich by comparison, and were luckier than any of them ever seemed able to see. It's as though the author lived this NYC childhood, with all its obstacles, frustrations and pains, freeze dried it, moved on in his own life, and then went back to it and set it down exactly, precisely, missing nothing, not a single thought, feeling, experience or idea. You read "Las Cucarachas" and you experience the raw, real life of a tough, smart street kid in a big city where money is everything- absolutely, totally everything- and where the kid knows that it's not that society wants him to fail; rather, society is so completely and profoundly indifferent that it can't even be bothered to have an interest in his success or failure either way. Nobody from any middle or upper class background can ever truly know the alienation this situation creates, but by reading "Las Cucarachas" they can sure get a good goddamn taste of it. "Las Cucarachas" is the story of a boy that's forced to gear everything around slickness and toughness, and who's trying to make something happen against impossible odds and what seems like an endless stream of jerks and idiots holding him back and getting in his way. When I finished reading "Las Cucarachas" I felt a strange urge to contact the author, congratulate him for making it through, and thank him for creating such an honest, vivid, and truly touching testimonial to youth. "Boy Genius" should be read after "Las Cucarachas;" in fact it's remarkable to me that "Boy Genius" was actually written by the same author. "Boy Genius" is so completely different, and not just the subject matter, but the whole style of the book as well. "Las Cucarachas" is raw and gritty; "Boy Genius" begins right off the bat with fantastic events that continue unfolding throughout. The narrator in "Boy Genius" gets you to suspend your disbelief so completely that I myself often lo

Yongsoo Park's Warriors

Very rarely can an author capture the range of emotions and epiphanies a normal human being can go through, let alone a child, without becoming verbose and oversentimental. Peter Kim and his gang, the Warriors, live in a tough part of Queens and are bound to each other not by some heart-warming tie of friendship but simply as a means of survival. Does Peter like Fatty, the crass and selfish pathological liar of the bunch? Does he even like his own weakling of a brother Steven? Ask yourself the same questions about your gang, your family, and your identity and you'll start to scratch the surface of what Mr. Park is able to accomplish in his delightfully brief but infinitely insightful second novel. Especially for those of us who grew up in America as sons and daughters of the lesser represented immigrant community (i.e. Asian, South-Asians, or Arab), the author is able to take the cliche, 'on the outside looking in' and chapter by chapter, peel off the coexisting, but conflicting emotions of community pride versus the self-loathing one feels for being identified with that community; the emotional attachment of family that is continually tested by the faults and shortcomings of those providing for it. Peter's Dad is useless, he lost his store and he is increasingly slothful in Peter's eyes. Yet amidst this pathos, Peter and his buddies accept their respective harsh realites, even embrace them at times, ultimately giving all those who stand responsible for their plight the proverbial finger. Is it fair? No. But does it feel good? Yes. And who doesn't like feeling good? Las Cucarachas reminds us that no matter who's responsible for our misfortunes, whoever stole Peter Kim's Atari, whoever smashed up my bumper in that parking lot and didn't leave thier info, whoever..well you get the point. Yongsoo, thank you for telling it like it is. People, hear this man. Long live the Warriors. Kesav

Urban Legend - Yongsoo Park's Las Cucarachas

As is par for the course with author Yongsoo Park, one can no more predict a character's actions or a plot's turning point in one of his stories than he can predict how said character or plot will make him feel. This, in case you were wondering, is the mark of a great storyteller.With his second novel, Las Cucarachas, Park proves that his genius comes not only from innovative narrative technique (as would-be apparent in his debut novel Boy Genius) but from keen insight and intimate knowledge of his characters. By allowing us a "Caufieldesque" insight into Peter Kim's world, Park reflects through him our own innocence, shame, unjustified frustration, irrational behaviours etc. Set in the 1980's on the day after 12 year old Peter's apartment is burgluarized and his Atari stolen, Las Cucarachas takes us on a holy grail quest of "epic" proportions. Epic insomuch that its grandeur comes from the universality of Peter's need for justice to be served in an otherwise unjust world. With moments that are often funny, often upsetting but always insightful and relentless, Las Cucarachas will probably never claim to want its readers to "feel good." More likely, it would want its readers to "feel something." Which, in case you were wondering, is the mark of a great story.

Coming of age Koan

Las CucarachasWell I've just read two lame-ass reviews before letting my fingers on the keyboard. It's fitting that the intellectual coward who wrote the Publisher's Weekly review did not leave his name. I wouldn't either if my comments were so shallow and flaccid.John Green of Booklist must have skimmed the novel on the stair master. Read it again, you pretender, and submit yourself to the genius of Park. You call the plot "flimsy" and then cite a subplot as an example. Ambiguity is not a substitute for understanding. The plot is smart, Mr. Green!This coming of age koan is full of metaphor and style. It is a significant exploration of an individual isolating himself from the world through acts of aggression. President Bush, I beg you to read this book. All you ever wanted to know about violence can be found in streets of Las Cucarachas. It's a perfect model of the war in Iraq.The book is also a page turner. It's funny and fast. Mr. Park teases us with glimpses of conventional morality and then kicks us back into the adolescent mindset while laughing as we brush off the dust. He takes us inside this kid and his struggle to be a man. He (like President Bush) is an anti-Antigone type of hero (in that he is abandoned by all in his pursuit of a lie.) Park shows us the characters as they present themselves to the world, and then he lets us peak behind the masks. I guess I had forgotten the multitude of ways children deal with suffering. Las Cucarachas made me remember how seriously I took the world when I was young.The world needs more books like this. Show us the way, Yongsoo Park. Give us novel number three.-Jonathan PascoePS It's also funny.

thought -provoking!

What a trip!!!Full of wit and wisdom, novice satire and jest;narrated with rawpottty mouthed dry humor thro an adolescent's philosophical viewof the world we live in.Though, set in 1980's; it's the timeless thoughtfullness of the subject that grabs you with insane collage of life it self!When the author sent me the first draft to design the cover..I got hooked and could not put it down and glad to be a part of it. "Violets are BLUE, LET YOUNGSOO'S BOOK BE READ!!"VIVA LAS CUCARACHAS.......-~Leslie Thyagarajan.The Artist.