Gangster of Love

For the solo novel I read The Gangster of Love by Jessica Hagedorn. I chose the book because I read Dogeaters for the group novel and I really liked Hagedorn’s style of storytelling also, it sounded interesting from the group presentation. The Gangster of love is a coming of age story told in the perspective of Rocky Rivera (for the most part). Other parts of the story are told from an omniscient point of view so she can give the thoughts and feelings of other characters. I notice that Hagedorn likes to use different points of views within one novel. She has an almost schizophrenic way of telling stories through including the thoughts of all her characters through a combination of omniscient and first person point of views. The main characters of the book are Rocky the youthful, innocent and hopeful narrator; Voltaire, Rocky’s hippie older brother who in my best words can be described as crazy or insane; Rocky’s mother Milagros who even in her poor status still believed she was upper class and behaved as such; and finally Rocky’s companions Elvis and Keiko. The book takes place during the 1970’s and 1980’s in places such as Manila, San Francisco and New York. In the beginning of the book Rocky is this young and innocent character who is excited about life and everything it has to offer. She leaves part of her family behind in manila and arrives in San Francisco with her brother Voltaire and their mother Milagros. You can tell rocky is searching for something bigger, somewhere she can fit in. Barely just a teen upon her arrival Rocky grows into an adult with the succession of the novel and she begins to discover herself along with San Francisco of the 1970’s. Rocky does not exactly come from a very homely life, with her mother bringing money in through a series of flirtations with different men. I feel like throughout the book it is almost assumed that she is the way she is because she never had a positive role model. Rocky grows to love and express herself