Like all teenage narrators, Robert is very bright and precociously literate. According to him, he has read and absorbed The Sound and the Fury, East of Eden, and Kurt Vonnegut.Despite Robert not always being a believable character, his journey to make peace with his family and himself is heartbreakingly realistic. His father has left the family, and his mother has suffered a breakdown and taken Robert's little brother to live with her and her sister in California. Robert is left in San Antonio with his ulcer, failing grades, and grandmother. Robert believes he can grow up fast enough to put his family back together. Along the way, Robert gets in a fight, resulting in several broken teeth. This sparks the first of many allusions to vampires, never fully explained or explored. This first novel is awkward in places, but there are passages of depth and sensitivity. The characters, almost all working poor, are treated with a dignity and respect not always seen in fiction.

The coming-of-age of a young Chicano in Texas, as told by newcomer Martinez. Happy adolescents are the same everywhere, but no one would put Robert Lomos in that category. A Mexican-American born and raised in San Antonio, Robert lives alone with his grandmother, a pious and strong-willed woman who cleans houses for a living and is determined that her grandson will grow up decent, honest, and pure. Robert isn't entirely with the program, but since grandma has sent him to Sunnydale Christian Academy, he can't rebel quite as openly as he'd like. The fact is that Robert comes from fairly wild stock: His father was a jazz musician who abandoned his family years ago, leaving Robert with his grandmother while Robert's mother ran off in desperate (and hopeless) pursuit of her husband. Sunnydale is about as strict as you might imagine (dress code, prayers, continual lectures about Satan), but Robert can spot a kindred spirit at a glance, and he quickly finds one in Nacho, who cultivates sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll just as avidly (and secretly) as Robert. Together, the two raise about as much hell as possible without being expelled, and Robert has the added thrill of scoring with Diana, a convent-school girl whom Nacho is madly in love with. But eventually these small pleasures are just not enough, and Robert runs away to LA to search for (and possibly reunite with) his father and mother. Los Angeles is a different scene entirely, and Robert takes to it well, but his reunion is cut short when his grandmother dies. Is this the end of his innocence? The beginning of his adult life? Will it drive his parents closer together? Or farther apart? Either way, there's no going home again. Standard teenaged angst with a Latin accent. Decently done but unremarkable.

Martinez's impressive second novel (after <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">Crossing) gives us the world through the eyes of 16-year-old Mexican-American Robert Lomos, part tough-talking cynic, part sensitive older brother and son who is forced to learn more than he wants to about adult responsibilities when his mother has a mental breakdown. Robert's father, a jazz musician, abandoned his family two years before; his mother became unstable after his desertion and left San Antonio, Tex., to live with a sister in Los Angeles, taking Robert's three-year-old brother with her. Robert now lives with his no-nonsense grandmother, who sends him to the evangelical Sunnydale Christian Academy when he gets kicked out of public school for acting out. Robert is no angel—favorite activities include fighting, getting high and cruising for girls—but he longs to reunite his family. The jobs available to him, mainly busboy positions, are arduous and low paying, but he toughs it out until he has the money to get to Los Angeles (and succinctly sums up what many restaurant employees think of customers: "Watching them eat is enough to turn you against humanity"). He is hardly welcomed in L.A. with open arms, however. His aunt, Naomi, is hostile and suspicious, fearing that he'll upset the family's fragile equilibrium. Robert's efforts to help his brother, Antony, in school go awry, and he's once again getting into fights. Above all, his mother is more fragile than he imagined, and his attempt at a gallant rescue does not work out as he'd hoped. The story flags somewhat when he returns to San Antonio and a construction job, but Robert's biting, assured voice makes the book a standout. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Apr.)