Hustle documents the author's Latino youth in San Diego, California, an inferno of stolen cars, silent sex, and murdered valedictorians.
“Questions of masculinity and power run throughout, and the poems feel simultaneously intimate and spectacular as the voice strikes registers of vulnerability and bravado. For all the narratives of strife the collection contains, Martinez’s poetics are anything but grim. Rather, there is a delight in language play and a lexicon that spans slang to theory.”
—Publishers Weekly
“This debut by Martinez reveals a young poet who combines the kinesthetic energy of swift movement with the quick anticipation of one whose continued survival depends largely on his ability to act. . . . This first collection serves youth, and, as with many such books, this reviewer is curious to know what Martinez’s poetry might look like once the summer of 1994 is as stale as the summer of 1969, and awaits with interest the kind of world Martinez writes once school is out for good.”
—Library Journal
“In his debut poetry collection, Martinez translates the unique nature of his autobiography with an acute ear for rhythm, transporting readers from barrio alleyways to the shipyards of San Diego to the halls of Houston academia, broaching such topics as young fatherhood, gang life, and stereotypical masculinity with refreshing candor and linguistic savvy. . . . A necessary addition to Chicano, Latino, and American poetry.”
—Booklist
"Wild syntax dances between enchanted frogs and border crossing, and between the mystery of life and the mystery of recounting it. "The world brims with signs," Martinez writes, and in his hands the landscape of the past keeps being open to rereading....There are many raw and rich moments in this book.... Perhaps there is no way to make grief into a diamond. But Martinez has made something rare, and living, and glittering nonetheless."
—NPR, "All Things Considered"
“Growing up in a broken home, living in a barrio, and joining a gang did not stop Martinez from transcending the low expectations of his troubled youth. The current Ph.D. candidate nurtured those raw experiences into sophisticated material that informs his startling poems.”
—BuzzFeed, “The 14 Must-Read Works of Chicano Literature”
