Hunger of Memory is the story of Mexican-American Richard Rodriguez, who begins his schooling in Sacramento, California, knowing just 50 words of English, and concludes his university studies inthe stately quiet of the reading room of the British Museum. Here is the poignant journey of a "minority student" who pays the cost of his social assimilation and academic successwith a painful alienation - from his past, his parents, his culture -- and so describes the high price of "making it" in middle-class America. Provocative in itspositions on affirmative action and bilingual education, Hunger of Memory is a powerful political statement, a profound study of the importance of language ... and the moving, intimate portrait of a boystruggling to become a man. "From the Paperback edition."