Following the tradition he established in his two previous books, Gary Soto makes the subject of Where Sparrows Work Hard the Chicano experience and the setting California…. The people are Mexican factory workers, or others whose lives become emblems of the Mexican-American experience. Many of the poems are narrative and reminiscent of Philip Levine's, particularly in the use of colloquial diction and short, enjambed lines. Soto also shares with Levine a surrealistic bent and much subject matter. It is difficult to read Soto's "Joey the Midget" without thinking of Levine's "The Midget."…

There are at least three types of poems in Where Sparrows Work Hard. The first is pure narrative of the sort found in "Mexicans Begin Jogging."…

[This poem] is typical of the detached narration, the somewhat ironic perspective, the perfectly flat language of this brand of Soto's poetry. Soto seems to rely on the experience itself...