Product Description

At the country's edge, on the Mexican border, Brownsville, Texas, is a town much like many others. It is a place where men and women work hard to create better lives for their children, where people sometimes bear grudges against their neighbors, where love blossoms only to fade, and where the only real certainty is that life holds surprises.

An entire galaxy of fascinating characters inhabit these stories. Meet Diego, an 11-year-old whose job at a fireworks stand teaches him a lesson in defiance. Meet Bony, a slacker whose discovery of a monkey's head on his lawn drives a wedge between him and his exasperated parents. Meet Lola, whose stolen bowling ball offers an unlikely chance for change.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #389084 in Books
• Published on: 2003-03-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 176 pages

From Publishers Weekly
"I thought writing everything down on paper was a good way to defend myself," says the unnamed narrator of "RG," one of the nine stories in Casares's fine debut collection set in the Texas border town of Brownsville. "RG" is related by a Hispanic bread-truck driver whose Anglo neighbor borrowed his best hammer and didn't return it-for four years, which is how long the narrator, without knocking on his neighbor's door, has waited. In the funniest story in the collection, "Chango," an unemployed 31-year-old, Bony, living with his parents and subsisting on a steady diet of beers, finds a monkey head in his yard and begins to think of it as his buddy and mascot. Alas, his unsympathetic parents want him to throw it away. Bony's father, a police sergeant, is prone to sarcastic explosions: "¨Estas loco o qu‚? You want to live with monkeys, I'll drive you to the zoo. Come on, get in the car, I'll take you right now." The barking of a neighbor's dog drives Marcelo Torres, an agricultural agent, to drastic and fantastic measures in "Charro." With skill and economy, Casares evokes the easygoing, plainspoken, yet slightly stagy voice of the guy on the neighboring bar stool-or the nearby cubicle-describing his weekend ("Here's a piece of advice for you: If a guy named Jerry Fuentes comes knocking at your front door trying to sell you something, tell him you're not interested and then lock the door," warns the opening line of "Jerry Fuentes"). Probing underneath the surface of Tex-Mex culture, Casares's stories, with their wisecracking, temperamental, obsessive middle-aged men and their dramas straight from neighborhood gossip are in the direct line of descent from Mark Twain and Ring Lardner.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
"...Casares...remakes a territory into his on fictional universe..." -- Tim Gautreaux

"...clear eyed and fresh, full of sweet gravity and pensive humor..." -- Marilynne Robinson

"...clear, straightforward and gripping...all of it is emotionally and culturally accurate..." -- Stephen Dixon

About the Author
Oscar Casares received an MFA at Iowa and his stories have appeared in The Iowa Review, Colorado Review, Northwest Review, and Threepenny Review. He was raised in Brownsville and is a lifelong resident of Texas.

Customer Reviews

Satisfied
Book was in the condition as was described by seller. Shipping was fast and packaging was good and safe.

small but surprising
I've never been to Brownsville. You don't have to know the town to get something out of this.

This was one of those books that didn't exactly hit me over the head when I read it, but that stayed in the back of my mind afterward. The stories start out small and plain and then turn into unexpected things.

one of my all time favorites
I was a guero living in the Valley for several years and pretty much any evocation of that place gets me misty-eyed. (The line "Everybody has their Harlingen" from the film Selena gets me every time) This book is spot-on. Ni una false note. But the best thing is that these stories are great even if you've never been there. As another reviewer said, these sad funny stories are full of grace. I'll never forget these characters. This kind of artless, unpretentious narration has got to be the hardest kind to pull off. Really great writing.