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The Faith Healer of Olive Avenue
"A moving and tender story collection . . . Munoz writes elegantly and sympathetically . . . [his stories] have a softly glowing, melancholy beauty."
—The New York Times Book Review
Manuel Munoz's dazzling collection is set in a Mexican-American neighborhood in central California—a place where misunderstandings and secrets shape people's lives. From a set of triplets with three distinct fates to a father who places his hope—and life savings—in the hands of a faith healer, the characters in these stories cross paths in unexpected ways. As they do, they reveal a community that is both embracing and unforgiving, and they discover a truth about the nature of you always live with its history. Munoz is an explosive new talent who joins the ranks of such acclaimed authors as Junot Diaz and Daniel Alarcon.
—The New York Times Book Review
Manuel Munoz's dazzling collection is set in a Mexican-American neighborhood in central California—a place where misunderstandings and secrets shape people's lives. From a set of triplets with three distinct fates to a father who places his hope—and life savings—in the hands of a faith healer, the characters in these stories cross paths in unexpected ways. As they do, they reveal a community that is both embracing and unforgiving, and they discover a truth about the nature of you always live with its history. Munoz is an explosive new talent who joins the ranks of such acclaimed authors as Junot Diaz and Daniel Alarcon.
239 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2007
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461 people want to read
About the author
Manuel Muñoz
48 books96 followersManuel Munoz's dazzling collection is set in a Mexican-American neighborhood in central California-a place where misunderstandings and secrets shape people's lives. From a set of triplets with three distinct fates to a father who places his hope-and life savings-in the hands of a faith healer, the characters in these stories cross paths in unexpected ways. As they do, they reveal a community that is both embracing and unforgiving, and they discover a truth about the nature of home: you always live with its history. Munoz is an explosive new talent who joins the ranks of such acclaimed authors as Junot Diaz and Daniel Alarcon.Manuel Muoz is the author of one previous story collection, Zigzagger. Originally from California, he now lives in New York City."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews
June 28, 2009
I picked this book up randomly from the library, not having read any reviews or knowing anyone who had read it, but it turned out to be one of those wonderful and pleasant surprises.
These ten short stories are interconnected which is something I like in a book of short stories (and when they're not interconnected my brain tries to connect them anyhow). Taking place in a Mexican-American neighborhood in California, the stories deal primarily with faith - faith in life, faith in family, faith in the spiritual sense, faith in a base or instinctual sense. They're touching stories, not just because they're written well but because the characters have real experiences, ones that readers can relate to because they don't always have happy endings, because sometimes too much faith is put in the wrong basket, leaving another completely empty, thus throwing life off balance.
I want to suggest this to everyone, but then wonder if anyone else would enjoy it to the same degree I did. Maybe I enjoyed it so much having come off of two books that left me feeling underwhelmed, and this was a breath of fresh air in comparison. But I think I enjoyed it because they are simply wonderful stories. Being the first Munoz I've read, I almost hesitate to put him in the company of Atwood or O'Nan's short stories, but I'll reserve complete judgment until I read any of his other writing.
These ten short stories are interconnected which is something I like in a book of short stories (and when they're not interconnected my brain tries to connect them anyhow). Taking place in a Mexican-American neighborhood in California, the stories deal primarily with faith - faith in life, faith in family, faith in the spiritual sense, faith in a base or instinctual sense. They're touching stories, not just because they're written well but because the characters have real experiences, ones that readers can relate to because they don't always have happy endings, because sometimes too much faith is put in the wrong basket, leaving another completely empty, thus throwing life off balance.
I want to suggest this to everyone, but then wonder if anyone else would enjoy it to the same degree I did. Maybe I enjoyed it so much having come off of two books that left me feeling underwhelmed, and this was a breath of fresh air in comparison. But I think I enjoyed it because they are simply wonderful stories. Being the first Munoz I've read, I almost hesitate to put him in the company of Atwood or O'Nan's short stories, but I'll reserve complete judgment until I read any of his other writing.
July 22, 2021
4.5. Definitely deserves a second reading, which enables the reader to see how all the characters fit together, but even after only one reading, the stories create a layered fabric of a distinct and compelling community. The stories stand alone well, too. I'm wondering why I've never heard of this writer before, and why I had to look so hard for his books! Going to add a story or two to my junior curriculum.
January 24, 2021
I read (and mostly loved) this collection in 2009 & decided to teach it in a Mexican American Literature course in 2021. Revisiting the book a decade+ later, I thought the stories held up pretty well, as do arguably all stories about believable people facing eternal obstacles like self-loathing and loneliness. Perhaps the young people taking my course will find the queer characters’ despair and internalized homophobia difficult to understand. While we still have much work to do to ensure all members of the LGBTQ+ community feel safe and welcomed, I appreciated this reminder that we have come far since this book was written.
Original review (2009):
Someday Manuel Muñoz will write a masterpiece.
Like Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried, which to my mind sets the standard against which all short story anthologies are judged, Muñoz's Faith Healer of Olive Avenue is a collection of stories that stand independent of each other but involve the same characters. It is set on Gold Street in a hispanic neighborhood in southern California, and each story is narrated from a different neighbor's perspective. There is an old man whose backyard is over-run with junk and car parts. There is a teenage boy whose legs are crushed in a late-night accident at the paper mill. There is a set of triplets who despite their physical similarities could not be more different from each other. There is a mother who must deal not only with her son's death but with the revelations about his sexuality that surface when she cleans out his bedroom. There are many other characters -- more than you'd expect in just one neighborhood -- who fight similar battles against their own homosexual desires (and those of the people they love).
Muñoz playfully interweaves his stories so that a careful reader can catch allusions between stories -- the pipe that the old man in "Señor X" sells for $5.00 is installed in a bathroom wall by the father in "Faith Healer" who takes into his own hands his son's recovery from a terrible accident, etc. -- but these connections are never heavy-handed, as they are in movies like Crash and Babel that attempt a similar trick. Muñoz's talent is enormous, and his is a name I expect we'll all someday know.
Original review (2009):
Someday Manuel Muñoz will write a masterpiece.
Like Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried, which to my mind sets the standard against which all short story anthologies are judged, Muñoz's Faith Healer of Olive Avenue is a collection of stories that stand independent of each other but involve the same characters. It is set on Gold Street in a hispanic neighborhood in southern California, and each story is narrated from a different neighbor's perspective. There is an old man whose backyard is over-run with junk and car parts. There is a teenage boy whose legs are crushed in a late-night accident at the paper mill. There is a set of triplets who despite their physical similarities could not be more different from each other. There is a mother who must deal not only with her son's death but with the revelations about his sexuality that surface when she cleans out his bedroom. There are many other characters -- more than you'd expect in just one neighborhood -- who fight similar battles against their own homosexual desires (and those of the people they love).
Muñoz playfully interweaves his stories so that a careful reader can catch allusions between stories -- the pipe that the old man in "Señor X" sells for $5.00 is installed in a bathroom wall by the father in "Faith Healer" who takes into his own hands his son's recovery from a terrible accident, etc. -- but these connections are never heavy-handed, as they are in movies like Crash and Babel that attempt a similar trick. Muñoz's talent is enormous, and his is a name I expect we'll all someday know.
October 6, 2018
Should have read this years ago; Manuel Muñoz is writing some of the most exquisitely crafted (read: kickass) stories around. The characters intersect one another's lives every once in a while, but what's more interesting to me is the repeated experience of each story's protagonist(s) giving meaning, or attempting to give meaning, to their lives in the aftermath of trauma. The only way I can describe my admiration for Muñoz's workmanship is that it's like an animal's whiskers: multidimensional, and sensitive to the minutest shifts in the air.
I feel I should note that tragedy ABOUNDS in this book (CW: suicide, death, abuse, and probably some other things too), and given that many of the stories study the lives of gay Latinx men in California's rural Central Valley, it can feel like these stories feed into the trope of tragic LBGTQ+ characters. It's not done not in a pulpy or exploitative way, I don't think, since Muñoz, who is a gay Mexican American man who grew up in the Valley, has a superb command of his characters/themes/plots. It's uncomfortable in the sense that pretty much all the characters are unhappy but that in media we see heterosexual characters get happily-ever-afters all the time, not as a miraculous one-in-a-million thing, and I only mention this in case you are looking for LGBTQ+ content that doesn't play out along those lines.
I feel I should note that tragedy ABOUNDS in this book (CW: suicide, death, abuse, and probably some other things too), and given that many of the stories study the lives of gay Latinx men in California's rural Central Valley, it can feel like these stories feed into the trope of tragic LBGTQ+ characters. It's not done not in a pulpy or exploitative way, I don't think, since Muñoz, who is a gay Mexican American man who grew up in the Valley, has a superb command of his characters/themes/plots. It's uncomfortable in the sense that pretty much all the characters are unhappy but that in media we see heterosexual characters get happily-ever-afters all the time, not as a miraculous one-in-a-million thing, and I only mention this in case you are looking for LGBTQ+ content that doesn't play out along those lines.
February 7, 2014
Although most if not all the characters of “The Faith Healer of Olive Avenue” grew up on a single street near Fresno and a number still live there, this is not a book about community, but instead solitude. In the world Munoz presents, families are fragmented and neighbors suspicious, even combative. All these characters are pitted against each other not so much in conflict as in misunderstanding: Mexican and Mexican-American, parent and child, gay and straight, disabled and caretaker, religious and secular. In “Lindo y Querido” a single mother struggles with a son bedridden as the result of an accident; in “Bring Brang Brung” a gay man cares for the son of his dead lover; in “When you come into your kingdom” a father torments himself over his son’s suicide. In “Ida y Vuelta” and older gay Mexican-American allows a former lover, a Mexican who had helped, to stay in his apartment when returning for a funeral—and the younger man brings his new lover with him. In the title story, one of the most powerful, a man disabled in a work accident is cared for by his father, who takes him to the faith healer of the title. Munoz’ language is both fluid and powerful, but his vision is unsentimental and gives no quarter: his people are alone even when they are together.
May 25, 2024
This is a powerful and moving set of stories mostly gay-themed and about the Mexican community around Fresno. But that is not the real relevance. These stories are human and compassionate, even if almost all of them describe a world of pain, internal and in a couple of stories, physical. That recipe would seem to b depressing, but somehow it was not for me. Mostly I was left with an understanding of and sympathy for lives lived in a way which I have not had to face.
When the stories are good, they are very good. I was moved by "The Heart Finds Its Own Conclusion" and
"Ida y Vuelta" in particular. Some, like "The Good Brother" did not work for me, and I have mixed feelings about the title story which comes at the end of the book. It's 24 pages in three paragraphs, and really held me until the ending.
I especially enjoy stories which are long enough to have some development in plot and characterization. Only one of these stories is under twenty pages, the longest, "When You Come Into Your Kingdom" (which also was very good) is thirty-three. I like Munoz's prose style, which is spare but not to the point of alienating the reader. There is a lot of Spanish here and there, but most of it was basic enough that I could understand it even without having studied the language.
This collection, while flawed in places, borders on gifted, and I look forward to reading more by Munoz.
When the stories are good, they are very good. I was moved by "The Heart Finds Its Own Conclusion" and
"Ida y Vuelta" in particular. Some, like "The Good Brother" did not work for me, and I have mixed feelings about the title story which comes at the end of the book. It's 24 pages in three paragraphs, and really held me until the ending.
I especially enjoy stories which are long enough to have some development in plot and characterization. Only one of these stories is under twenty pages, the longest, "When You Come Into Your Kingdom" (which also was very good) is thirty-three. I like Munoz's prose style, which is spare but not to the point of alienating the reader. There is a lot of Spanish here and there, but most of it was basic enough that I could understand it even without having studied the language.
This collection, while flawed in places, borders on gifted, and I look forward to reading more by Munoz.
November 3, 2009
Phenomenal short story collection, with interesting characters that remind the reader of everyday people. The diatribes of the characters, and how they connect with one another enchant the reader who enjoys Latin American writers and who does not know where to start. The stories are set against a Californian backdrop add a touch of wonder as to how real stories can be, and how much we know about life.
April 16, 2019
An amazing collection of interwoven short stories - a must read.
September 20, 2023
Isidro’s mother works for a woman on the good side of town, doing work that doesn’t need defining. You know what she does and how she does it and how hard it is.
June 30, 2024
A great series of stories loosely connected. A wonderful writing style.
March 23, 2023
This book legit got me to start praying again
July 13, 2007
This collection confirms my feelings that Manuel is either among the best or possibly *the* best Chicano short story writer ever. Carefully crafted stories interweave the lives of young, gay Latino men who don't benefit from the sexual freedoms available to gay men living in larger cities. Set in California's rural central valley, these stories address the limitations that poverty, family responsibilities, provincialism, and cultural expectations have on young men attempting to discover their sexual identities and find a place for themselves in (and outside) their communities. Without falling prey to didacticism or convention, Munoz exposes the crippling effects of enforced heteronormalcy on those existing outside its margins. Through nuanced descriptions, we hear the silences that have engulfed his characters' lives; we feel the early confusions that have set in motion experiences filled with isolation; and, we look on as they learn to watch whatever rebellious models they can find to make sense of their own restlessness.
I'd like to emphasize that while this collection clearly centers on gay Latino sexuality, it also deftly flushes out a realistic community at large. We are presented with the inner thoughts of mothers, sisters, brothers, and community members who etch out lives that aren't particularly glamorous or successful, but reveal the victory of getting by, day-by-day. In addition, for most of us not living in small towns fighting to stay alive in the shadow of global capitalism and booming corporate economies, we are reminded of the resilience still present in this decaying yet resistant valley. Indeed, it is these various strands that bring the whole work together - these are the collected stories of an entire community immersed in a history of loss, ongoing struggle, and a desire for something not yet named. I sense that Munoz's next work will be a novel that expands on this collective set of themes. Ithaca folks: Manuel is a former neighbor of sorts - he received his MFA from Cornell, a far cry from the small town of Delano, CA, where he grew up.
I'd like to emphasize that while this collection clearly centers on gay Latino sexuality, it also deftly flushes out a realistic community at large. We are presented with the inner thoughts of mothers, sisters, brothers, and community members who etch out lives that aren't particularly glamorous or successful, but reveal the victory of getting by, day-by-day. In addition, for most of us not living in small towns fighting to stay alive in the shadow of global capitalism and booming corporate economies, we are reminded of the resilience still present in this decaying yet resistant valley. Indeed, it is these various strands that bring the whole work together - these are the collected stories of an entire community immersed in a history of loss, ongoing struggle, and a desire for something not yet named. I sense that Munoz's next work will be a novel that expands on this collective set of themes. Ithaca folks: Manuel is a former neighbor of sorts - he received his MFA from Cornell, a far cry from the small town of Delano, CA, where he grew up.
January 27, 2015
This book is a collection of ten short stories about Hispanic-Americans living in the valley of Central California. Each short story follows the lives of a character living through pain or trauma and how they deal with the process. It is a wonderful and intimate study of how pain can affect each of us and how we all have different mechanisms for coping with the traumatic events of life. While seemingly disjointed all the stories share the same geographic centre and in the end become a portrait of the residents of a central California working-class Hispanic-American community. Of late I have come to admire writing styles that are minimalist in their approach , and Muñoz is a master of minimalist prose. Using a sparse but powerful writing style, readers find themselves drawn into the world Muñoz is painting. It is rich, beautiful and yet filled with a quiet pain that makes one want to read more. His characters each suffer in an individual way that makes them seem they are carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders. The reader is left wondering how they bare the pain, but also recognizing that the inability to understand that process is part of what makes each of unique. Muñoz is a master of relaying the experience of this world without being invasive or voyeuristic. It is a pleasure being introduced to new authors that provide such exciting reading material. Indeed I finished the book in one night savouring each of the stories but finding myself unable to put it down.
August 19, 2009
Can I say he's a fastidious writer, without being a tidy one. The flavors Hispanic and homosexual are strong in this mix, but never that overpowering. I actually started this collection unaware of the author's sexuality...but I think the phrase would be, "Come on Mary" (or is it "Ave Maria?")
Anyways, his writing is well-arranged, and the mysterious third key ingredient would be tragedy; not so much for the pain of it, but for the enduring, if not overcoming, of it. There's a lot of different death and injury in this collection, from the opening motorcycle story to the concluding visit to the titular curandera for treatment after a nasty warehouse accident.
As a breeder/dad, I anguished over "When You Come Into Your Kingdom." The juxtaposition of the out-of-date lock-and-key versus card-key served as a nice parallel to a style of parenting similarly falling out of fashion. Still the way that story's particular wound unfolded was delicately, though painfully, done. Makes me cringe to reflect upon it even now.
Most of the anguishing though is done by Munoz' gay characters. Well the anguish tends to be more for the Roberto's. While the Robbie's are here and queer...the Roberto's tend to remain alla, no matter where they are.
Anyways, his writing is well-arranged, and the mysterious third key ingredient would be tragedy; not so much for the pain of it, but for the enduring, if not overcoming, of it. There's a lot of different death and injury in this collection, from the opening motorcycle story to the concluding visit to the titular curandera for treatment after a nasty warehouse accident.
As a breeder/dad, I anguished over "When You Come Into Your Kingdom." The juxtaposition of the out-of-date lock-and-key versus card-key served as a nice parallel to a style of parenting similarly falling out of fashion. Still the way that story's particular wound unfolded was delicately, though painfully, done. Makes me cringe to reflect upon it even now.
Most of the anguishing though is done by Munoz' gay characters. Well the anguish tends to be more for the Roberto's. While the Robbie's are here and queer...the Roberto's tend to remain alla, no matter where they are.
September 29, 2010
I’ve read this book right after I finished “Drown” by Junot Diaz and somehow as if I was reading (almost) one book. Both are collection of short stories, both are stunning, both dealing with the immigrants (while Diaz writes about immigrants from Dominican Republic in New York/New Jersey, Munoz writes about Mexicans in California). I do think that these two books are great companions indeed.
The style is beautifully melancholic (if I’m comparing this is whisper while Diaz is a scream). The stories are interlinked, often with the same characters (just as it is in “Drown”) and often the things in the stories happen in the same time, paralleled so in the end you have a feeling that you’ve read a novel.
These stories are extremely touching, not only because there is no sense of happy endings but because they are told in such honesty and delicacy; you can feel a real non-fictional life in them; they are trespassing some borders that might have been barriers for some readers (such is homosexuality) because their pain is real, their tragedy is palpable and their faith is our [readers’] faith. Because these stories are about faith; in all its meanings. And faith is something that we all share.
This book is really something.
The style is beautifully melancholic (if I’m comparing this is whisper while Diaz is a scream). The stories are interlinked, often with the same characters (just as it is in “Drown”) and often the things in the stories happen in the same time, paralleled so in the end you have a feeling that you’ve read a novel.
These stories are extremely touching, not only because there is no sense of happy endings but because they are told in such honesty and delicacy; you can feel a real non-fictional life in them; they are trespassing some borders that might have been barriers for some readers (such is homosexuality) because their pain is real, their tragedy is palpable and their faith is our [readers’] faith. Because these stories are about faith; in all its meanings. And faith is something that we all share.
This book is really something.
March 5, 2015
Munoz presents a dazzling Western version of Winesburg Ohio, giving us glimpses into the intimate lives of the residents in and around Gold Street in a slightly fictionalized version of Fresno. What I liked best about this book is that each of the stories in it ends with a question. There is no resolution here as we are just visitors in these characters' lives. We are left wondering about what happens to them next, perhaps with a sense of what comes next, always satisfied, but with a very realistic refusal to tie things up neatly with a bow. I also love the way this book explores gender roles, love, sexuality, and faith, showing their complex role in the lives of characters who are people first and Latinos second. There is no caricature here, and no character seems familiar from preexisting stereotypes or cultural impressions, or how Latinos and Chicanos are typically portrayed in the genre. A beautifully wrought, heartfelt novel that comes from truly loving and knowing a place and its people in all their messy, complicated, wondrous glory.
April 29, 2013
It took me a couple stories to get into this, but in the end, I think this is a collection of solid, well-constructed stories. The milieu, of Fresno's working class Mexican neighborhood, and especially the often gay man whose story is set there, was on the one hand new to me, but by the end of the collection, a little limiting. I feel like there are other stories to tell, even if this one is one that's not heard all that often-- maybe six stories, but not twelve in this world.
Similarly, all the stories, pretty much, have the same basic structure-- there's a moment of crisis in the present, but we'll also flash back to the past to gain some deeper understanding. Then, in the present, we'll work out both issues. It's very competently done, and I think it takes a lot of skill to pull it off. But not every story needs to be in this approximate shape. It feels less like a theme ('the people of the present are haunted by the mistakes of their past') than a crutch.
Similarly, all the stories, pretty much, have the same basic structure-- there's a moment of crisis in the present, but we'll also flash back to the past to gain some deeper understanding. Then, in the present, we'll work out both issues. It's very competently done, and I think it takes a lot of skill to pull it off. But not every story needs to be in this approximate shape. It feels less like a theme ('the people of the present are haunted by the mistakes of their past') than a crutch.
March 3, 2009
In the title story, the one I liked best, Emilio works the 3rd shift at the paper mill. A pallet of copy paper falls on top of him and crushes his legs. After the accident, his father takes care of him -- wiping him, turning him, lifting him, dragging him. Emilio has no allá. It's more of an 'in here' than an 'over there'.
But to his father, he is just as inexplicable and just as disappointing, as the son who goes across the country to mingle among white Americans in a faceless city, to waste an education writing stories that don't make any money, to live and love with other men.
Longer review at: http://alisaword.wordpress.com/2009/03/03/the-faith-healer-of-olive-avenue-manuel-munoz/
But to his father, he is just as inexplicable and just as disappointing, as the son who goes across the country to mingle among white Americans in a faceless city, to waste an education writing stories that don't make any money, to live and love with other men.
Longer review at: http://alisaword.wordpress.com/2009/03/03/the-faith-healer-of-olive-avenue-manuel-munoz/
April 17, 2009
this book is really something. the emotion is earned in these stories, not just dredged up out of nowhere. nowhere does munoz reach for an effect. everything just happens, without your knowing it. it's pretty incredible. a few of the stories are weaker, but some are near-masterpieces, and one of them ("when you come into your kingdom") is one. wonderful book, one of the best short story collections to come along in a long time.
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December 25, 2011Check out the review on my blog at readingsinfronteras.blogspot.com.
I think the book was great. I wanted to read more stories of the author but this book finished. I will look out for more works on the author.
The short stories went into the lives of each character and at times I thought it might be someone in my family. The sadness and humor caught in these pages makes the read a life experience.
I think the book was great. I wanted to read more stories of the author but this book finished. I will look out for more works on the author.
The short stories went into the lives of each character and at times I thought it might be someone in my family. The sadness and humor caught in these pages makes the read a life experience.
July 7, 2015
This book had potential but just didn't deliver for me. I did appreciate the author's deliberate insertion of previously introduced characters (not just people but locations too, like Gold Street and Avocado Lake) in subsequent stories. The common thread that seemed to bind the stories together did get quite redundant for me, though, and is what stops me from giving this collection any more stars.
March 5, 2014
I thought I picked up a Latino themed book set in California, but little did I know the types of secrets the description provides. Many of the short stories were about Gay relationships, which was a pleasant surprise for me! I was not expecting that and when I finally figured out that Adrian wasn't just a roommate the story began to make sense. It was refreshing to read about gay Latinos. I also read drown and loved that book as well. Glad to have come across this one.
October 28, 2007
This collection of interwoven short stories deals mostly with family ties and the heartache of love and loss. They didn't completely take me in but I felt the stories were a cloudy window into the lives of these Latino people living in and around Fresno, CA. I feel that it is probably an honest portrayal and is sensitively written.
January 11, 2008
i really enjoyed this book. i like the short story format and especially how all of the lives were weaved together in the end in a "six degrees of separation" sort of way. the stories cover so many complicated issues from romantic to parental relationships, issues of nationality and class. munoz does a good job of making you empathize without letting the characters off the hook.
October 27, 2008
Manuel Munoz writes in such a way that you even feel for the characters who are clearly no one you'd want to meet. He has a knack for getting inside the heads of people who might otherwise be the "bad guy" (like the father who drove his son to suicide). No one gets off easy, there are no magical resolutions, everyone pays and we feel the cost. Beautiful writing, deserving of a wider audience.
July 6, 2009
The majority of these short stories feature the closeted sexuality of gay Latino men, and their relationship to one street in a small Californian town. As the stories unfold, so do the intimacies and secrets of the families in the community. Here and there we see a new side to a character we thought we knew. I might read the beginning again, just to make sure I have it right.
March 13, 2016
Fantastic collection of short stories. All set in a town in the valley just outside of Fresno, Munoz makes that small town come alive with his characters, often outsiders due to their sexuality, but sometimes for other reasons too. The writing is taut, not a word wasted, and the feeling of verisimilitude resonates throughout.
August 28, 2007
It's nice to read a book about gay men that doesn't involve clubby white boys with drug problems. This is a book of short stories about hispanic gay men, the closeted and the out....
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September 7, 2007Such heartbreak....smart, well executed. He's one of Viramontes' students.
May 18, 2009
A beautiful writer and a beautiful person. I can't wait for his novel to come out.
Suggested.
Suggested.
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