The Consequences: Stories

by Manuel Muñoz

Shimmering stories set in California’s Central Valley, the first book in a decade from a virtuoso story writer.

“Her immediate concern was money.” So begins the first story in Manuel Muñoz’s dazzling new collection. In it, Delfina has moved from Texas to California’s Central Valley with her husband and small son, and her isolation and desperation force her to take a risk that ends in profound betrayal.

These exquisite stories are mostly set in the 1980s in the small towns that surround Fresno. With an unflinching hand, Muñoz depicts the Mexican and Mexican American farmworkers who put food on our tables but are regularly and ruthlessly rounded up by the migra, as well as the quotidian struggles and immense challenges faced by their families. The messy and sometimes violent realities navigated by his characters—straight and gay, immigrant and American-born, young and old—are tempered by moments of surprising, tender care: Two young women meet on a bus to Los Angeles to retrieve husbands who must find their way back from the border after being deported; a gay couple plans a housewarming party that reveals buried class tensions; a teenage mother slips out to a carnival where she encounters the father of her child; the foreman of a crew of fruit pickers finds a dead body and is subsequently—perhaps literally—haunted.

In The Consequences, obligation can shape, support, and sometimes derail us. It’s a magnificent new book from a gifted writer at the height of his powers.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Historical Fiction, LGBT, Latinx, Queer, Literary Fiction

181 pages, Paperback

First published October 18, 2022

About the author

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 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."

Reviews

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

A somber short story collection about Latinx immigrant families in the 1980s living in or near Fresno, California. I thought Manuel Muñoz did a great job of highlighting how forces related to class and poverty, gender, and immigrant status affect his characters’ lives. Unfortunately, for the majority of the stories I found the writing flat and that the characters didn’t pop or come alive from the page, even if their circumstances were compelling. However, I did deeply enjoy the final story in the collection “What Kind of Fool Am I?” about an eldest sister who watches her younger brother engage in self-destructive behaviors and tries to intervene to protect him again and again. This story felt like more in the 4-5 star range for me, and I loved how Muñoz portrayed his protagonist’s struggle and eventual growth in both caring about her brother and recognizing what is best for her, even if what’s best feels hard.

[Catherine Clapperton · Rating 5 out of 5]

A vibrant collection of stories that paint a picture of 1980s Fresno.

The stories touch upon difficult themes as they explore the characters lives. These span young and old, straight and gay, American born and immigrants.

Family also plays a big part of a number of the stories, showing the love and commitment we have to those family members. Their daily struggles are expertly brought to life as we're transported into these memorable tales.

[Emma Hardy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A powerful and moving collection of short stories that makes you feel like a fly on the wall into people's lives.
This felt very much like real people with real lives and is so convincing its easy to forget its fiction. This doesn't hide away from topical and difficult issues but tackles them head on and raises questions.

A gripping collection.

[Banu Yıldıran Genç · Rating 4 out of 5]

manuel muñoz’un öyküleri “neticeler”i biraz geç de olsa okudum. bence livera’nın gözden kaçmış kitaplarından biri. çok güçlü, güzel öyküler.
asıl olarak meksikalı göçmenler, teksas’tan, başka yerlerden fresno’ya narenciye toplamaya gelenler, habire sınır dışı edilenler ve yine geri gelip ölene dek çalışanlar hakkında… öykülerdeki göçmenlik ve sınıf meselesi bambaşka detaylarla işlenmiş.
ama sadece bu değil. pek çok öyküde queer karakterler var, evden ayrılmak isteyen genç oğlanlar, mecburen evlenmiş ama yaşamın bir yerinde özünü yaşamak isterken evinden uzakta kaybolan orta yaşlı erkekler, sınıf atlamaya çalışan partnerini tanıyamayanlar, terk ettiği erkek arkadaşının ölüm haberini alıp kimseyi tanımadan kilisedeki cenazeye katılıp hüngür hüngür ağlayan adamlar…
manuel muñoz için zamanında latino’lar için böyle öyküler çok erken denerek yayımlanması reddedilmiş öykülerin gururlu yazarı diyebiliriz sanırım. çünkü akademisyenlik yaptığı üniversitede öğrencilerine hem teninin rengi hem de kimliğiyle örnek teşkil etmiş.
queer yazarlarda çok şükrettiğim özellikleriden birisi kadını da erkeği de aynı hakiki tonla anlatabilmeleri. buradaki öykülerde de kadın anlatıcılar da var erkek de ama sesleri de hisleri de son derece gerçekçi. lubunya kardeşine bakıcılık yapmak zorunda kalan abla da sınırdan geri gönderilecek erkek arkadaşını beklemeye los angeles’a giden kadın da babasına refakat ederken çaresizce geçmişe saplanan ailenin ne iş yaptığı belirsiz küçük oğlu da aynı şekilde etkiliyor bizi.
yine de ilk öykü benim için en unutulmaz oldu. “herkes yapabilir” yeni geldiği kasabada yapayalnız kalan genç bir kadının komşusuyla kurduğu kız kardeşlik hakkında demek isterdim… oysa öyle bir çeviriyor ki yazar öyküyü geriye açlık, sefalet ve çaresizlik kalıyor.
fatih yiğiter tertemiz çevirmiş, arkadaşım aylin misler gibi tashih yapmış. iyi ki okudum dediğim kitaplardan “neticeler”.

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are following my reviews, it will come as no surprise that I read this one as I had the chance to see Manuel Munoz at the 2023 Santa Fe International Literary Festival. I was not familiar with him, and only peripherally aware of this book (it had some buzz in my literary social media circles), but I was excited to see an LGBTQ author at this year's festival. One thing of about attending the festival and then reading the books by the author's I had seen, particularly ones that I was not familiar with before the festival, I have been really struck by how much of the author's personality and temperament come through in their writing. I know this should be no surprise, but spending a weekend listening to a bunch of authors it's something I now kind of notice.

So anyhow, Munoz was quiet, reflective, modest, humble, and charming and that is certainly the tone of this short story collection, primarily taking place in the California's Central Valley - Munoz's early stomping grounds. The stories are often about immigrant farm workers, both "legal" and not, but a theme more of family and relationships and struggles. There are also several stories about Mexican American gay men, which felt like a fresh perspective to me and one that Munoz can speak to. As I said above, they are quiet and reflective -- so there is not a bit or flashy WOW! factor or some shocking twists and turns, but just slices of life -- with the WOW! factor being Munoz's stellar prose and ability to create characters and settings that feel very authentic.

There were some connections/ties between the stories, once I realized so I'm guessing there were probably even more, but that's never my super-strong point/skill in this type of situation. But two stories that are very much connected really was a nice surprise and made me yearn for a full novel telling more of that particular story from its various perspectives.

As is my experience with most short story collections, some work better than others but again there is no denying Munoz's skill and empathy and, once again, I am glad to have "discovered" him at this year's festival.

[Royce · Rating 5 out of 5]

I decided to read this short story collection because it won the 2023 Joyce Carol Oates’ award. I had never read Manuel Munoz’s writing before, but I look forward to reading more of his work because his writing is excellent. He has a subtle way of pulling one into the story slowly but completely.

The best word to describe these stories is melancholy. All of the stories feature Latinos (some born across the border in Mexico/others born in America) and take place in Fresno, California in the 1980’s. There are characters struggling to survive, understand or accept their sexuality, find a place for themselves in their respective families. The family is extremely important in Latino culture and its significance and value is featured over and over again, in each story. Although I describe these stories as melancholy, none of them felt depressing, but rather probing and heartfelt. Beautifully written and quite compelling stories. Highly recommended.

[Loz Darwin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A huge thank you to Indigo Press for this gorgeous book.

The stories in this short story collection had me smiling, nodding along with how the siblings are and gasping at times with the nod to the violence at the time towards Mexicans, females and gay relationships.

Family is a main point throughout the stories, the love of one and the trouble they can cause.

Hopefully not a spoiler but I loved the mention of earlier characters in the later stories. Showing how they can be connected.

Will definitely read more from Manuel Munoz

[Anya · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good bunch o’ short stories — bonus treat that some of them ended up connecting with each other

[Solveig Asplund · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. I was going to give this four stars because a few of the stories were of middling interest to me, but after reading the last story (WOW) I feel totally obligated to give it a 5.

The Consequences is the first short story collection I've finished during my semester-long goal of reading one short story a day, maybe because picking it up always felt the easiest. When I wasn't ready to delve into some heavy American anthology, Muñoz's prose always felt approachable, even if his stories often ended up leaving me feeling sort of weak in the knees. As he writes about queerness and Latinx community in the Southwest, family and obligation, secrets and longing, all of his stories have a sort of quiet, lethal rip current running through them, and I was consistently stunned by his skillful endings.

If you don't want to read the whole collection, I'd recommend "Anyone Can Do It" and "What Kind of Fool Am I?"... "The Reason is Because" if you really want to be amazed.

[Maddie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good collection of stories about Latino immigrants and the Latino immigrant experience, with “familiar” ideas in these types of stories like migra vans and working in the fields, as well as more universal and broad reaching experiences in America such as poverty, class, gender and sexuality, loneliness and community, family and what we owe them… each story stands on its own but there were a few overlapping characters which was fun to spot. My favorite stories were What Kind of Fool Am I (about responsible sister Bea caring for her brother Teo/Teddy who we’d met earlier), Anyone Can Do It (about a single mother who is just trying to care for her son in a world that is taking advantage of her), and Susto (which had some Telltale Heart vibes.

[The Atlantic]

"The stories in 'The Consequences,' Muñoz’s first book in more than a decade, are hauntingly simple. His language is powerful and layered; it doesn’t perform for readers or try to impress. The pared-down style gracefully highlights the collection’s steady focus on the lives and families of Mexican and Mexican American farmworkers in Central California. In these surprising, vivid stories, worries are deeply felt but not often spoken aloud, and obligation to kin and the need to survive outweigh much else. The disappearance of a husband triggers a dark financial misadventure; a fraught bus ride forges a temporary alliance; a boozy housewarming party unearths pent-up class tensions. Muñoz’s characters narrate their experiences—the constant threat of the 'migra,' the cumulative effects of deportation, the brisk logistics of picking fruit—with a wry candor. 'It’s easy but hard at the same time,' one character tells another about working in the fields. 'Anyone can do it. It’s just that no one really wants to.'"

https://www.theatlantic.com/books/arc...

[Christopher Alonso · Rating 5 out of 5]

There's so much love and subtlety in these stories. I'm in awe of Muñoz's ability to both simplify and complicate narrative tension all at once.

[Erin Hovendon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've never read interconnected short stories before, and the interwoven threads were interesting to follow (or, in my case, mostly to notice after the fact... not sure I caught everything on the first pass, but that could be a consequence of reading this for a class). I loved the first story, and many of its merits—intimate commentary on immigration, familial tensions, and class—rang true for the rest of the collection. I read through a couple of stories without much of an interest in the characters, but for the most part I enjoyed Munoz's writing style and felt the underlying topics were treated with appropriate weight and complexity.

[Dan Ream · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first story in this collection “Anyone Can Do It” served as my introduction to this author when it appeared in the Penguin Book of the Modern American Short Story. While it’s probably my favorite of the 10 stories here, the others are very good too. Interestingly, a minor character in one story sometimes turns up as a major character in a later story here, giving you multiple perspectives on these characters. Munoz is an excellent storyteller and as he said in an interview I heard, every character in his stories, no matter how small, matters.

[Amy Keys · Rating 5 out of 5]

I live everything this guy writes!

[Dree · Rating 3 out of 5]

These loosely collected short stories focus on Mexican immigrants and Mexican Americans living in the greater Fresno area. Many are farmworkers--both native born citizens and illegal aliens, young, old, lonely, in relationships, straight, gay. Mothers, fathers, childless.

I enjoyed these while reading them, but I am unsure if I will remember them for very long. I am very much looking forward to the California Book Club webinar with Munoz.

[mixturade]

Some of these stories reminded me of my favorite songs, those with lyrics of things I haven’t experienced yet that i turn over in my head.

[Tammy Mannarino · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powerful and at times haunting stories. Munoz' collection is tied together thematically, but has few connections between characters. Each story stands alone with vivid and memorable characters. They are set in the latter part of the twentieth century but the struggles of the main characters are timeless and highly relevant in Today's society.

[Rick Herrera · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. One of the best collections of short stories I’ve read. Muñoz reveals experiences with elegance and grace.

[Mackenzie McFarlane · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 -Started off quite strongly for me and then started waning..ended up DNF at about 70% mark. Probably won’t buy this one for the shelves but I would recommend others to read it and see what they think!

[Kkraemer · Rating 5 out of 5]

The characters in this book are true and right, the kind of people you know if you've sat on a public bench, watching and listening to the voices around you in central California . There's the woman who takes the last of their money so that she can take the bus to L.A. or San Diego, for example, when her husband doesn't come home from the fields. She knows that, instead of paying his Friday salary, the bosses called La Migra, who take everyone, "legal" or not, to the border. She'll need to bring him back. There's also the girl whose baby has and will change her teenage life, as well as all the lives that she will live forever. There's the boy who knows that he has to get out of the small town, that he's drawn to men, and that, sooner or later, he'll have to have his sister come to rescue him. There's the father who ponders what he must do to be let back in the house, back to his place in the family, and, in the "rehab" center, an unemployed son listens to his grandfather ramble through his memories of the huge grapefruit, the beautiful nectarines, the tomatoes, the peaches, the good, hard muscle work of a lifetime.
These are stunning stories that must be read one at a time, so that they rest in your consciousness before taking up residence in your soul.

[Kate Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought there was a real variation of stories in this collection; some really good, others not so compelling. I really enjoyed the first story (about the car and the other woman) as well as one about the man who died in the field, and then did not particularly like any of the ones with Teddy- from his lover & from his sister. I think the premise of all the stories was great and the interconnectedness was very fun! But the characters mostly felt pretty flat and didn't quite pop off the page- it felt like they had predictable emotions and often when the big "climaxes" of the stories happened, I was a little less emotionally affected because I didn't see the characters as fully believable. I think in particular the female characters were less well-written/complex. Overall, I'm really glad I read it for the stories and the fun of seeing the stories intertwine, but otherwise, I don't know if I found a ton of inspiration or meaning in the characters themselves.

[Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don’t usually read short stories. I really enjoyed these stories!

[Gino · Rating 3 out of 5]

Heartache, longing, obligation.

These are the words that come to mind when I think of these stories.

I’m not the biggest short story fan, but I thought Muñoz was masterful in his writing. The diversity of characters really kept it fresh, despite the characters all having many similarities.

This book will have you grateful for the softness in your life, as there is very little of that in this book.

I take a star away because, as always, I feel like there are too many unanswered questions (for my taste) in a short story collection. Some of these characters and stories were so rich and unfinished, that I think I would have rather seen longer stories about them. But maybe that’s the point of it? Maybe Muñoz was successful in their goals.

I think this book can be for everyone. A special recommendation for my fellow Latines who like stories about family issues and diverse ensemble casts. Also, surprisingly queer.

Alsooo - MAYBE a SPOILER but not really?

… scroll away if you want …

…

…

Last chance

…

I loved that the last story had a crossover with an earlier story. It really drove home the idea that despite their differences, they are unified by different things. It had me wondering if there were other crossovers I missed …

[Jose Roque Perez-Zetune · Rating 5 out of 5]

really refreshing to read latinx lit from someone actually from our community without stereotypes writing honestly about our lives

second time reading thoughts:
his writing is so patient and exact. it’s creepy in a way how he nails the feeling of shame and obligation and dreaminess that revolves our lives. fieldwork was my favorite the first time around but now i think it’s what kind of fool am i.

[Juliano · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Their stories were not yet lost in their heads.” The stories that comprise Manuel Muñoz’s The Consequences are, despite their variety in tone and characters, deeply connected on levels of theme, intent, focus, and more. They all share a certain delicacy, stories told so finely that they would collapse in someone else’s voice; they share certain recurring characters and points of plot, reminiscent of Bryan Washington’s Lot, as these short stories start building towards a sum greater than its parts. And they are concerned with work (‘Anyone Can Do It’, ‘The Pink House at the End of the Street on the Other Side of Town’), migration, foreignness, fragility (‘The Happiest Girl in the Whole USA’, ‘Pink House’ again), and sexuality, otherness (the title story, ‘Presumido’, ‘Compromisos’). In ‘Susto’, a body is discovered with its head buried in dirt “like a goddamn ostrich”; in ‘The Reason Is Because’, a baby is dangled, briefly and terrifyingly, over an open landing. The title story, with its exploration of grief, is magnified and complicated by the connected, final story, ‘What Kind of Fool Am I?’. ‘Fieldwork’, in which a man watches his father in physical therapy, bridges many of these ideas in the murky assertion that “No place is the end if you don’t want it to be. If you work hard, you can leave.” The briefest instances are haunting, a car “driven away slowly, slowly, and on out past the edge of his little hand and out of their lives forever”, a man realising “it would be hard to be surrounded by so much wrong without, finally, having to say something about it.” Muñoz has written stories rare in their daring, their will to look and their ability to affect.

[Karina Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5 While none of these individual stories reached 5 stars for me (the final one was the closest at 4.5), I’m obsessed with the way they all wove together to reveal themes in the collection. The main two themes I picked up on were communication and representation.
Throughout all of these stories, communication was portrayed in interesting ways, with characters often understanding each other without sharing words. The theme largely served to demonstrate how understandings can occur between people, even without words, due to shared histories and circumstances like immigration and being forced to become responsible from a young age. Of course the use of Spanish also played into this.
“Representation” is a word thrown around a lot in literary spaces and media in general. And while there very much is the most common kind of representation in this book, as it involves characters of color, queer characters, etc., I mostly mean that the stories of people who are often quickly judged or neglected are told. What’s the truth behind a man who caused his family to fall apart by leaving his wife? We have heard, and heard here, the tragic stories of men who died in the AIDs epidemic, but what about his sister who tried for her entire young life to keep him safe? How often do we consider that the teenage mom is still struggling with the emotions of every teenager, jealous that the boy she likes is spending time with another girl? This idea is really tied together with the story “Susto,” which was a favorite of mine.
Overall, as I said, the collection as a whole is great, but no one story shone enough for me to want to revisit them often.

[Leanne McElroy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay, so, I’ve got a lot of thoughts about this one.

First,

I’d like to do a star rating for each short story in this collection, as this has shaped my final decision on 4 stars.

The Reason is because (5/5)

What kind of fool am I? (5/5)

Anyone can do it (5/5)

Happiest girl in the USA (5/5)

The pink house at the end of the road on the other side of town (4/5)

Presumido (4/5)

Field work (3/5)

Susto (3/5)

The Consequences (2/5)

Compromisos (2/5)

This author came as a visiting writer to my college campus, so it was a class requirement to get his book and do some readings from. I remember sponging up a lot of good writing material and craft nuances from it when breaking down the stories. This was the first time I read the collection in its entirety though. Every story in this book felt like it had a reason to be there.

One thing I note anytime I encountered his work was that Muñoz is a very good technical writer. And what I mean by this is the way he sets up a story, the details he chooses to layer in the space of such short sections, the jammed packed symbolic and or metaphorical meaning in seemingly “plain” scenarios or words. He has a real intuition for knowing the order in which information needs to be conveyed to the reader, so the delivery smacks every time.

I knew immediately what Muñoz was trying to say in each story without being told it. The subtly in meanings made me go “gosh darn it Muñoz, this is good,” several times. I liked the way it felt like each story was a baby Rubix cube I could mull over.

On the surface, Muñoz has a simple, minimalistic style to his writing, and you can easily miss a lot if you aren’t paying attention. However, there is real depth there. It doesn’t call attention to itself, and I quite like the nuance, or onion layers that you can pull back. When reading some of his stories more than once, I found more things that I noticed or could admire on a second read through.

I also appreciated the in canon universe we have here of several stories referencing or making a call back to another. I LOVE this in writing. I’ve been dreaming about doing this in my own work for years. I flipped around to find all the connections. I felt satisfied when I put the pieces together that these characters were passing each other as strangers but were all connected in some way. That’s what a short story collection is all about, I feel! I plan on doing something slightly different, which is putting Easter eggs. So a character in one story might show up as a poster or action figure in another story, even if the two stories aren’t related. It’s fun to add these little touches.

Some things that I felt bogged this collection down:

For some reason this collection was hard to push through at times. I remember just waiting for it to be over in the last 70 pages, even if I liked the writing. Or, in the stories I wasn’t too hooked on, I felt I had to force myself to finish. The pacing felt incredibly slow for each story and I knew that was to make it feel like we could see and feel everything a bit more. Sometimes it worked really well, and sometimes it didn’t. I wished for quicker pacing.

This is a personal reading experience on my part, but in Compromisos, I hated the main character so much and didn’t like any of his actions or thoughts. It left me feeling really icky, I’m not sure if that was intentional or not. Only maybe that the ending was good to me with the resolve with the son, but it rubbed me the wrong way several times. It just didn’t land with me. The other stories were either great, pretty good, or decent.

On a more personal note: Back to the fact that Manuel Muñoz was a visiting writer to my college campus.

One of my old professors really looked up to his guy and was practically vibrating with praise anytime this writer was brought up. He had endearing excitement. I was like, ok, this Muñoz fellow must be the real deal, because he’s one of my mentor’s mentors, in a way. I think he was the writer that let my professor get his foot in the door, a discovered talent, so to speak.

To be completely honest, Manuel Muñoz was probably one of the few visiting writers that I felt somewhat connected to. He was the first and only author that came where I actually felt my mouth drop in a good kind of shock and then I got teary eyed and a little choked up in my seat when he read aloud “What Kind Of Fool Am I?” I had really connected to the sister character in that one, I could see myself in her SO much.

Muñzo was such a pleasant person to listen to. It made me want to ask questions about his work and hear what he had to say. He’s an incredibly humble and down to earth kind of person. His work felt like it had a Bob Ross kind of quality, ‘I’m going to tell you a nice little story that means a lot, I’d ask kindly that you hear what I have to say.’

He didn’t use his platform to make an opinionated statement about current events or make a condescending political rant. Instead, Muñoz let his writing do the work to convey his frustrations, wishes, feelings, and the personal experiences of himself and others. I connected with THIS so much more than a lecture about how I just absolutely cannot ever connect or understand people from this group because I’m not from it. I could focus on him as an artist and enjoy his work. Such a breath of fresh air he was.

I pictured in my head Muñoz putting on sunglasses and being like “I understand the assignment.”

Pretty good short stories by Muñoz. He is indeed a great writer.

Note: My copy of this was 181 pages of story. This book includes LGBTQ+ content with some graphic sexual language and descriptions. But this is not every story. I skipped over the graphic parts. Those parts just weren't for me.

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like Munoz' writing a lot. His stories have effective detail, a lot of poignancy, and really connect you with the characters' feelings. They are also long enough (14-24 pages) to tell a story in some depth. There are ten stories in this volume, and two pairs have interconnected characters.
However, as opposed to most readers, I liked "The Faith Healer of Olive Street" a bit more than this collection. All the stories involve the Mexican American experience, mostly in and around Fresno, California but also in small town Texas. Two, if I remember correctly, involve white men in gay relationships with a Mexican partner.

While the stories for the most part stay with me (except "Susto" which I think does not work at all),
I did not respond in a strong positive way to any of them. I also found the book a bit depressing, since sadness and/or a lack of fulfillment (familial or amorous) are central to all of the stories. The collection is also devoid of humor.

Munoz is a terrific writer, though, and this is very much worth reading. I will probably read anything I can find that he has written.

[Danielle Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

i think for me, the stories were too… maybe i’d call it detached, tonally? a touch too nihilistic. but … is that a stylistic choice or a cultural truth?

it’s interesting reading second gen stories bc i always imagine there’s a toe-ing of the line between writing for those in the community and those not in the community. it’s hard to put forth a critique when i have no baseline on the experience. i thought of two other books while reading this - “there there” by tommy orange and “afterparties” by anthony veasna so. i went back to read my reviews and with “there there” i marveled at how foreign the experiences described were though they were set so near to where i grew up; with “afterparties” i sensed raw emotion, and felt a connection.

with these stories, i have to admit, i felt neither of those things. even though in many ways they were beautiful and poignant, it was sort of like seeing a row of portraits and thinking “oh i recognize those people” but also “what are those expressions they’re making?” — which felt odd. to recognize the characters, but not the emotions. but again: am i overlooking what’s true?