Review by Booklist Review
Lange, author of the award-winning short story collection Dead Boys (2007) and the well-received novel Angel Baby (2013), provides readers with a walk on the dark side, mostly in Los Angeles. He portrays the lives of people struggling to survive, with the focus on families, both blood-related and chance-made. Drug addicts, working folk, and the occasional loner people this collection of skillfully constructed short stories. In Baby Killer, Bianca's fear of gang vengeance is suddenly erased when she sees the gunman, Puppet, in her own home. Campbell, a drug addict, can hardly keep his head above water after his lover Maryrose dies of an overdose in Instinctive Drowning Response. In After All, a desolate future drives Bear and his son, Benny, into the wilderness to hunt for his grandfather's Krugerrands to square family debts. In the heartrending To Ashes, the solitary Brewster meets a father and son searching for relatives from Mexico who may not have survived a fierce wildfire. These 10 stories will have broad appeal because of Lange's accessible style and fine characterization.--Loughran, Ellen Copyright 2014 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Gamblers, grifters, ex-cons, and those just conning themselves populate this gritty if uneven L.A.-centric second story collection from the author of the Hammett Prize-winning novel Angel Baby (2013). Marginalized types barely manage to scrape by, like the streetwise security guard of the satisfyingly twisty "Apocrypha"; they know their weaknesses as intimately as their drugs of choice. And yet in the best of these tales-among them "Instinctive Drowning Response," a smartly structured account of a low-level dealer's arc after his girlfriend ODs-they still manage to cut themselves a little slack, despite their damning insights. As expressed by the sympathetic protagonist of the title story, whose addictions have sent him from family man earning six figures to Subway sandwich-maker sharing an apartment with a stranger he met on Craigslist, "There's something to be said for the truth, sure, but the truth is, it's lies that keep us going." Agent: Henry Dunow, Dunow, Carlson & Lerner Literary Agency. (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
With one noteworthy exception, which features a prison guard in France's guillotine era watching over "the Wolf," a cryptic child murderer, the ten longish stories in this collection are mostly set on the side streets of Los Angeles and infused with an urban realism laced with extraordinary circumstance. The titular tale has two roommates seeking renovation. At 400-plus pounds, Troy wants weight loss and fitness, while Dennis, once prosperous but derailed by addictions, seeks normalcy. Troy loses the weight but dies of a heart attack. Dennis befriends a distraught mother during his Subway night shift, moves up to Best Buy, and is soon a manager, going steadily in what he hopes is the right direction and maybe even renewed contact with his children. Another story finds a gambling addict on a hopeful date, but as his date wins at the ponies he keeps losing, forfeiting even her winnings, until he "borrows" $20 from a crony and wins a weird superfecta, netting more than $1,000 but losing the girl. VERDICT Utterly believable postcards from the edge; for those who like their realism not so magical but right there at street level.-Robert E. Brown, Oswego, NY (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Lange, a writer of both stylish noir novels (Angel Baby, 2013) and sharply etched short fiction (Dead Boys, 2007), returns with a story collection set in a Southern California that won't be found in any travel guides.Heroin addiction, street shootings, drive-by sex, shakedowns: These are the kinds of things that define the lives of Lange's protagonists in Los Angeles and beyond. A Hispanic widow refuses to tell police she saw the accidental shooting of a 2-year-old boy until discovering a family member has a connection to the killer. A gambling addict takes a first date and her young son to the racetrack, where his loser tendencies again destroy any chance of happiness. A plan to smuggle Mexicans into the U.S. is complicated by a wildfire speeding toward the border from San Diego. An ex-con working in an LA jewelry store must contend with lowlifes he knows who want to rob it. And in a departure set in late-19th-century France, a prison guard is tested by conversations with a man facing the guillotine for killing eight children. There's little hope for a better day for any of these characters, whose lives are made more difficult by sweltering heat and cramped conditions. For all the darkness that runs through the stories, though, Lange maintains a disarmingly light touch, finding plenty of human comedy in the proceedings without sacrificing empathy. With the slightest shift of tone, this could join Angel Baby on the modern pulp shelf. As it is, Lange's morality tales are not that far removed from the classic stories of O. Henry and Guy de Maupassant. With a distinctive style, Lange makes his downbeat tales of the underclass quirkily entertaining. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Review by Library Journal Review
Review by Kirkus Book Review
