Straight writes with tenderness and insight about the lives of people from the Westside, a black neighborhood in a large southern California city--but it isn't the California everyone knows or thinks they know.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
An astute, bracing debut short-fiction collection by a white woman residing in a largely black neighborhood in Riverside, Calif., this sings of the brief happy moments and ever-looming tragedies and defeats in the lives of discretely voiced blacks chorusing here in dialect. Aspiring artist Nacho scrubs the scuzzy hallways and bathrooms of the University of Massachusetts so he can take art courses for free; before he departs for home, he spreads puddles of tenacious paint to retaliate for insults of white co-workers. Back in Rio Seco, a disoriented Nacho is teased for his "sissy hands" by his gardener father and cousin, and he helps relocate to seniors housing an aunt, whose home is being torn down against her will to make room for office buildings. Nine-year-old Demone's brother Max smoked up all the crack he was supposed to sell; now he puffs on a Super Kool, a cigarette dipped in embalming fluid, and escapes the drug pushers by jumping to his death in the path of a train. Donnie's basketball talent trickles out and his marriage becomes violent; Esther, a homebody who's a whiz at braiding hair and baking quiche, is challenged by her husband's latest girlfriend, an executive secretary: "Esther's husband Joe loved him some cars. And this woman driving past loved her some Joe."
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
This strong collection offers vignettes, insights, and snippets of the everyday lives of her African American caracters. -- Library Journal, April 1, 2004
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More About the Author
Susan Straight was born in Riverside, California, where she still lives with her three daughters, nephew, extended family of over 200, and chickens. She has published seven novels - Aquaboogie (1990), I Been in Sorrow's Kitchen and Licked Out All the Pots (1992), Blacker Than a Thousand Midnights (1994), The Gettin Place (1996), Highwire Moon (2001), A Million Nightingales (2006), and her latest, Take One Candle Light A Room (2010). Her short stories have been published in Zoetrope All-Story, McSweeneys, The Sun, Oxford American, O Henry Prize Stories, Best American Short Stories, and other places. Her story "The Golden Gopher," published in Los Angeles Noir, won the Edgar Award in 2007. Her essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Harpers, The Believer, Reader's Digest, Family Circle and other magazines. Her website is www.susanstraight.com, featuring An American Family, with ties to ancestors from Switzerland, Africa, Canada, Oklahoma, Colorado, and California.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Writer, Difficult At Times To Read,
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Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Aquaboogie (Paperback)
If I could, I'd give this book 3.5 stars. Susan Straight is a skilled writer - I ordered this book after reading a short story in "The Sun" magazine. I believe this was her first book and it is a clever concept. She links characters, across three generations, in short stories who are related by blood or friendship, all black. I felt pretty ignorant as I learned about institutionalized racism and how it shapes people, their decisions and who they become. It was not always inspired reading, but there are some gems in her words and characters. It is a good book.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
Nacho usually found the first five or six cans in the English classrooms at the far end of the hall. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
chainlink fence Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Red Man, Rio Seco, Lee Myrtle, Miss Jackson, Aint Rosa, Green Hollows, Lil Joe, Joe Killer, Miss Linsey, Palm Springs, Ricky Ronrico, Victor Miles, Lincoln Park, Super Kool, Bounty Hunters, Picasso Street, Jackson Park, Puerto Rican, Sweet Thang, Third Avenue, Eddie Junior, Forest Service, New Year, Safe Hooptie, Sixth Avenue New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Nacho usually found the first five or six cans in the English classrooms at the far end of the hall. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
chainlink fence Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Red Man, Rio Seco, Lee Myrtle, Miss Jackson, Aint Rosa, Green Hollows, Lil Joe, Joe Killer, Miss Linsey, Palm Springs, Ricky Ronrico, Victor Miles, Lincoln Park, Super Kool, Bounty Hunters, Picasso Street, Jackson Park, Puerto Rican, Sweet Thang, Third Avenue, Eddie Junior, Forest Service, New Year, Safe Hooptie, Sixth Avenue New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 3
books:
- Social Security Legislation: V. 4 by Nick Wikeley on page 68
- Diana Ross by National Enquirer on page 183
- Blue Taxis: Stories about Africa by Drew in Back Matter
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