Customer Reviews

The Extinction of Rhinos in Mexico

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The Extinction of Rhinos in Mexico contains short stories woven together to create a highly original vision of the contemporary human spirit in contact with our modern-day environment. Stephen Blackburn, author, uses a voice that varies from the austere inner monologues of a small child in "Web's Center" to the sophisticated interior turmoil of an apparently happy man contemplating divorce against the background of War in "Carrion Birds". Blackburns exquisite handling of humor and young-men-coming-of-age is present in the stories, "Ordeal of the Arrow" and "Orion's Belt". These stories and others reveal the ongoing character's (Brad) emerging awareness of self, the variety of human tastes, choices and lifestyles which are played against the oftimes bloody and absurd rites of manhood. Never before have I read a story about artists that is more accurate in feel and tone than Blackburn's "Meat Caves". Here the artist lives buoyed by imagination and creativity within the confusing whirl of concrete existence. There are so many good stories in The Extinction of Rhinos in Mexico and though each story reaches through the heart and soul of author Stephen Blackburn, the intelligent and original presentation is a masterful journey through universal concerns that lay within each yearning heart. Each of these stories continues to live and grow within us, revealing upon repeated readings, more of our own human acceptance, confusion, humor, and heroism.

I stumbled across Blackburn by chance a couple of years ago. I was not impressed by my initial read. In fact, I naively labeled it dark and nothing more. In my mind. After a few months had passed, I started thinking again about that woman in the title story. The recollection was powerful. And I had to read it again. That is strong writing. He is certainly a great talent, and these stories are not forgettable.

A read worth taking a chance on. Definitely.


Kabol

Preparing for a visit to Mexico, this odd collection of short stories with an energetic title caught my eye on the $2 shelf at a local bookstore. I picked it up, browsed at the title story, and found myself drawn into a difficult, often dismal life of an overweight and under-educated woman on a crowded Mexican bus.

This thin book, written by a middle-aged journalist and former cook, contains riveting tales of desperate folks seeking solace and satisfaction. Usually, they fail.

Stephen Blackburn, the author, brings great sensitivity to his portraits of Los Angeles nannies, Louisana cooks, lonely loners, Vietnam veterans, ambitious Boy Scouts, and Mexican women. People misperceive, take chances, make poor choices, find the courage to try something new, and fail again. The litany of personal tales of woe afflicting these fine folks ranges from betrayl, crime, and poverty to indecision, drug abuse, and abusive employers in this Steinbeckian collection.

I can't pretend that I respected all these peculiar characters, but they felt authentic. This collection of short stories certainly deserves a wider audience of readers - especially in community college classrooms and adult education centers. The costs of ignorance - emotional, physical, and financial - become extraordinary clear in this compelling work. I wouldn't be surprised to read a short story from here in a college anthology someday.

Steven Blackburn demonstrates a wonderful talent in illustrating atmosphere, characterization and straight-forward storytelling in his first collection of short stories. He also has a remarkable ability to show a kind of emotional diversification; from the humorous "Ordeal of the Arrow", to the culturally atmospheric "Extinction of Rhinos in Mexico", to the emotionally powerful "Carrion Birds" and "Guardian", to especially the character-driven (and by far the best in his collection) "Smell of a Christian".

And yet, all nine of these tales have a universitality flavor about them that can appeal to any reader; especially to any aspiring writer who is seeking his/her own voice.

As a fellow writer, I strongly recommend this book.

The Extinction of Rhinos in Mexico is Stephen Blackburn's first short story collection. Here's hoping that there are many more.

Many of the newest generation of writers who have graduated from M.F.A. programs dwell on interior monologues where nothing of substance happens. Don't let Stephen Blackburn's M.F.A. degree fool you. His world is one of action and choices, where young men wonder how they can become men and Mexican woman struggle with the real life and death adversary that is poverty.

At first glance, it is easy to compare Blackburn to Hemingway. The stories are billed as "nine tales of life and death." Blackburn writes in a sparse, less-is-more style that sticks to the story and lets the narrative drive, not literary fireworks, draw the reader in. He is a journeyman who has worked jobs ranging from laborer to freelance writer, lived in foreign countries, traveled extensively, and his work has a freshness of a man who knows of what he writes.

While a comparison to Hemingway may seem like quick praise for a writer's first book, the comparison doesn't do Blackburn's work justice in the end. Although the collection has a peppering of vivid, slice-of-life stories featuring young males as they come of age in South Texas, Blackburn is not stuck on any one theme or point of view. He writes the voices of young boys making sense of a miscarriage, middle-aged women struggling as artists, and a poor woman in Mexico. And through these voices we travel to new worlds and live the lives of those who inhabit them.

For me, the greatest example and the crown jewel of the collection is the title story, "The Extinction of Rhinos in Mexico." We hear the story of a dirt poor Mexican woman as she struggles alone in a cruel world to nurse her pregnancy to fruition. Told in the first person, using the woman's own voice, the reader slowly slips into her language, her cadence, her world. I especially liked his use of casually observed details that seem so perfectly real. For example, when the woman unexpectedly finds herself sitting behind her cheating husband and his girlfriend on the bus, Blackburn writes:

"His eyes changed when he saw me, but he is a man, so he did not flinch when his woman, not knowing who I was, chose the seats right in front of me. They sat down side by side, Justino by the window, and the bus started again. My husband paid the boy for their fares and then leaned over to her and whispered something in her ear. Her head bowed for a moment. Even from where I sat I could smell the mezcal on his breath.

We rode for a few miles and then his woman let her right hand hang down over the seat rail, almost touching the floor. Before I realized what was occurring, she gave my ankle a vicious pinch.

That was all, nothing more, but well, I'm ashamed to tell you a fury overtook me. And so I yanked the black tresses of that woman in my callused fingers, and we got into it right there on the bus."

Although, it is a world I know almost nothing about, I realized that I recognized these people, because I recognized the human nature that Blackburn revealed. And isn't that what great art does.

The heartbreaking ending of "The Extinction of Rhinos in Mexico" left a lump in my throat for the rest of the afternoon. As I reflected on the story, I realized Blackburn had given me the rarest gift any writer can; he moved me.

Here's hoping he's working on his second collection.

Rare is it to find an author who even hints at the grace of Hemingway, or the in-your-face of Faulkner. You will never know what is coming next, from one story to another, or one page to the next.

Through the eyes of a child, one explores his world of discovery which includes the spider's web and the wasp's sting, but in the center of his world is his mother. "web center" opens the reader's exploration of nine short stories in this literary treasure. Each story speaks to different experiences of life's journey.

The "Ordeal of the Arrow" depicts the experiences of young boys' summer camp and their challenges to succeed in not only starting a fire with one match but also in becoming men facing failure and friendship. Many of the charachters are off beat. The reader glimpses the inside of the restaurant kitchen with the interaction of cooks, managers and waitresses, as well as an artist trying to break into the art world. Other characters tug on your heart strings in their struggles with life.

Each story presents us with a different look into the experiences that shape our lives with all the various textures woven into individual patterns.