Homicide Survivors Picnic and Other Stories [Paperback]

Lorraine M Lopez (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2009

Fiction. Latino/Latina Studies. "In a voice that is all at once hilarious and mischievous, searing and seething and sardonic, Lorraine Lopez presents, in her most necessary book to date, a celebration of the liberating power of bad behavior," writes Heather Sellers about HOMICIDE SURVIVORS PICNIC AND OTHER STORIES. Most of the stories are set in the South and focus around family relationships, by birth and choice, among characters from Latino and other backgrounds. Lydia, a childless linguist, takes care of her precious four-year-old niece while the mother faces jail. Social worker Rita rents the empty half of her duplex to her loser ex-husband, with disastrous results. And in the title story, teenager Ted winds up attending a homicide survivor's picnic with his sister, who is mourning her recently slain boyfriend whom Ted barely knew. "We are moved by her characters' difficult dilemmas without being traumatized," writes Lynn Pruett. And Manuel Munoz agrees, "All of the refined and subtle humor we've come to expect from Lopez.... A marvelous collection."

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Lorraine M. Lopez lives in Nashville, Tennessee, where she teaches at Vanderbilt University. Her awards include the Independent Publisher Book Award for Multicultural Fiction, the Paterson Prize for Fiction, the International Latino Book Award for Short Stories, and the inaugural Miguel Marmol Prize for Fiction (selected by Sandra Cisneros and awarded by Curbstone Press, for a first book-length work of fiction of a Latino/a writer). She has written a book for young adults, Call Me Henri. Her latest novel is The Gifted Gabaldon Sisters, which was a Los Compadres/Borders selection. Her forthcoming books include a new novel, Limpieza, and an edited essay collection, An Angle of Vision: Women Writers on Their Poor and Working Class Roots.

Product Details

• Paperback: 263 pages
• Publisher: BkMk Press, University of Missouri-Kansas City; 1st edition (November 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1886157723
• ISBN-13: 978-1886157729
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #365,095 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pen/Faulkner Nominee, March 4, 2010

By 

Jenifer (Salvisa, KY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Homicide Survivors Picnic and Other Stories (Paperback)

Just chosen as one of the five best books of fiction published in the US in 2009, Homicide Survivor's Picnic is elegant in style and searingly honest in its depiction of American lives touched by tragedy. I fully appreciated the lack of the victim's stance in each of these fraught and yet delicate stories. It is a testament to Ms. Lopez's talent that this collection is inspiring and hopeful and yet dedicatedly honest about the sad waste violence leaves in its wake. The American family of the 21st century has long evolved from picket fence America. The family is more interesting now, as Lopez gamely demonstrates. Read it and cheer!

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Eye Opening, March 18, 2010

By 

BookBargainsandPreviews.com "www.bookbargains... (New York) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Homicide Survivors Picnic and Other Stories (Paperback)

This is an interesting book that is definitely written from a Latino perspective. In this book of short stories the author gives her depiction of the lives of (mostly) Hispanic-American family touched by violence and/or tragedy. Each story is well-written showing Lopez as a talented writer. She writes with honesty and clarity that makes you want to keep turning the pages.

~Reviewed by [...]

5.0 out of 5 stars It really is a great read., October 25, 2011

By 

Brendan Frost (New Orleans, Louisiana) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Homicide Survivors Picnic and Other Stories (Paperback)

If I based my decision to read this book on the other reviewers here on Amazon there's no way I would have read it. They read as if they are written by paid advertisers or hack Latino-Life-type magazine writers who don't know literature.

But the one story I've read from this collection ("The Threat of Peace"--I'll edit my review once I read the rest, which I now will) was one of the more frank and cynically-uplifting stories I've read in a while. I felt elation when the character decided to actually do something, and even though this happened right at the end it did not seem hacky, it seemed dead on, and exhilarating, because the rest of the story contextualizes it perfectly, with realism and even--and this is a tough one to pull off--humor which does not detract from the emotional seriousness. It's surprising how often we can end up or just plain put ourselves in bad situations without doing anything about it. Step one: read this story.