Customer Reviews

How to Name a Hurricane (Camino del Sol)

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I'll admit I don't read a lot of short stories--I'm a more of a novel kind of guy. But I was totally won over and completely captivated by Rane Arroyo's first collection of fiction. His short stories are about gay and bisexual Latino men and their lovers, ex-lovers, future lovers and the families they all come from. Some of his written words made me laugh out loud; others made me incredibly sad. And being from the Windy City myself, I loved his references to various Chicago places like the bar, Little Jim's, and the vegetarian restaurant, The Chicago Diner--both of which are still in business on Halsted Street. But what I found most intriguing about Mr. Arroyo's stories was his experimentation with different writing styles. "The Blackie Soto Mystery Series" is a hilarious descriptive list of a series of mysteries about Blackie and his two friends who have wild adventures while solving crimes--kind of a gay Latino Hardy Boys. And "Rat Poison: The Book of Marcus Mar" tells the tale--in 101 sentences--of a young man committing suicide--I found it disturbing, sad and beautifully written. Other stories are told as monologues, in verse, and even as cyberspace emails. "How to Name a Hurricane" is a quick, wonderful read that you will have a difficult time putting down once you begin. I highly recommend that you check it out.