Eight stories of dark science fiction and fantasy weave a path through the underbelly of San Francisco's most notorious district in Taste of Tenderloin by Gene O'Neill. Best known for his strong sense of place and uniquely vibrant characters, O'Neill brings the gritty underside of the city to life with eight interwoven stories of broken lives, missed dreams, and all that can go wrong with both reality and fantasy among the down and out. The city itself opens wide to swallow all comers with the temptation of its secrets and sins, while O'Neill brings dignity and humanity to a set of characters often overlooked in both society and fiction.
Taste of Tenderloin
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Haunting, lyrical and often uncomfortably realistic, this slim collection of eight short stories plunges the reader into the darker side of San Francisco. Altered states of consciousness—minds changed by grief, chemistry or too much hard living—are everywhere. In Magic Words, an advertising executive pays a homeless woman a high price for transient success. Poignant and plausible almost to a fault, Tombstones in His Eyes twists the horrors of drug addiction into something harder, sharper and scarier. In The Apotheosis of Nathan McKee, a brokenhearted father's descent into insanity—or is it merely invisibility?—makes normalcy seem all too tenuous. The best story of the bunch, 5150, documents the final moments of a worn-out cop about to retire. O'Neill's deft, authentic prose resonates with the weight of sad reality, erasing the line between knowledge and fear. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
The anthology is quite diverse in its offering with stories that range from the fantastic to the hauntingly realistic but all of them have something in common: the ugly, brutal life in the streets of the district. They are much less frightening than I expected them to be as instead of gritty horror, we are confronted by characters steeped in and suffering the consequences of poverty, crime, homelessness, addiction - which may not be scary but certainly is horrific. The description of their environs is quite vivid, as the characters walk the streets of the `Loin, brushing shoulders with petty criminals, prostitutes, drug addicts, war veterans. - Ana, The Book Smugglers, October 2009 --The Book Smugglers Review - Ana, October 29, 2009
O'Neill infuses each story with strong descriptive details of the district's setting without becoming heavy-handed. This persuasive reality allows the fantastic or horrific elements to slip in easily and unexpectedly. The results are consistently convincing and satisfying, often leaving us wishing the stories went on a little longer.
O'Neill infuses each story with strong descriptive details of the district's setting without becoming heavy-handed. This persuasive reality allows the fantastic or horrific elements to slip in easily and unexpectedly. The results are consistently convincing and satisfying, often leaving us wishing the stories went on a little longer.
What with each story taking place in the same setting, you might think it best to read only one or two per sitting to avoid redundancy. But the author's Tenderloin tales are varied enough to enjoy all at once or sparingly. Either way, this collection reminds us of the unique reading pleasures to be found in well-told short stories. - Alan Cranis, Bookgasm, August 2009 --Bookgasm - Alan Cranis, August 19, 2009
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Simply amazing,
By
This review is from: Taste of Tenderloin (Paperback)
I really want to write a great review for Taste Of Tenderloin by Gene O'Neill, but it has left me almost speechless. ToT features eight short stories that bring the Tenderloin district of San Francisco to life. Since reading this book, two words have been stuck in my head: magical and transformative. Each story represents both of these words, figuratively and literally. It is amazing, the way Mr. O'Neill can write stories that are tragic, hopeful, sad and uplifting, all at once. There are characters that move from story to story, creating a feeling of cohesiveness. And the main characters; oh, the main characters. Each and every one of the main players is fully fleshed. I feel as if I could enter the Tenderloin and run into these people on the street, greeting them by name. I don't like to go into specifics. I prefer to let readers go in fresh. I just try to express how I feel about what I have read. Taste Of Tenderloin is such a well written, moving experience, I'm afraid that I haven't been able to do it justice. Buy it. read it. I think you will see what I mean.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A dark, surrealistic voyage through the slums,
By Michele Lee (Louisville, KY) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Taste of Tenderloin (Paperback)
Despite the flavorful title, Gene O' Neill's Taste of Tenderloin doesn't feature eight stories dedicated to culinary tales, but instead it's his ode to the San Francisco Tenderloin District, bent on making the area a vivid, magical place all its own.
The first story, "Lost Patrol", is not necessarily a traditional story with a beginning, middle and end. Instead it's a character profile, short, but vivid, with a delicate stretch of story surrounding it. Like an appetizer, there's not much here, but enough to get a good taste of what's to come. Next comes "Magic Words", an old school urban fantasy tale of dark magic and a mysterious homeless woman who one night, taking only a promise for the future as payment, gives a man the exact words he needed to move forward in his life. Unlike a lot of other stories, this one doesn't try to present a "be careful what you ask for" moral. Instead it just presents itself as it is, adding an element of mysticism to the Tenderloin. "Tombstones in His Eyes" tackles the overlapping tales of the junkies on the street, using some very interesting symbolism. Again, O' Neill doesn't so much tell a story as present a character and their tale, in the good and bad, for the reader's viewing. "Bushido" is also lovely, the tale of a man who finds salvation in the streets walking alongside doom. But the imagery and the climax bear a strong resemblance to the previous tale, and so it lessens some of the impact. "Balance" follows a vet suffering from a disconnect with reality. It's hard to watch Declan's version of getting more control over the world around him, since he can't seem to control his own brain functions. But this story, like the other so far, is present unflinchingly, with little effort to make the reader sympathize with the characters. Instead O' Neill just beckons you to come and listen. With "The Apotheosis of Nathan McKee" O'Neill ties the people of the Tenderloin and the stories in this collection together firmly, making each minor, barely mentioned character the owner of their own story. Nathan, interchangeable with the attack victim in "Bushido", discovers a beating has left him not only for with a complete lack of desire for the booze he used to drug himself, but it's given him a unique ability. Only he's not quite sure what to do with it. The first overall positive tale, without a bittersweet touch, it possesses a delicate aspect of intriguing urban fantasy. In "Bruised Soul" Mickey D, an ex boxer abandoned to the streets by time and suffering from damage taken through the length of his career, hits the streets after a stint in a mental facility, only to discover the good things have gotten that much worse in his absence and the bad things, of course, never change. It's his new neighbor that piques his interest this time around, an exotic woman named Jenna who seems to have a peculiar ability. Threaded just as finely is an end question, what is real and what has Micky D imagined, without the heavy-handedness of other stories. Finally is "5150", the first first person story in the collection. Here the lead might not seem like a true member of the Tenderloin, but by the sad, shattering end of this cop's life you can see every character story so far caught up in this one tale. Readers should be warned that these characters seem fleshy and real, their tales often dark and hopeless. It is easy to get pulled into the hopeless feeling of this collection. Taste of Tenderloin is a tight network of precise details and emotion presented, but firmly held back from influencing the reader in each story. A delicate balance of realism, surrealism and unique storytelling makes it a compelling read.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Gritty, real, and darkly beautiful,
This review is from: Taste of Tenderloin (Paperback)
The streets in the Tenderloin are mean, to say the least. And there are some interesting characters who inhabit that particular part of the city. But each of these people has a story, and many times, there is something bringing these people together. And sometimes, they play parts, large and small, in each other's stories. What stories would you learn, if you only took the time to listen to the folks in the Tenderloin?Not being terribly familiar with any cities in California, I had to look up the Tenderloin area of San Francisco to learn a bit more about it. It does not sound like the greatest place to live, yet this book shows the dark beauty contained within the streets of the Loin. I really loved meeting some of the people from those streets, albeit fictitious people, but it really reminded me that each city, each place in this world, has it's cast of unusual character, and they each have their own story to tell. What we may see is the surface only; a cripple, a whore, a drug addict. What we don't see is the heart of a hero, the passion of a musician, the hope of a dreamer. I loved that this book made me see beyond the surface. The stories in this book are gritty, to say the least. Some say the Tenderloin got its name because it is the underbelly of the city. And the reader does in fact see that in these stories. O'Neill does not sugar coat what happens on these streets; instead, he makes the truth beautiful, in its own way. And I personally love that one character ties all the stories together, to really make the book seem like the narrative of the neighborhood. I would love to learn more of their stories.
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