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Gay author Benjamin Alire Sáenz's stories reveal how all borders - real, imagined, sexual, human, the line between dark and light, addict and straight - entangle those who live on either side. Set in and around a bar called the Kentucky Club on Avenida Juárez, two blocks south of the Rio Grande, on the border between Texas and Mexico, all the stories are linked. Characters walk by, they might go in for a drink or to score, or they might just stay there for a while and let their story be told. It welcomes Spanish and English, Mexicans and gringos, poor and rich, gay and straight, drug addicts and drunks, laughter and sadness, and even despair.
Amongst the stories are Sometimes the Rain, about two boys who become friends in high school ( like a richer, more expressive, less passive Brokeback Mountain), Chasing the Dragon (about a brother and sister, one addicted to sex, the other to drugs) and The Hurting Game (in which a high school guidance counselor and a junkie lawyer become sex buddies). This gritty yet tender collection of interconnected stories is a commentary on life, on issuse like border crossings, prejudice, AIDS, being Chicano, being gay, love, death and fear. This book has also won for its author the highly prestigious 2012 PEN/Faulkner Fiction Award.
Paperback, 223 Pages, Published 2013
Author: Benjamin Alire Sáenz