"Terrific stories...Just about perfect" (Entertainment Weekly): Brownsville is the collection that established Oscar Casares as one of the leading voices in the literature of the modern Southwest.
In his sparkling debut, Oscar Casares creates a cast of unforgettable characters confronting everyday possibilities and contradictions: Diego, an eleven-year-old whose job at a fireworks stand teaches him a lesson in defiance; Bony, a young man whose discovery of a monkey's head on his lawn drives a wedge between him and his parents; Lola, whose stolen bowling ball offers an unlikely chance for change. The achievement of Brownsville lies in its remarkably honest portrayal of these lives -- the lives of people whose dreams and yearnings and regrets are at once unique and universal.
"Marvelous...Brownsville resembles early Steinbeck work more than anything else." --Carolyn See, Washington Post