The Skull of Pancho Villa and Other Stories
Manuel Ramos
Arté Público Press – paperback
Seemingly mundane moments in life quickly spin out of control in this engaging collection of 22 short stories. And Denver writer Manuel Ramos frequently comes up with surprising endings for his tales.
Some of his short stories can be labeled “Chicano noir.” They get dark and gritty as they move along through the struggles and ragged edges of Mexican-American life in the United States. Meanwhile, other stories in the collection explore different themes, such as the thoughts of a young Mexican-American soldier as he lays dying in Vietnam and what happens when a Mexican-American shoeshine boy gets pulled into a barroom fight and is defended by the writer Jack Kerouac.
Manuel Ramos has won several literary awards and is the author of a number of novels from a variety of publishers. At least one prominent writer who admires his work has labeled Ramos “the godfather of Chicano noir.”
His stories, however, are entertaining and easily accessible at a universal level. And he writes with a smooth clarity that looks simple on the page, yet is very difficult for most authors to achieve.
— Si Dunn
Order The Skull of Pancho Villa and Other Stories here.
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