Characters cycle in and out of the stories in this wise, affecting debut collection set mostly in Antelope Valley, California, in the western Mojave.
Opening with a tale of three boys who test themselves in paintball wars, experience 9/11 only remotely, and come of age during the Iraq/Afghanistan conflicts, Chris Mc-Cormick introduces Daley Kushner, the sensitive son of an Armenian immigrant, who serves as the pivotal presence in the interrelated collection. Kushner goes off to Berkeley, comes out as gay, becomes a writer, and lives in San Francisco, but the stories he's part of and that he narratesabout his Uncle Gaspar's tenant and the two reckless girls; the black kid who plays the Confederate mascot at Antelope High; the struggling alfalfa farmer - fondly recall the paintball-shooting, dirt-bike riders we started out with.
-Christine Wald-Hopkins Also selected by Bruce Dinges
