After spending five years in LA working successfully as a screenwriter, the protagonist of this novel decides it’s time to return to his hometown, Santa Luz, New Mexico, to pen the novel he has always needed to write about the strained relationship with his father.
He reconnects with old friends and meets new ones, and the parade of quirky characters—self-proclaimed artists, wealthy retirees, corrupt lawyers—distracts him from his project. There’s Helen, who hooks up with an unsavory character and winds up in jail—for murder. Sheryl can’t take her philandering husband anymore and drives her car off a mountaintop, killing herself and her children. And there’s Paul, who lives a double life as a happy family man, but who has a serious drug addiction. Against the backdrop of mystical mornings and beautiful mountains, the writer soon realizes things aren’t always what they seem in Santa Luz. In fact, the city is “infested with meth, heroin and wealthy coke addicts.”
The writer’s sympathies are with the working class, and his satirical gaze embraces the people who live in the shadows, those considered “misfits.” Jimmy Santiago Baca writes compellingly about artists and their responsibility to society.
“Fresh as an open wound, this episodic tale by renowned poet, memoirist, screenwriter and novelist Baca (When I Walk through That Door, I Am, 2019) is a raw exposition of life in Santa Luz, an imagined Southwestern town that resembles a certain real New Mexican hippie haven famous for green chili and blue tortillas. Soaked in booze, drugs and graphic descriptions of sex and violence, Baca’s novel warns of the poisonous temptation of selling out in lyrical prose belied by the matter-of-fact tone of a seen-it-all master.” —Booklist
“In this intriguing novel—actually a collection of connected short stories and one poem—Baca explores various ways in which working people, including his semi-autobiographical poet-narrator, find it hard or impossible to “fit” into American society. The intertwined tales here mostly happen in the fictional city of Santa Luz, NM, which seems to be a clever amalgamation of Santa Fe and Albuquerque. A fine, brave book, indeed.”—Vozclara Literary Reviews
JIMMY SANTIAGO BACA, an award-winning poet, essayist and novelist, has written more than 30 books, which have been translated into several languages. He is also the executive producer and author of the feature film, Blood In, Blood Out. His books include No Enemies (Arte Público Press, 2021); American Orphan (Arte Público Press, 2021); Laughing in the Light (Museum of New Mexico Press, 2020); When I Walk through That Door, I Am: An Immigrant Mother’s Quest (Beacon Press, 2019); Healing Earthquakes (Grove Press, 2007) and A Place to Stand (Grove Press, 2002). The recipient of numerous awards including the American Book Award and a Pushcart Prize, Baca lives and works in his native New Mexico.
