Ghost of John Wayne: and Other Stories

The vast Texas borderland is a place divided, a land of legends and lies, sanctification and sinfulness, history and amnesia, haunted by the ghosts of the oppressed and the forgotten, who still stir beneath the parched fields and shimmering blacktops. It is a realm filled with scorpion eaters and mescal drinkers, cowboys and Indians, Anglos and Chicanos, spirit horses and beat-up pickups, brujos and putas, aching passion and seething rage, apparitions of the Virgin and bodies in the Rio Grande.

In his first collection of short fiction, award-winning poet, editor, and anthologist Ray Gonzalez powerfully evokes both the mystery and the reality of the El Paso border country where he came to manhood.

Here, in a riverbed filled with junked cars and old bones, a young boy is given a dark vision of a fiery future. Under the stones of the Alamo, amid the gift shops and tour buses, the wraiths of fallen soldiers cry out to be remembered. By an ancient burial site at the bottom of a hidden canyon, two lovers come face to face with their own dreams and fears.

In these stories, Ray Gonzalez is a literary alchemist, blending contemporary culture with ancient tradition to give a new voice to the peoples of the border.

Library Journal

Prolific poet, anthologist, and short story writer Gonzalez (literature, Univ. of Minnesota) has written what can be likened to a delectable meal. Divided into three sections, the book builds in flavor, richness, and intensity. Part 1 is composed of 14 two- to five- page stories mainly focused on morsels of Southwest history, folklore, and legend. In one, Gonzalez imagines real-life explorer Cabeza de Vaca in an encounter with the indigenous people of the Americas. In another, a black pig dominates a town's consciousness. In Part 2, contemporary young people encounter myth and history from which they try to create a usable past. Then, in the final section, eight longer stories deal with modern themes. One piece relates how a couple on an archaeological dig lets their personal relationship spill over into their professional one. Another shows the corrupt migra (the immigration police), who fight with drug runners over local supremacy. The undertone of legend and folklore established early in the collection infuses the later stories with depth and substance, leaving the reader with a desire for only a brief denouement - a cafe con leche, so to speak. This carefully considered body of short fiction, Gonzalez's first collection, is recommended for literary and Latino collections. - Harold Augenbraum, Mercantile Lib. of New York. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Ray Gonzalez is a professor of literature at the University of Minnesota, he is the author of 14 books and has also edited more than a dozen anthologies of poetry and fiction and is the recipient of the Carr P. Collins/Texas Institute of Letters Award, the PEN/Oakland Josephine Miles Book Award, the Western Heritage Award, the Latino Heritage Award, and the Minnesota Book Award.