Aquaboogie
Susan Straight
Open Road Media
<p>Susan Straight's exquisite debut: A collection of short fiction about a hardscrabble town whose inhabitants try to reconcile their old ways with some disconcerting new ones  <p>These fourteen interconnected stories take place in Rio Seco, a fictional city in California based on the author's hometown of Riverside. With its fire-prone mountains, palm trees, and pig farms, the languid pace of life in Rio Seco has the distinct air of the South, and indeed many of the town's older residents hail from Mississippi. But despite a vibrant sense of community, both old and young are hemmed in by poverty and strife. Young people struggle to survive shootings, siblings are lost to cigarettes laced with embalming fluid, and older relatives are pushed out of their homes to make way for development. With exemplary compassion, Straight brings these characters' stories to searing life.</p></p>