Brownsville

Critical Praise

"Brownsville is a slim but just about perfect debut story collection by Brownsville, Tex., wonder boy Oscar Casares."
-Entertainment Weekly Grade: A

"What [Casares] has achieved is rare: a kind of choral view of a culture that is at the same time remarkable for the individuality of the people portrayed and the variety of the stories. . . .This author loves his characters and their home, and readers will too."
-Chicago Tribune

"Marvelous."
-Washington Post

"This is the real thing, the real life of South Texas mexicanos, without the mumbo jumbo."
-Dallas Morning News

"There is a gentleness in these stories that is hard to resist."
-Minneapolis Star-Tribune

"Probing underneath the surface of Tex-Mex culture, [Oscar]Casares' stories, with their wisecracking, temperamental, obsessive middle-aged men and their dramas straight from the neighborhood gossip are in the direct line of descent from Mark Twain and Ring Lardner...[A] fine debut collection."
-Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Read it in a single sitting. Not just because it's short but because it's clear, straightforward, and gripping. Some of it sad, some of it funny, all of it emotionally and culturally accurate. Sharp portraits, terrific dialogue, just enough scenery, and he ends a story where he should. If this is his literary debut, it's a damn good one."
-Stephen Dixon, author of Interstate and I

"These stories are clear-eyed and fresh, full of sweet gravity and pensive humor. Oscar Casares is an exceptional writer."
-Marilynne Robinson, author of Housekeeping

"At the beginning it was so quiet, all that could be heard were the soft strums of Américo Paredes. Then came the voice out of San Marcos, Mercedes, and Laredo, such distant sounds they seemed underground. A few hit tunes crackled out of El Paso, San Antonio, Corpus Christi. Now listen to Brownsville, where Oscar Casares, dressed like the finest charro, is headlining. Sit back. You will hear him."
-Dagoberto Gilb, author of Woodcuts of Women