Everything Begins and Ends at the Kentucky Club
A short story collection set in El Paso and the U.S.-Mexico borderlands, drawing on memory, family, and community. Its restrained narration brings out both the intimacy and the pain of lives lived at the border.
Work Information
A sequence of short stories that builds a memory of the borderlands.
Benjamin Alire Sáenz's Everything Begins and Ends at the Kentucky Club uses linked stories set between El Paso and Juárez to portray the feelings and relationships of people living at the border. Regional atmosphere and personal memory overlap to create a quiet sense of urgency.
Review Summaries
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Its borderland atmosphere and the urgency of its characters are highly praised. It keeps the specificity of El Paso while widening into universal loss and hope.
Book Information
- Publisher
- Cinco Puntos Press
- Published
- 2012-10-30
- Pages
- 180 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 15.24 x 2.54 x 22.86 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9781935955320
- ISBN-10
- 1935955322
- Price
- 3704 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/Gay & Lesbian/Literature & Fiction/Fiction/Gay
Winner of the 2013 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction! Benjamin Alire Sáenz's stories reveal how all bordersreal, imagined, sexual, human, the line between dark and light, addict and straightentangle those who live on either side. Take, for instance, the Kentucky Club on Avenida Juárez two blocks south of the Rio Grande. It's a touchstone for each of Sáenz's stories. His characters walk by, they might go in for a drink or to score, or they might just stay there for a while and let their story be told. Sáenz knows that the Kentucky Club, like special watering holes in all cities, is the contrary to borders. It welcomes Spanish and English, Mexicans and gringos, poor and rich, gay and straight, drug addicts and drunks, laughter and sadness, and even despair. It's a place of rich history and good drinks and cold beer and a long polished mahogany bar. Some days it smells like piss. "I'm going home to the other side." That's a strange statement, but you hear it all the time at the Kentucky Club. Benjamin Alire Sáenz is a highly regarded writer of fiction, poetry, and children's literature. Like these stories, his writing crosses borders and lands in our collective psyche. Poets & Writers Magazine named him one of the fifty most inspiring writers in the world. He's been a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and PEN Center's prestigious award for young adult fiction. Sáenz is the chair of the creative writing department of University of Texas at El Paso. Awards: PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction Lambda Literary Award Southwest Book Award
Benjamin Alire Sáenz was born in 1954 in Old Picacho, a small farming village outside of Las Cruces, New Mexico, forty-two miles north of the U.S. / Mexico border. He was the fourth of seven children and was brought up in a traditional Mexican-American Catholic family. He entered the seminary in 1972, a decision that was as much political as it was religious. After concluding his theological studies at the University of Louvain, he was ordained a Catholic priest. Three and a half years later, he left the priesthood. At the age of 30, he entered the University of Texas at El Paso. He later received a fellowship at the University of Iowa. In 1988, he received a Wallace E. Stegner Fellowship in poetry from Stanford University. In 1993, he returned to the border to teach in the bilingual MFA program at UTEP. Sáenz is the author of a previous book of poetry, Calendar of Dust , which won an American Book Award. Cinco Puntos published two of his other books of poetry called Elegies in Blue and the now out of print, Dark and Perfect Angels . His most recent book of poetry, The Book of What Remains , was published by Copper Canyon Press in 2010. He is the author of numerous novels, books for children and young adults as well as a previous collection of short stories. His award winning young adult novels are Sammy & Juliana in Hollywood , He Forgot to Say Goodbye , and Last Night I Sang to the Monster . His adult novels include Carry Me Like Water , The House of Forgetting , In Perfect Light , and Names on a Map .
Reviews
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Some really nice and some really sad poems in this book. Benjamin is one of my favourite writers. He's style is something to be jealous of and I am. Could read anything by him
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Began reading this author a couple of years ago. He never disappoints, the human condition, relationships, parenting, families, coming out, love, romance, passion, belonging, violence and the aftermath of violence. Every word draws you into his world. I would love to meet some of these people at the Kentucky Club, and have a Kentucky Club of my own. Everyone does. Beautiful collection of short stories.
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This was an absolutely fantastic (if too short) story collection which captivated me from the very first sentence, moved me, and made me want more from every story. I can easily see why this collection received both the 2013 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction as well as the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction (although not every story is gay-themed). The Kentucky Club in Juárez, Mexico, just over the U.S. border, is a touchstone in every story. Much like the characters in Saenz's stories, the Kentucky Club caters to both young and old, straight and gay, rich and poor, Mexican and American, and serves as everything from a special rendezvous spot to a pickup joint to a place of distant and pleasant memory. Overall, the stories in this collection aren't quite happy ones, but they pack a powerful punch, and they're stuck in my head now that I'm finished with them. From the opening story, He Has Gone to Be with the Women, which chronicles the highs and lows of love, to the closing story, The Hurting Game, in which the main character struggles between falling in love and protecting himself from getting hurt, I was mesmerized by Saenz's use of language, the beauty of his narrative, and the memorable characters. Any one of these stories could be a novel on its own, because I so wanted to know what happened to the characters after the stories ended. With only seven stories, it's difficult to pick favorites. There were stories that moved me a little more than others, but at the end of each, I wondered whether Saenz could top himself. And he often did. If you're a fan of short stories or just magnificent, emotionally rich writing, definitely pick up Everything Begins and Ends at the Kentucky Club. You'll be glad you did, but like me, you'll probably be sad when you're done.
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Amazing. This was a book of seven short stories. It was such an entertaining read that I probably could have read the whole book in a day or two. But each story was so powerful, after each one I just put the book down and thought about it for a while. I read the book over seven days, a story each night. This book hasn't received many rave reviews, so after each amazing chapter, I found myself contemplating why that was. I decided that perhaps the book was too melodramatic or not subtle enough for some, and indeed, after I finished, I sought out some reviews and that does appear to be the complaint. What can I say? I'm not a big fan of subtle. Life isn't subtle. Just before Kentucky Club, I read the critics' short-story favorite "Tenth of December" by George Saunders. I gave it four stars. It had some great stories, but a couple of clunkers. "Kentucky Club" had seven great stories, and I dare say all seven hit me in the gut more than "Tenth." Great stuff.
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I heard about this book on NPR and thought I'd buy it. I did get some insight into what it is like to live on the border. I enjoyed getting to see how those of Mexican descent view themselves and other Mexicans. The author states many times how much he loves words, and it shows. Very fine writer.As I stated, the book wasn't what I expected, but sometimes that is OK. Each short story is good, but I think the next time I read this, I'll only read one of the stories. I think the book, like my intake of liquor, is more enjoyable a little at a time.