Battleborn
Claire Vaye Watkins · 2012
Nevada stories: miners, gamblers, survivalists. Watkins writes the desert like it's a character with a grudge.
The case against
Bleakness is the collection's single setting. The opening story, the one about her father and the Manson family, is the best thing here, and nothing after it matches it. Story by story the desert grinds down another miner, gambler, or runaway in the same key, and the polish starts to look like workshop varnish.
Short Stories · the Pro canon
The case for it and the rest of the canon open with Pro.
if this one calls to you, so will these →
