The scrublands of South Texas, the warm coastland of the Gulf of Mexico, a cinderblock flophouse near the produce fields of South Florida: all are borderlands of mixed blood and spilled blood, of generations forged in fight, failure, and hope. In this extraordinary collection of short works, the masterful James Carlos Blake, author of In the Rogue Blood and the Wolfe family series of border noirs, journeys from the nineteenth-century Mexican frontier to the borderlands of today.
Borderlands begins with an introductory piece of memoir, called "The Outsiders," about Blake's own straddling of worlds and identities. In the following eight haunting stories, we meet Don Sebastian Cabrillo Mayor Cortes y Mendoza, a powerful landowner reduced to howling at the moon from behind the bars of a mental institution; an illegal immigrant in Florida who must reckon with his emotional turmoil after being robbed by a fellow Mexican; a Texas woman orphaned by disease and desertion, making her way into a violent world of men; and many more who pass through the shadows of the borderlands. Bold, honest, and humane, these pieces represent some of the best writing from one of the most original and authentic voices in contemporary fiction.
Industry Reviews
Praise for Borderlands "No fiction written by a Texan these days is as violent as James Carlos Blake's. He likes it that way, and he's not the only one . . . His fiction is polished and well researched, and the execution of his talent has grown with each book . . . Blake . . . stands among the best explorers of our lost frontier."--Texas Monthly
"James Carlos Blake writes novels about violent men living in violent times. His stories take the reader into a whirlwind of war, revolution, crime, and dark mayhem in an environment where civilization is either absent or fighting a losing battle with the wilderness and the men who thrive in such places. The violence is sudden and inevitable and unredeeming. Think of Sam Peckinpah movies. Think of a night in the Everglades during alligator mating season."--Austin Chronicle
"Again mining the territory of bleak lives on the fringes of society, Los Angeles Times Book Prize-winner Blake has crafted seven short stories and a novella about people surviving in the merciless borderlands dividing Mexico and the U.S. . . . The complexity of border culture is graphically drawn, with its omnipresent threats of la migra, unemployment, bigotry and despair . . . Blake writes with a fearless precision and a ruthless sensibility, his prose is spare and tough, and his descriptions detailed and cinematic. This is gritty, raw, bare-knuckled fiction, blazing with an extraordinary kind of violence."--Publishers Weekly
"The centerpiece of the collection, the novella, 'Texas Woman Blues, ' is a grim little masterpiece."--Rocky Mountain News
"Blake's talent is obvious."--Library Journal Praise for Borderlands
"No fiction written by a Texan these days is as violent as James Carlos Blake's. He likes it that way, and he's not the only one . . . His fiction is polished and well researched, and the execution of his talent has grown with each book . . . Blake . . . stands among the best explorers of our lost frontier."--Texas Monthly
"James Carlos Blake writes novels about violent men living in violent times. His stories take the reader into a whirlwind of war, revolution, crime, and dark mayhem in an environment where civilization is either absent or fighting a losing battle with the wilderness and the men who thrive in such places. The violence is sudden and inevitable and unredeeming. Think of Sam Peckinpah movies. Think of a night in the Everglades during alligator mating season."--Austin Chronicle
"Again mining the territory of bleak lives on the fringes of society, Los Angeles Times Book Prize-winner Blake has crafted seven short stories and a novella about people surviving in the merciless borderlands dividing Mexico and the U.S. . . . The complexity of border culture is graphically drawn, with its omnipresent threats of la migra, unemployment, bigotry and despair . . . Blake writes with a fearless precision and a ruthless sensibility, his prose is spare and tough, and his descriptions detailed and cinematic. This is gritty, raw, bare-knuckled fiction, blazing with an extraordinary kind of violence."--Publishers Weekly
"The centerpiece of the collection, the novella, 'Texas Woman Blues, ' is a grim little masterpiece."--Rocky Mountain News
"Blake's talent is obvious."--Library Journal Praise for Borderlands
No fiction written by a Texan these days is as violent as James Carlos Blake's. He likes it that way, and he s not the only one . . . His fiction is polished and well researched, and the execution of his talent has grown with each book . . . Blake . . . stands among the best explorers of our lost frontier. Texas Monthly
James Carlos Blake writes novels about violent men living in violent times. His stories take the reader into a whirlwind of war, revolution, crime, and dark mayhem in an environment where civilization is either absent or fighting a losing battle with the wilderness and the men who thrive in such places. The violence is sudden and inevitable and unredeeming. Think of Sam Peckinpah movies. Think of a night in the Everglades during alligator mating season. Austin Chronicle
Again mining the territory of bleak lives on the fringes of society, Los Angeles Times Book Prize-winner Blake has crafted seven short stories and a novella about people surviving in the merciless borderlands dividing Mexico and the U.S. . . . The complexity of border culture is graphically drawn, with its omnipresent threats of la migra, unemployment, bigotry and despair . . . Blake writes with a fearless precision and a ruthless sensibility, his prose is spare and tough, and his descriptions detailed and cinematic. This is gritty, raw, bare-knuckled fiction, blazing with an extraordinary kind of violence. Publishers Weekly
The centerpiece of the collection, the novella, Texas Woman Blues, is a grim little masterpiece. Rocky Mountain News
Blake s talent is obvious. Library Journal
" Praise for "Borderlands"
No fiction written by a Texan these days is as violent as James Carlos Blake's. He likes it that way, and he s not the only one . . . His fiction is polished and well researched, and the execution of his talent has grown with each book . . . Blake . . . stands among the best explorers of our lost frontier. "Texas Monthly"
James Carlos Blake writes novels about violent men living in violent times. His stories take the reader into a whirlwind of war, revolution, crime, and dark mayhem in an environment where civilization is either absent or fighting a losing battle with the wilderness and the men who thrive in such places. The violence is sudden and inevitable and unredeeming. Think of Sam Peckinpah movies. Think of a night in the Everglades during alligator mating season. "Austin Chronicle"
Again mining the territory of bleak lives on the fringes of society, "Los Angeles Times" Book Prize-winner Blake has crafted seven short stories and a novella about people surviving in the merciless borderlands dividing Mexico and the U.S. . . . The complexity of border culture is graphically drawn, with its omnipresent threats of la migra, unemployment, bigotry and despair . . . Blake writes with a fearless precision and a ruthless sensibility, his prose is spare and tough, and his descriptions detailed and cinematic. This is gritty, raw, bare-knuckled fiction, blazing with an extraordinary kind of violence. "Publishers Weekly"
The centerpiece of the collection, the novella, Texas Woman Blues, is a grim little masterpiece. "Rocky Mountain News"
Blake s talent is obvious. "Library Journal"
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