The Drinking of Spirits: Stories

Guatemala's tropics, Ohio's lazy suburbs, Florida's down-and-out Ybor City, Madrid's narrow streets and late tapa bar nights -- what Tom Abrams does with all these locales is almost as luxurious as what he does with the characters inhabiting them. Readers familiar with A Bad Piece of Luck will once more appreciate the down-and-dirty realism Abrams employs, but will find an added element . . . kismet? Well, that implies love, and while dimestore romance is as absent as the Dow Jones Index, there is love in these stories, a love of life and love of humanity -- no matter how mired it may become. So yes, kismet.