The Magic of Blood

Gilb's collection of short stories detail the lives of working class people (not heroes, per se) in a very true to life fashion. I can almost picture Mr. Gilb working with his hands on a high rise or on some odd job, observing what was going on around him and in his own life, preparing to write about what he saw and felt. His stories read that way, and I very much enjoyed this book each time I read it. For the record, the working class Mexican-American friends I have given this book to tell me it is authentic. A corporate suit wouldn't have been able to write it, and thank God Mr. Gilb is not a corporate suit. Hooray for the common man who thinks!

i read "The Magic of Blood" because my mom told me to read an article the author wrote in the new yorker magazine a week ago. it was so wonderful, so moving and beautful to read. i couldn't stop reading. it was so sad, and so honest. i went to the bookstore and bought these stories in this collection. they are so good too, I just had to look for more of his books. I haven't even finished them all yet, but I am so happy I discovered this writer. especially read "Nancy Flores". almost as good as the new yorker article.

i'm reading gilb's book and i think it's incredible how good it is to read. "nancy flores" man i just loved her!! it was like he gets it all the whole experience of being young and in love with all of our first girlfriends. !!amor por vida!! i still lvoe her and i'm sick about it just like he is. and "romeros shirt" reminded me of my papi and it made me understand him and su vida and his work, he's in construction and he's got this old 55 he polishes (i even going to give this book to him to read and i think he's going to like to read it. and he won't read nothng!) check out "down in the west texsa town" which is killer about junkys. should I go on. yeah there was also "holywood" which is funny and so is "al in phoenix" about this mechanic who keeps working working working. really, this is good and it inspires me. i liked too many stories, i checked out this site because I want buy other books by him. i met him in austin and he's not rude! he's really funny and a good dude and esay to talk to, i liked him alot a bunch of people we're hanging out with him and he's a totally alright. a good writer, he's one of us, he's real.

Sometimes you come across a book that can change the way you see things. I am not a Latino or from the Southwest, but I come from a family of construction workers. This is the first book that I have ever read that touches that world with honesty, humor, and pathos. The stories make humans out of characters, people usually not given a voice. Gilb makes every ordinary event resonate with mystery. He is a writer of great beauty, even as the language is coarse. Several of his stories are among the best I've ever read. He may be the most original of Latino writers publishing, and his stories are better than most of the well-known, anthologized American ones.

Tales of the working man. Waiting for your car to be repaired. Drinking in a bar. Losing your favorite sweater. Gilb is an alchemist because he can take the most mundane details and turn them into magic. Reading his stories is like walking along a cold concrete floor and then suddenly enteing a rose garden in full bloom inexplicably rising out of the concrete. How did all this beauty rise through the cold reality?