Presents an anthology of stories, each set in a distinct neighborhood of Dallas.
Akashic Books
October 2013
On Sale: October 14, 2013
256 pages ISBN: 1617751901 EAN: 9781617751905 Kindle: B00FMZNVAE Paperback / e-Book Add to Wish List
Featuring brand-new stories by: Kathleen Kent, Ben Fountain,
James Hime, Harry Hunsicker, Matt Bondurant, Merritt Tierce,
Daniel J. Hale, Emma Rathbone, Jonathan Woods, Oscar C.
Peña, Clay Reynolds, Lauren Davis, Fran Hillyer, Catherine
Cuellar, David Haynes, and J. Suzanne Frank.
From the
introduction by David Hale Smith:
My favorite line in
my favorite song about Dallas goes like this: Dallas is a
rich man with a death wish in his eyes / A steel and
concrete soul in a warm heart and love disguise . . . The
narrator of Jimmie Dale Gilmore’s perfect tune “Dallas” is
coming to town as a broke dreamer with the bright lights of
the big city on his mind. He’s just seen the Dallas
cityscape through the window of his seat on a DC-9 at night.
Is he just beginning his quest? Or is he on his way home,
flying out of Love Field, reminiscing after seeing the woman
who stepped on him when he was down?
In a country
with so many interesting cities, Dallas is often
overlooked—except on November 22 every year. The
heartbreaking anniversary keeps coming back around in a
nightmare loop, for all of us. On that day in 1963, Dallas
became American noir. A permanent black scar on its
history that will never be erased, no matter how many happy
business stories and hit television shows arise from here.
In a stark ongoing counterweight to the JFK tragedy are
those two iterations of the TV show. Dallas is not a TV
show. It’s a real city . . . For the past forty years, my
capacity to be surprised by it has not diminished one bit. I
hope the stories in this collection will surprise you too.