Taste of Tenderloin

From Publishers WeeklyStarred Review. Haunting, lyrical and often uncomfortably realistic, this slim collection of eight short stories plunges the reader into the darker side of San Francisco. Altered states of consciousness—minds changed by grief, chemistry or too much hard living—are everywhere. In Magic Words, an advertising executive pays a homeless woman a high price for transient success. Poignant and plausible almost to a fault, Tombstones in His Eyes twists the horrors of drug addiction into something harder, sharper and scarier. In The Apotheosis of Nathan McKee, a brokenhearted father's descent into insanity—or is it merely invisibility?—makes normalcy seem all too tenuous. The best story of the bunch, 5150, documents the final moments of a worn-out cop about to retire. O'Neill's deft, authentic prose resonates with the weight of sad reality, erasing the line between knowledge and fear. (Aug.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. ReviewThe anthology is quite diverse in its offering with stories that range from the fantastic to the hauntingly realistic but all of them have something in common: the ugly, brutal life in the streets of the district. They are much less frightening than I expected them to be as instead of gritty horror, we are confronted by characters steeped in and suffering the consequences of poverty, crime, homelessness, addiction - which may not be scary but certainly is horrific. The description of their environs is quite vivid, as the characters walk the streets of the `Loin, brushing shoulders with petty criminals, prostitutes, drug addicts, war veterans. - Ana, The Book Smugglers, October 2009 --The Book Smugglers Review - Ana, October 29, 2009O'Neill infuses each story with strong descriptive details of the district's setting without becoming heavy-handed. This persuasive reality allows the fantastic or horrific elements to slip in easily and unexpectedly. The results are consistently convincing and satisfying, often leaving us wishing the stories went on a little longer. What with each story taking place in the same setting, you might think it best to read only one or two per sitting to avoid redundancy. But the author's Tenderloin tales are varied enough to enjoy all at once or sparingly. Either way, this collection reminds us of the unique reading pleasures to be found in well-told short stories. - Alan Cranis, Bookgasm, August 2009 --Bookgasm - Alan Cranis, August 19, 2009