Monday's Meal

Published: June, 1997  Pages: 288 

In these stories, Les Edgerton has carved out a literary turf in the bars of New Orleans and the small towns of Texas, in the gullibility of tourists carrying their go-cups on the streets of the Big Easy, in the gaping seams between bars in the Pendleton Reformatory of Indiana, in the poverty of the hill people in the South, in the difficulties of love and sex and what keeps pulling man and woman in each other’s direction. The author has a wonderfully poignant way of dealing with people often called losers, and his affection for his characters is what gives his writing a luminosity that is ultimately the strength of these stories. more... about Monday's Meal

The Death of Tarpons

Published: March, 1996  Pages: 208 

Returning to the scene of his turbulent childhood, a dying man comes to grips with a chilling truth—that his father was never capable of giving him affection. As he looks back on one particular summer, he realizes that much of his will to survive came from the unconditional love and support offered by his grandfather, and it is that heritage, rather than the brutality of his father’s lessons, that he will pass on to his own children. more... about The Death of Tarpons

• Austin Writers' League Special Citation, 1996