'Dagoberto Gilb's stories in 'The Magic Of Blood', pulled from a working-class life, are like nothing else out there. The reader tumbles into a Southwest world of bills and debts and being laid off, of old trucks, paychecks that bounce, greedy landladies, fights, cheap girls, drugs, unemployment compensation, difficult bosses, colour of skin, language games, a hunger for work. The stories are leavened with compassion and humour and there is not a shred of sentimentality.
