First published 2012
The Kentucky Club sits two blocks from the Rio Grande on Avenida Juárez, drawing people from both sides of the border. Characters pass its doors, step inside for drinks or drugs, or linger to tell their stories. The bar welcomes everyone: Spanish speakers and English speakers, Mexicans and Americans, rich and poor, gay and straight, addicts and drunks. Inside, mahogany gleams under polished light, cold beer flows, and sometimes the air carries the smell of piss. People say strange things here like "I'm going home to the other side." Each story in this collection connects to this place where borders dissolve. Sáenz explores the lines that divide people: real boundaries and imagined ones, sexual divisions and human separations, the space between darkness and light, between addiction and sobriety. His characters navigate these divisions while the Kentucky Club remains constant, a gathering place that defies the very concept of borders.
Genres: fiction, short-stories, literary-fiction, contemporary
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, intimate, lyrical
Tropes: found-family, slice-of-life
Setting: Avenida Juárez, Kentucky Club, Rio Grande
Period: contemporary
222 pages · Paperback · Cinco Puntos Press
Content warnings: addiction, alcohol-abuse, drug-use