Who doesn’t love a book about New Mexico, ANY book about New Mexico? This is by far the best state, regardless if half of America doesn’t know we are actually a part of the US, and maybe NOT being part of the US would be a good thing right now? The rest of you can eat our dust. And in our particular case, this might mean eating our radioactive dust.
Joshua Wheeler is a New Mexico boy, born and bred. He teaches creative writing in some lesser state but his roots cling to SNM. Southern New Mexico. And he writes. A lot.
I normally avoid short stories as my brain tends to prefer the long read but in this case, I made an exception and glad I did. Acid West is a collective of stories based on the land, the people, history, and personal experience. Wheeler didn’t parachute in, write a story then claim to know the place. He lived it. I particularly liked the stories on drone wars and the atomic bomb legacy.
Get it, read it.