The Downriver Horseshoe

In this compelling collection of 11 stories by a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee, Miles gives readers a voyeuristic look into the lives of cursed characters from the industrial south side of Detroit, known as Downriver. In “Fungoo’s Hockshop,” downtrodden Duke Peterson would rather go to prison than back home to his invalid wife. Simon Touhy, who works on a ski hill converted from a landfill in “Mt. Trashmore,” falls in love with a woman’s prosthetic leg that he finds in the snow. In “Stripped,” a harmless gesture by two warehouse buddies at a strip club turns lethal, and the husbands/fathers in “Altoona” and “Losing Focus”—one returning from a rotten family vacation, the other recovering from testicular cancer—struggle between domestic obligations and the urge to flee, with radically different outcomes. Miles writes tight sentences, with genuine dialogue and unexpected imagery (one man’s eyes are “the color of laundry detergent”). The women in these stories play cursory roles, pushing plots to ensure the cynicism and darkness of the male protagonists. Miles frequently writes in the first person, lending greater intimacy to stories that consistently ring true. (BookLife)