Black Elvis

In twelve tightly-coiled stories, Becker (Dangerous Men, Bluestown) mines the thwarted dreams, failed relationships, and wayward lives of chronically luckless characters. The award-winning title story is a good introduction to Becker's work, featuring his recurring muse: the down-and-out musician, in this case an African-American Elvis impersonator upstaged by a Chinese Robert Johnson. ""Another Coyote Story"" is narrated by a Native-American writer living in Sherman Alexie's literary shadow. In ""Jimi Hendrix, Blue Grass Star,"" a street musician fakes a brain tumor in an effort to woo a beautiful but cold violinist. In ""Santorini,"" middle-aged and recently-dumped Laura makes a play for her best friend's much, much younger son. The cumulative effect of these stories is disheartening; protagonists always end up worse off than they were at the story's start. The rewards Becker offers readers take the form of wry humor and the occasional lapse into grace, alongside the more immediate pleasures of ""cigarette and pork grease smell, of cold beers and loud music.""