Rating: 
Summary: a flash of brilliance
Review: Aldo Alvarez has always been a brilliant writer, now it's time for the rest of the world to know it. Please don't allow categories to disuade you from picking this book up; the stories here speak to humanity, the heart, relationships and the mind. Alvarez has that most elusive of writers' talents, the ability to make you hear his characters speak, and they speak frankly. This is literature, pure and simple, and if the written word is important to you, this book should be as well.
Rating:
Summary: A Handful of Gems
Review: Alvarez has put together a wonderfully eclectic, yet unified, collection of stories that go right to the heart of the struggle for intimacy in a fragmented world. Whether it's the intimacy of family members, lovers, or even just two men on a blind date, Alvarez never sells his characters or the reader short. These are tales told with great sensitivity and with an eye on that extra insight that makes the mundane sacred; the gloom oddly filled with light; and even the satire, tinged with a pathos that goes straight for the mark. It's hard to choose a favorite among the many gems included, but I really loved and appreciated 'Quintessence' and 'Public Displays of Affection' for the honesty and candor of their characters; 'Losing Count' for its concise rendition of the strange and ominous nature of male intimacy in a traditional smalltown setting; and, 'Fixing A Shadow' for its meditations on the ghostliness of art and life, memory, and even the present moment. There's a Zen honesty in all Alvarez's stories, exemplified here; an aunthentic voice that is refreshing to witness. And he's full of fun, masterfully weaving just the right amount of humor into situations of immense gravity. A gifted writer, well worth reading.
Rating: 
Summary: A gripping glance into another gay culture
Review: I am a WASP, and have not had much exposure to Hispanic-American gay culture at all, until I came across this well written, slyly funny, tender, unblinking, unforegettable collection of short stories.Aldo Alvarez is skillful at showing character in a few lines. One of the stories, "Property Values" is a acidly funny response to homophiba, and AIDS phobia.Well worth reading, even if one is neither gay nor WASP.
Rating:
Summary: A gripping glance into another gay culture
Review: I am a WASP, and have not had much exposure to Hispanic-American gay culture at all, until I came across this well written, slyly funny, tender, unblinking, unforegettable collection of short stories.Aldo Alvarez is skillful at showing character in a few lines. One of the stories, "Property Values" is a acidly funny response to homophiba, and AIDS phobia.Well worth reading, even if one is neither gay nor WASP.
Rating:
Summary: The best collection of stories in recent memory
Review: I find a lot of collections of short stories have that aroma of M.F.A. program to them: they're samey, predictable, tame, bloodless, by-the-book, trendy, with maybe a few features that distinguish them from each other and from the Big Name Author books they're parroting. Aldo Alvarez's collection constantly surprises, engages both my emotions and my mind, and succesfully breaks the rules; hopefully, it will also set a trend for books in their own genre, with few or no equals. I feel like I've discovered a new favorite author; I've just read INTERESTING MONSTERS a second time, and I can't seem to get enough. I strongly recommend it to my friends.
Rating: 
Summary: The Death Of Expectations
Review: I had heard about this book from friends of mine in San Francisco, where I live, and I couldn't wait to read it. I have to say that Mr. Alvarez can write, and he knows how to put words together. But he doesn't know how to write a story. I kept waiting for things to move together in a way that made for enjoyable reading, but all the time I kept thinking that Mr. Alvarez was writing for himself and not giving any thought to the reader. He lost me in his forced symbolism and his strained surrealism. I guess he's read too many Latin American novelists and he thinks that he's supposed to be mystical. I am sure he'll write a really wonderful short story collection someday, when he's thinking of his readers first. There are rules to writing stories. Mr. Alvarez should learn them. But, it was a good effort.
Rating:
Summary: The Death Of Expectations
Review: I had heard about this book from friends of mine in San Francisco, where I live, and I couldn't wait to read it. I have to say that Mr. Alvarez can write, and he knows how to put words together. But he doesn't know how to write a story. I kept waiting for things to move together in a way that made for enjoyable reading, but all the time I kept thinking that Mr. Alvarez was writing for himself and not giving any thought to the reader. He lost me in his forced symbolism and his strained surrealism. I guess he's read too many Latin American novelists and he thinks that he's supposed to be mystical. I am sure he'll write a really wonderful short story collection someday, when he's thinking of his readers first. There are rules to writing stories. Mr. Alvarez should learn them. But, it was a good effort.
Rating: 
Summary: An okay book
Review: In his first short story collection, Aldo Alvarez bounces us from sublime, stripped-down emotion ("Heat Rises" and "Fixing a Shadow") to hilarious, over-the-top surrealism ("Rog & Venus Become an Item" and "Death by Bricolage"). But through it all, we are reminded that we, all of us, search for the same thing: to love and to be loved. I look forward to Alvarez's second collection.
Rating:
Summary: Mostly moving stories
Review: Most of the "fictions" in this interesting collection seem to be fragments of a novel, a novel about the rocky romance of Mark and Dean, told out of chronological sequence and with differing narrators, including that of a homophobic social-climbing San Juan realtor who gets her comeuppance ("Property Values"). I particularly like "Quintessence" and "Other People's Complications"two stories about the impermeability of hearts (gay and straight, respectively.There are several amusing tales not involving Mark and Dean ("Losing count", "Flatware"). Alas, there are also some failed experimental pieces: "A Small Indulgence", "Rog and Venus Become an Item", and, especially, "Death by bricolage." These are probably their progenitor's favorites, but the stories (in contrast to these "experimental fictions") in the book are well-crafted, insightful, often moving, and sometimes hilarious.
Rating:
Summary: Mostly moving stories
Review: Most of the "fictions" in this interesting collection seem to be fragments of a novel, a novel about the rocky romance of Mark and Dean, told out of chronological sequence and with differing narrators, including that of a homophobic social-climbing San Juan realtor who gets her comeuppance ("Property Values"). I particularly like "Quintessence" and "Other People's Complications"two stories about the impermeability of hearts (gay and straight, respectively. There are several amusing tales not involving Mark and Dean ("Losing count", "Flatware"). Alas, there are also some failed experimental pieces: "A Small Indulgence", "Rog and Venus Become an Item", and, especially, "Death by bricolage." These are probably their progenitor's favorites, but the stories (in contrast to these "experimental fictions") in the book are well-crafted, insightful, often moving, and sometimes hilarious.
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