The Consequences by Manuel Muñoz

A visceral uprootedness entangles each of Manuel Muñoz's characters in The Consequences. These short stories give a voice to the migrant farmers who sustain the American agriculture industry even as politicians work to make their lives unnecessarily difficult. Set mostly in California’s Central Valley in the 1980s, his characters live in the shadow of the 'migra' who at any time might come to deport the undocumented back to Mexico. But it is their lives outside this fear that are so captivating, be it family ties coming undone or journeying across the United States to attend a funeral of a former lover. 

The American Dream is a fraught endeavour which leaves many of these characters empty and broken. In the small towns that dot the sprawling highway cutting through the Central Valley, life is bleak, cruel and crushing, especially for the women and queer men at the centre of this collection. There is an overriding sense of isolation that mirrors the sparse landscape – Muñoz’s world is not a bountiful utopia, rather stark and barren. 

Never concerned by clean or redemptive endings, Muñoz’s protagonists end up near enough to where they start out, but a little bit more aware of how society is working to stifle their aspirations and hopes. There is a deep melancholy in many of these stories which blocks out any allusions of brighter futures to come.

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The Indigo Press, 20 Oct