Domesticated wild things, and other stories - Aliu, Xhenet (University of Nebraska Press, 2013)
Cover; Title Page; Copyright Page; Contents; Acknowledgments; You Say Tomato; The Kill Jar; Ramon Beats the Crap Out of George, a Man Half His Size; Mandatory Evacuations; Flipping Property; Nadja Rides the Bear; Feather Ann; Two Assholes; Two-Step Snake; How to Play Shit; Domesticated Wild Things
Just down the highway from Connecticut's Gold Coast is the state's rusty underbelly, the wretched, used-up sort of place where you might find Xhenet Aliu's Domesticated Wild Things: the reluctant mothers, delinquent dads, and not-quite-feral children, yet dreamers all. These are the children of immigrants who found boarded-up brass mills instead of the gilded streets of America; they're the teenaged girls raised in the fluorescent glow of Greek diners, the middle-aged men with pump trucks and teratomas. These are people who have fled, or who should have. And if they are indeed f