A review by johndiconsiglio
Lot by Bryan Washington

4.0

Debut author Washington is only 27 but his stories of urban Houston have a Junot Diaz-like energy—speeding thrills & sorrows. The characters are a mixing bowl of Black, Latino & white city kids, many coming to terms with being gay. The language captures the beats of the streets (each story is named for Houston blocks like Alief & South Congress), as lives go by in Dollar Tree stores, the alleys behind taquerias & the front seat of a neighborhood drug dealer’s Corolla. (A story on hustlers is the lone false note.) A piercing collection, a writer to watch.