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Homicide Survivors Picnic and Other Stories
Fiction. Latino/Latina Studies. "In a voice that is all at once hilarious and mischievous, searing and seething and sardonic, Lorraine Lopez presents, in her most necessary book to date, a celebration of the liberating power of bad behavior," writes Heather Sellers about HOMICIDE SURVIVORS PICNIC AND OTHER STORIES. Most of the stories are set in the South and focus around family relationships, by birth and choice, among characters from Latino and other backgrounds. Lydia, a childless linguist, takes care of her precious four-year-old niece while the mother faces jail. Social worker Rita rents the empty half of her duplex to her loser ex-husband, with disastrous results. And in the title story, teenager Ted winds up attending a homicide survivor's picnic with his sister, who is mourning her recently slain boyfriend whom Ted barely knew. "We are moved by her characters' difficult dilemmas without being traumatized," writes Lynn Pruett. And Manuel Munoz agrees, "All of the refined and subtle humor we've come to expect from Lopez.... A marvelous collection."
- GenresShort StoriesFiction
264 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 27, 2015
The Flood: This story started out rough, but the ending was pretty satisfying. A young woman takes care of her cousin’s fairly annoying child and realizes she actually loves the kid. While I usually don’t appreciate this plot line, it really was quite well done. 3.5/5 stars
Sugar Boots: Again a parent figure is overwhelmed taking care of a couple of annoying kids. There was some pretty significant character development in this story, which I give Lopez props before because character development is hard to do in short stories. So that bumps an otherwise pretty boring story up a bit. 3/5 stars
The Threat of Peace: I think this is one of my favorite stories of the collection. A conflict mediator has to mediate conflict in his own life, dealing with his wife and her teenage daughters. It was actually pretty hilarious. 4/5 stars
Homicide Survivors Picnic: Again, as in Going Away Shoes, the title story doesn’t live up to it’s hype. A brother and sister deal with their problems in different ways and the ending is supposed to be suspenseful. I think Lopez could really have gone somewhere with this concept, but it just falls flat. 2/5 stars
The Imam of Auburn: Just a strange, strange story. I think it’s supposed to let us inside the head of someone with paranoid schizophrenia or a similar mental illness, but it really isn’t conveyed very well. Like the title story, a very interesting concept that just doesn’t go anywhere. 1.5/5 stars
Batterers: Mediocre story about a guy with a crush on a married woman. I give Lopez props for doing something that McCorkle doesn’t and actually writing a wide variety of characters, but I didn’t particularly like this one. The ending was unresolved and frankly without a solid ending the story isn’t all that worth it. 1.5/5 stars
Human Services: An interesting story about a woman who rents out the other half of her duplex to her ex-husband. I actually enjoyed this, the characters all interacted very well with each other. 3.5/5 stars
Women Speak: I’m 99% sure that this was supposed to be an inspiring story and it only half succeeds. A community college professor has a class full of women who each touch her in some different way. I feel like if the main character weren’t so flat and similar to several other Lopez characters, it would have been better. 2/5 stars
The Gifting: Nope, not a fan. Not at all believable and it just went on and on. Some strange story about a college student’s relationship with one of his professors (not a romantic relationship by the way.) 1/5 stars
The Landscape: A continuation and a semi-conclusion to The Flood to end the collection. I really appreciated that Lopez bookended the collection with a pretty good story. But there were too many metaphors for me to really enjoy this story as much as The Flood. 3/5 stars
Overall a more varied and interesting collection of stories than Going Away shoes. Not a bad read.
Average story score: 2.5 stars
Book rating: 3 stars
Sugar Boots: Again a parent figure is overwhelmed taking care of a couple of annoying kids. There was some pretty significant character development in this story, which I give Lopez props before because character development is hard to do in short stories. So that bumps an otherwise pretty boring story up a bit. 3/5 stars
The Threat of Peace: I think this is one of my favorite stories of the collection. A conflict mediator has to mediate conflict in his own life, dealing with his wife and her teenage daughters. It was actually pretty hilarious. 4/5 stars
Homicide Survivors Picnic: Again, as in Going Away Shoes, the title story doesn’t live up to it’s hype. A brother and sister deal with their problems in different ways and the ending is supposed to be suspenseful. I think Lopez could really have gone somewhere with this concept, but it just falls flat. 2/5 stars
The Imam of Auburn: Just a strange, strange story. I think it’s supposed to let us inside the head of someone with paranoid schizophrenia or a similar mental illness, but it really isn’t conveyed very well. Like the title story, a very interesting concept that just doesn’t go anywhere. 1.5/5 stars
Batterers: Mediocre story about a guy with a crush on a married woman. I give Lopez props for doing something that McCorkle doesn’t and actually writing a wide variety of characters, but I didn’t particularly like this one. The ending was unresolved and frankly without a solid ending the story isn’t all that worth it. 1.5/5 stars
Human Services: An interesting story about a woman who rents out the other half of her duplex to her ex-husband. I actually enjoyed this, the characters all interacted very well with each other. 3.5/5 stars
Women Speak: I’m 99% sure that this was supposed to be an inspiring story and it only half succeeds. A community college professor has a class full of women who each touch her in some different way. I feel like if the main character weren’t so flat and similar to several other Lopez characters, it would have been better. 2/5 stars
The Gifting: Nope, not a fan. Not at all believable and it just went on and on. Some strange story about a college student’s relationship with one of his professors (not a romantic relationship by the way.) 1/5 stars
The Landscape: A continuation and a semi-conclusion to The Flood to end the collection. I really appreciated that Lopez bookended the collection with a pretty good story. But there were too many metaphors for me to really enjoy this story as much as The Flood. 3/5 stars
Overall a more varied and interesting collection of stories than Going Away shoes. Not a bad read.
Average story score: 2.5 stars
Book rating: 3 stars
December 31, 2017
I can recommend highly Lorraine Lopez’s short story collection. There is a "freshness" (for want of a better term) to her spare, precise prose, a gritty warmth in her characters, and a contemporary appeal to the stories that make them engaging, at least for me. Those who like an emotional connection will really appreciate them, I suspect.
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July 29, 20112010 finalist-pen faulkner award
January 31, 2016
Fantastic character development--loved these stories!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews