Praise for Robert The unforgettable stories in this collection vary in length and style, but all of them devestate, all constantly cross the boundaries between poetry and prose. Here we have characters who are uncertain of themselves, of the people surrounding them. Here people are in trouble and need help. The compressed lyricism of these stories seems driven by the silence of what is not said, what lies beneath the lines and between them. As in his novels Part of the World and Kamby Bolongo Mean River, this elliptical tension of the language gives way to moments of grace and savage humor, leaving the reader startled, as though the world were a complete surprise. Michael Kimball, author of Dear Everybody, says that "Robert Lopez and his writing are original and pure, fearless and hypnotic. He is one of the brave protagonists of American literature." David McLendon, editor of the literary journal Unsaid, agrees, saying that "For a great long while something was broken inside our language. Robert Lopez took what was broken and did something more than simply repair it. He repaired what was broken and broke it again and made it human. Beautiful and ugly and lastingly mortal, our language through Lopez becomes a kind of song. The kind of song we all might sing to bring some laughter from our deathbeds."