The History of Vegas: Stories Book

Trouble. From the first page of each of the edgy and unrelentingly intense stories in this debut collection, the teenaged characters are headed for big trouble. The adult world has mostly failed them, and they find themselves entering into highly charged situations where they make their own rules, with misguided understanding of the consequences. The stories burn hot and fast, providing searing insights into their world of sex, drugs, drinking, violence, and accidental grace, played out in small, tough towns. Written with raw directness and understanding that makes these nine stories impossible to forget, The History of Vegas announces an exciting, fresh talent with the impact of Mary Gaitskill, Mary Karr, and Jayne Anne Phillips.

San Francisco Chronicle Book Review

"Jodi Angel's first collection of fiction, "The History of Vegas," is a promising beginning and a thoroughly enjoyable read. Though the title may bring to mind the opulent Las Vegas of yesteryear, that vision is only the backdrop to a grittier, almost film noir present, where only aging gangsters remember the good old days.

These 10 stories are mostly populated by street-smart adolescents trapped in a continual "now," but no matter how smart they are, they lack the experience needed to keep them from being devoured by a hungry, heartless world.

In essence, Angel is writing a kind of abbreviated naturalism, the kind of fiction that writers like Raymond Carver and Larry Brown honed to perfection. Angel excels at it as well, whether the setting is the urban jungle of Las Vegas, the dirt roads of the lonely, expansive West or even the seemingly placid suburbs. "