For several years, critics have been telling readers that Mark Jude Poirier is one of the most original voices to come out of the West. Unsung Heroes of American Industry (Talk/Miramax Books, $22) is Poirier’s latest, a slim collection of five stories that confirms his early critical reception. Each of his new stories feature a cottage industry whose inner workings are rarely known to the general public: pearl-button manufacturing/chicken processing in Tucson, worm farming in North Texas, alligator skin hunting in Louisiana, beauty pageantry in Maryland, and pornography production in Massachusetts. Readers familiar with the sickening but strangely lovable cretins who appear in Poirier’s earlier story collection, Naked Pueblo (1999), and Goats (2001), his novel, will find traces of Poirier’s talent for eclecticism in this both laugh-out-loud funny and poignant collection, but the cottage industry idea is just a clever organization of his unassuming but unforgettable writing. He’ll be at BookPeople tonight, Thursday, May 23, at 7pm… Robb Walsh, the Chronicle‘s former Food editor who’s now a restaurant critic for the Houston Press, will be at BookPeople on Friday, May 24, at 7pm, with his new book, Legends of Texas Barbecue Cookbook: Recipes and Recollections From the Pit Bosses (Chronicle Books, $18.95).
This article appears in May 24 • 2002.