Down South of North

Discharged from the US Army with a head injury sustained in Vietnam during the war era Edmond Larson takes to wandering in Mexico. One night at a cantina in Veracruz a pistolero falls dead at Larsons feet and he is arrested for murder. After escaping jail he reluctantly joins up with a local girl who has ties to a madman bent on provoking revolution. Ellies friend Jerry complains that she thinks shes always right. Ellie admits she has a smart mouth and that even at the age of twenty-nine she often comes off as a cantankerous old biddy. In Ellies view people take advantage at the slightest display of weakness. This is the story of how Ellie loses her virginity. Octavio is a street brawler and a thief though also capable of painful sacrifice for the benefit of a chance acquaintance. An insurance salesman wakes up on a Saturday morning unable to set work aside. His wife objects to his attitude. His son accuses him of going back on his word. Pancho takes a beating every time he enters the boxing ring but his sisters husband a former national champion wont let him quit the fight game. A man lies on a mountainside in the rain. A woman he cant get enough of has just struck him in the head with a rock. Another man bleeds to death on a bridge with intestines spilling out his abdomen. His killer admonishes him for seducing their patrons young wife. Down South of North comprises ten stories in all. A suicidal roofer a painter dedicated to her clients in social services while enduring unrequited love and a taxidermist who discovers a magic pendant in the belly of a forty-pound catfish round out the collections central characters.