Everything Begins and Ends at the Kentucky Club

by Benjamin Alire Saenz

The Kentucky Club pulled me in with its mournful, bare beauty. As I read the interconnected stories, I felt the longing of the characters searching for home in the transitional spaces between El Paso and Ciudad Juárez. The Club itself, with worn leather booths and shadowy presence, became more than a backdrop; it embodied the quiet desperation and fleeting solace the characters craved. The prose is nearly poetic, weaving heartbreak and hope in a way that left me lingering in his unsettled world. However, I need to note the melancholy is sobering, and the desperation sometimes feels repetitive here.