Maurice Carlos Ruffin has an uncanny ability to reveal the hidden corners of a place we thought we knew. These perspectival, character-driven stories center on the margins and are deeply rooted in New Orleanian culture.
In “Beg Borrow Steal”, a boy relishes time spent helping his father find work after coming home from prison; in “Ghetto University”, a couple struggling financially turns to crime after hitting rock bottom; in “Before I Let Go”, a woman who’s been in NOLA for generations fights to keep her home; in “Fast Hands, Fast Feet”, an army vet and a runaway teen find companionship while sleeping under a bridge; in “Mercury Forges”, a flash fiction piece among several in the collection, a group of men hurriedly make their way to an elderly gentleman’s home, trying to reach him before the water from Hurricane Katrina does; and in the title story, a young man works the street corners of the French Quarter, trying to achieve a freedom not meant for him.