What a series of tragic but beautifully written human stories. Garcia is a master with his descriptions because he does get to know people---beyond their surface appearance--deeply, and then he gives us pictures that there is no way to get except through his journalistic efforts---listening, listening. What does one do with all of this which represents just a tiny portion of what is out there---human beings desperate for some kind of help. Garcia has opened the door but what does society do now? ( )

The Fruit of All My Grief is a collection of 11 stories. They are all people stories, and all the main characters suffer, mostly at the hands of the unseen. It is in not something they can alter or affect. They just have to endure, cope and try to carry on. Mostly unsuccessfully. Malcolm Garcia thrives in this environment, and he does a great job of getting inside victim’s heads, seeing the world as they do. It is not a happy sort of book, but heartfelt, relatable and engaging.

Garcia travelled widely to investigate these people, their families, friends, neighbors, customers and histories. They include a larger than life character whose marina and store were slowly cut off and shut down by the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, an undocumented immigrant holed up in a Phoenix church after 26 years of the American Dream, a truck driver in prison for life because he desperately needed money for his baby’s bone marrow operation, an interpreter now Afghan refugee trying to start over in the USA, a man released from prison after 16 years, a family physically destroyed by fracking, a man who gave up everything to rescue orphans in Haiti, an Iraq veteran with brain cancer thanks (admittedly!) to the Marines’ policy of burn pits, two sisters destroyed by false accusations of armed robbery, and the American fate of an entire platoon of Iraq veterans.

My favorite is the story of Ben Kennedy, a mysterious old man who lived on nothing, giving all his social security money to environmental causes. While his efforts were a spit in the ocean, he affected numerous people in a very positive way. His is the least tragic story, which makes it stand out in the book.

Garcia is easy to read, and well organized. The only difficulty is his style of almost never using quotation marks or referencing speech. In dialogue, it is often difficult to know who is talking. Attribution gets lost quickly. Sometimes, it is actually Garcia talking, which you might figure out after the fact. If this were a film, you’d know right away. In a book, it can be confusing. I gave up, and just let it flow, because ultimately, who used what words didn’t change anything.

This is the second Garcia book I have reviewed. The first, Without A Country, dealt with US veterans, deported to Mexico or the Dominican Republic. Their reward for risking their lives for their adopted USA. Garcia does not shy away from the toughness of just plain living, which makes his work most readable and worthwhile.

David Wineberg ( )