The University of Arizona Press
The King of Lighting Fixtures
Stories
Paperback ($16.95), Ebook ($16.95)
Buy
Wanderers and writers, gangbangers and lawyers, dreamers and devils. The King of Lighting Fixtures paints an idiosyncratic but honest portrait of Los Angeles, depicting how the city both entrances and confounds. Each story serves as a reflection of Daniel A. Olivas’s grand City of Angels, a “magical metropolis where dreams come true.”
The characters here represent all walks of L.A. life—from Satan’s reluctant Craigslist roommate to a young girl coping with trauma at her brother’s wake—and their tales ebb and flow among various styles, including magical realism, social realism, and speculative fiction. Like a jazz album, they glide and bop, tease and illuminate, sadden and hearten as they navigate effortlessly from meta to fabulist, from flash fiction to longer, more complex narratives.
These are literary sketches of a Los Angeles that will surprise, connect, and disrupt readers wherever they may live.
The characters here represent all walks of L.A. life—from Satan’s reluctant Craigslist roommate to a young girl coping with trauma at her brother’s wake—and their tales ebb and flow among various styles, including magical realism, social realism, and speculative fiction. Like a jazz album, they glide and bop, tease and illuminate, sadden and hearten as they navigate effortlessly from meta to fabulist, from flash fiction to longer, more complex narratives.
These are literary sketches of a Los Angeles that will surprise, connect, and disrupt readers wherever they may live.
“What unites the work is a sense of place.”—Los Angeles Times
“Olivas, the king of flash fiction, flexes both magical realist and realist muscles.”—NBC News
“The collection cements his place in the magical realism tradition of García Márquez and Urrea, and showcases his skills as a master stylist and self-aware observer of life's little vignettes.”—Shelf Awareness
“[A] bold insistence on leaving a few seams visible, a few threads frayed—even on pulling the rug away entirely—makes the book resound as a fascinating exploration of both the art of storytelling and the ways in which fiction echoes the messiness of life.”—Foreword Reviews
“Assured and perceptive, offering a view of another Southland from Chandler’s and Didion’s.”—Kirkus
“Because some pieces are of such brevity and wit, readers will take delight in reading twice.”—La Bloga
“An exceptional collection of original and entertaining stories by a master of the short story format.”—Midwest Book Review “A sharp, smart collection punctuated with inventiveness and wit: in the ongoing effort to depict Los Angeles as lit by something other than the glare of Hollywood, Daniel A. Olivas reminds us that the vast topography of the entire city and its neighborhoods are vibrant with their own unique electricities.”—Manuel Muñoz, author of What You See in the Dark
“Comic, wry, very Angeleno, and essential Southern California.”—Susan Straight, author of Between Heaven and Here
"By turns funny and frightening, deliciously suspenseful and comfortingly homey, The King of Lighting Fixtures is a credit to its author and to its readers, who have no choice but to give into imagination and to the joys of this delightful collection."—Erin Rubin, LibroMobile
“The short story is a delicate artifact and Olivas knows it: the right balance is achieved only if what is said is in harmony with what is left unmentioned. His Los Angeles is not only from bottom up but from east to west and from south to north.”—Ilan Stavans, author of On Borrowed Words
“Olivas, the king of flash fiction, flexes both magical realist and realist muscles.”—NBC News
“The collection cements his place in the magical realism tradition of García Márquez and Urrea, and showcases his skills as a master stylist and self-aware observer of life's little vignettes.”—Shelf Awareness
“[A] bold insistence on leaving a few seams visible, a few threads frayed—even on pulling the rug away entirely—makes the book resound as a fascinating exploration of both the art of storytelling and the ways in which fiction echoes the messiness of life.”—Foreword Reviews
“Assured and perceptive, offering a view of another Southland from Chandler’s and Didion’s.”—Kirkus
“Because some pieces are of such brevity and wit, readers will take delight in reading twice.”—La Bloga
“An exceptional collection of original and entertaining stories by a master of the short story format.”—Midwest Book Review “A sharp, smart collection punctuated with inventiveness and wit: in the ongoing effort to depict Los Angeles as lit by something other than the glare of Hollywood, Daniel A. Olivas reminds us that the vast topography of the entire city and its neighborhoods are vibrant with their own unique electricities.”—Manuel Muñoz, author of What You See in the Dark
“Comic, wry, very Angeleno, and essential Southern California.”—Susan Straight, author of Between Heaven and Here
"By turns funny and frightening, deliciously suspenseful and comfortingly homey, The King of Lighting Fixtures is a credit to its author and to its readers, who have no choice but to give into imagination and to the joys of this delightful collection."—Erin Rubin, LibroMobile
“The short story is a delicate artifact and Olivas knows it: the right balance is achieved only if what is said is in harmony with what is left unmentioned. His Los Angeles is not only from bottom up but from east to west and from south to north.”—Ilan Stavans, author of On Borrowed Words
168 Pages
5.5 x 8.5
Published: September 2017Paperback ISBN: 9780816535620
Published: September 2017Ebook ISBN: 9780816537501
- Photos from AWP 2023
- 2022 Tucson Festival of Books: Panels, Signings, and Discounts
- Five Questions with Daniel A. Olivas
- Daniel Olivas Pays Tribute to Father of Chicano Literature
- 10th Annual Tucson Festival of Books
- High Country News: In Line at the Great Wall
- Shelf Awareness: The King of Lighting Fixtures
- Frederick Luis Aldama in conversation with Daniel Olivas
- Daniel A. Olivas Speaks with LA Times's Agatha French
- Hispanic Heritage Month: 12 New Books by Latino Authors
- Foreword Reviews Raves about King of Lighting Fixtures