Rolando Hinojosa is a prolific Mexican-American writer who has devoted much of his career to the Klail City Death Trip series, a collection of fifteen books which have brought to life numerous generations of life in the fictional Belken County of the Rio Grande Valley, Texas. With his father fighting in the Mexican Revolution and his mother’s family living north of the border, Hinojosa is uniquely positioned to explore life on the Mexico/US border, charting the relationship between the inhabitants of what is essentially a bi-cultural locale. 
First released in 1987, Klail City comes roughly halfway in the series, though due to it’s lack of linear plot development there’s no real pressure to be familiar with the previous books before reading. Indeed, the main feature of the novel is it how it eschews a linear narrative in favour of time-jumping vignettes, snippets and anecdotes from past and present collected with little in the way of explanation or context. Instead, Klail City is brought to life gradually, textures and tones and turns of phrase building not just a sense of place but of history. Rolando Hinojosa’s sharp dialogue and subtle satire serving to breathe life into every generation. What emerges is the sort of myth and wisdom found only in the dingy barrooms and family-run coffee shops and quiet front porches of small towns, as well as the quiet melancholy and perseverance that goes hand-in-hand with the passing of time.
Our choice of songs for this one perhaps isn’t the most subtle, and might well highlight our naivety/ignorance when it comes to the geographic differences between American folk music, but we just went with tracks which we felt capture the mood of Hinojosa’s work in some way. The tracklisting carries links to the artists we’ve covered in the past, if you want to read our thoughts on their music.
Tracklisting:
1) Will the Circle Be Unbroken – Marisa Anderson
2) Floating Rhododendron – Sarah Louise
3) Out West – The Coal Creek Boys
4) Fable – Sam Moss
5) Impress My Memory – Stephen Steinbrink
6) Sometimes – Noel’le Longhaul
7) Hands in Our Names – Karima Walker
8) Mexican Blanket – Wes Tirey
9) Stained Glass Eye – The Dead Tongues
10) Around and Around – Mountain Man
11) Revelation Drift – dbh
12) Dark Was the Night – Ry Cooder
You can buy Klail City and the rest of Rolando Hinojosa’s novels from Arte Publico Press.