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“Bajema’s prose combines the precision of pop-song lyrics with the surreal haziness of a fever-dream. . . . These lyrical stories treat a range of topics, from schoolboy football stardom and infatuation with a local beauty to Eddie’s encounters with his emotionally battered father, described as a ‘dog of war’ with a ‘soul in pieces.’ A raw and direct pathway into the mind of an independent youth ‘trapped in the culture of Southern California.’” — Publishers Weekly

“From the moment you meet the thirteen-year-old Burnett in a San Diego suburb, to the moment many years later when he awakens with a bad hangover from a life that used to welcome him, you’ll find yourself silently cheering his every small triumph over gravity. Bajema is an enviably powerful storyteller . . . a walking badass of a book.” — Rolling Stone

“Bajema touches all the bases of American life: the pervasiveness of violence, the pain of loss, the strange calculus of race, the bittersweet agonies of family attachments and, always, the signals and skirmishes between men and women.” — San Francisco Chronicle

“Eddie constantly seeks a nobler perspective, only to find an illusion, a trick of the mind. . . . As the distinction between right and wrong continues to erode, [Bajema] unveils a very dark answer in the quest to illuminate the human spirit.” — LA Reader

“Bajema’s prose is surly and mesmerizing, snakes down your throat like a pickup’s exhaust. Fans of Sam Shepard will dig these desperate and beautiful tales.” — Joshua Mohr, author of Damascus

“Don Bajema is one of my favorite writers. His stories are tough, honest and sometimes brutal yet they’re also merciful, wise and transcendent. Reading Bajema’s work is like hearing an ancient, mysterious folk song played by a great rock and roll band in a dark bar somewhere in the Mojave Desert on a hot night. Don Bajema’s stories makes me want to go write songs and play guitar too loud.” — Dave Alvin, Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter

“Don is a great writer. His work is worth reading.” — Henry Rollins, singer-songwriter, publisher, author of Black Coffee Blues

“Don gives an articulate voice to the outsider. He captures the fragility of adolescence and the awkwardness; how the random collection of our childhood experiences shape us into the person we are reacting against, coming to terms with and always becoming.” — Dred Scott, jazz musician

“A smidgeon of Shepard, a bit of Boyle, a cry of Kerouac and maybe a taste of Morrison flavor these original stories of a California life.” — Robert Englund, actor

“Discovering Don Bajema’s literary genius before the rest of the world has caught on is akin to stepping into Gerde’s Folk City in ’61 and catching a young kid from Minnesota fixing his harmonica in place and launching into a song about ‘Hard Rain’ or finding yourself at London’s Marquee Club in ’63 when a group of scruffy hooligans are reverently and rebelliously inventing a groundbreaking, world splitting, stone rolling, blues rock ’n’ roll. Bajema’s writing ignites agonizing heartache, prophetic insight, immortal swagger, and a redemptive, triumphant love of life. You will beg him to keep on singing.” — Pete Sinjin, musician