Was Gabo An Irishman?

 Too many people overlook interior design in the making of a very good book. Was Gabo An Irishman? had that accompanying a consistent stream of fast-moving stories from writers with varying sorts of English. I couldn't find any visible errors in that always vulnerable, and challenging, literary battle. 

The quote, story, and author bio, format worked very well to make you sad that the book ended. I found that depressing that there wasn't more. 

Some years ago friend and colleague Eddie Miranda loaned me his copy of One Hundred Years Of Solitude, and it left me thinking deeply about Gabo's home turf, and the many Colombians in Houston I went to high school with. A crush on one inspired me to jump from a C to an A in Conversational Spanish. And, like in Gabo's content, it was unrequited love. She was from Cartagena. 

Charis McGowan's "A Costeno Conversation," brilliantly, and quickly, dissected Colombian Spanish, and that was a personal high point for me here. It's very tough, singling out any standout stories. They all shined. The design and content worked together very nicely.

If there was an error of some kind it slipped away too quickly to note. I counted possibly five word choice questions in which a more common word could've been better, but that's all the downside I could find. Hey, there were a handful of PhDs who contributed, so some of that can be expected. Fortunately, this anthology didn't read like a sometimes bulky academic work in its swift flight from beginning to end.

I noted that Papen Press, of Las Vegas, Nevada did the printing, and they did very well.

Colombia climbs back high into my bucket list, and I hope some magic realism can help me get there.