Abstract
People Like Us is a collection of stories centered around Venezuela’s spectacular socio-economic collapse and its ensuing diaspora. Spanning continents and challenging the conventions of narrative structure, these eleven stories explore the rippling effects of a failed revolution and the inescapable legacies of violence and corruption on its citizens. The characters in these stories follow both immigrants struggling to find a better life abroad, and those who stayed and continue to endure the indignities of a country plagued by extremes. The devastating effects of wealth disparity come to the surface in “Pedro Navaja,” a story told in reverse that unravels the truth behind a wealthy businessman’s murder the day after his daughter’s wedding. In “La Quinta,” notions of ownership are questioned when a housekeeper struggles to maintain a crumbling home that doesn’t belong to her. Endemic violence plagues a group of young gang members in “Mercedes,” who are preparing to rob the home of an elderly couple. In “Genesis,” a young woman’s past in Choroní resurfaces after she ends up in a hellish bachelor party in Cartagena. While in “People Like Us,” a sense of melancholy trails a potential surrogate mother in Madrid whose life did not turn out as she expected. The shattering of childhood innocence is explored in multiple ways in “Bad Guys,” a triptych that jumps back through time and characters. While “Views,” a story told from dual perspectives, follows an ambitious immigrant couple in Los Angeles as they chase a dying American dream.