In the opener, “Great American Scream Machine,” a teenager named Eva uncovers a secret her parents have kept since she was born: her undocumented status. Later, in “The World as We Know It,” a white couple who call Child Protective Services on their downstairs neighbors inadvertently kick-start the deportation process. In “The Fake Wife,” Chris, an American man, begins to fall for Marisa, the Dominican woman marrying him for a green card. López works where American and international identities intersect, highlighting the immigrant experience, especially that of people from Latin America. She focuses on human connections, stemming both from conflict (as in “Something Larger, Something Whole,” in which a married couple’s quarreling is reflected à la Dorian Gray’s portrait on their rug) and harmony (as in “So I Let Her Be,” in which a daughter comforts her mother, whose nude photos have just leaked). López’s mastery of the details making up daily life comes from a hyperfocus on “the little things. The little frictions that start off earthquakes.” The collection feels cohesive, all the stories part of a whole arching toward the book’s epicenter: the Ironbound itself. The same characters appear in multiple pieces. Schools, workplaces, and blocks begin to feel familiar. The book evokes the feeling of setting foot in Newark, taking in not only its sights and sounds but also the complicated and beautiful lives of the people who live there.
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