This collection of short stories are about men, mostly in poverty or crime or both, right here in the Pacific Northwest (mostly Spokane). Characters are created over a few paragraphs, completely different and yet with some dark similarities.

The closest comparison is [a:Sherman Alexie|4174|Sherman Alexie|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1333515890p2/4174.jpg], whose stories have similar starting points. However, his stories often have hope or a greater purpose - Walter's stories are more vignettes of a time, often hopeless. The intolerance, prejudice and poverty leave the reader with weighty thoughts. Many for me were awfully close to home. I enjoyed most of "Don't Eat Cat" and all of "Statistical Abstract For My Home Town, Spokane, Washington".