Tales of Lost Southtown

Many people find themselves moving to a new town or neighborhood only to feel they arrived too late-all the fun and exciting possibilities in that region's history had already come and gone. Such is the opinion of the narrator of Tales of Lost Southtown, a struggling filmmaker who finds himself navigating through a series of unlikely adventures in one of San Antonio's older and funkier neighborhoods. He learns about the mysterious Elmendorf Beast (a genetic experiment gone awry), a cursed oil painting purchased at a thrift shop, a trilobite fossil the size of a VW, and Alfie Montoya, head of the Alamo Urination Appreciation Society, who is trying to conserve the historical site where a certain rock star relieved himself on the "shrine" of Texas Independence. Although Tales of Lost Southtown is essentially a book about loss as seen through the lens of the gentrification of the older neighborhoods of San Antonio, the author maintains a tone of warm humor and an appreciation of the absurd, allowing this collection of interconnected stories to catch a glimpse of a hopeful future amid a prevailing era of uncertain change.