Set mainly in California's Central Valley, Manuel Muñoz's first
collection of stories goes beyond the traditional family myths and
narratives of Chicano literature and explores, instead, the constant
struggle of characters against their physical and personal surroundings.
Usually depicted as the lush and green world of rural quiet and
tranquility, the Valley becomes the backdrop for the difficulties these
characters confront as they try to maintain hope and independence in the
face of isolation.
In the title story, a teenage boy learns the consequences of succumbing
to the lure of a town outsider; in "Campo," a young farm worker
frantically attempts to hide his supervision of a huddle of children
from the town police, only to have another young man come to his
unexpected rescue; in "The Unimportant Lila Parr," a father must expose
his own secrets after his son is found murdered in a highway motel. From
conflicts of family and sexuality to the pain of loss and memory, the
characters in Zigzagger seek to reconcile themselves with the rural
towns of their upbringing--a place that, by nature, is bordered by
loneliness.