These Americans

“These Americans is full of trippy confluence”

Gen-X has grown up! Lily’s story takes place in various Waffle Houses and small hotels across Michigan, Oklahoma, and Texas. Lily encounters a cast of diverse characters, including a group of inappropriate cat-callers, a revolver-wielding hotel owner on Route 66, and a sexy server at Lily’s first Waffle House.

Back home, Lily is connected to a diverse cast of characters, including Gus, her chain-smoking, coffee drinking and perpetually stressed-out boyfriend; Stacia, her workaholic and commitment-phobic best friend; Chick, Stacia’s love interest who prefers they/them pronouns while loving a good mystery; Jake, a guy who struggles with every aspect of life; Jesse, the alcoholic veteran living next door; Rainey the cop; and a dog named Tank or Roger, depending on who you ask. Additionally, Morgan Freeman makes an appearance in certain characters’ dreams, serving as their subconscious.

This novella is about relationships, actions, and human nature through complex characters. Instead of presenting the cast as either heroes or villains, the book depicts them as unique individuals with their own struggles and personalities. The story had been recently described as “full of trippy confluence,” which I find an accurate description of the way events converge in the narrative.

Excerpt from “The Sheer Humanity of Life: The Forward to These Americans Book 3”

by Manny Torres

These subterraneans. With each scene in his books, I can almost hear Ry Cooder’s ambient slide guitar supporting the entrance or exit of a character, or underlying their moment of sanctuary within their thoughts, or sainthood within their actions. Many believe the American dream to be a myth; perhaps it works as an idea, not an ideal. Some barely get out of the gate, much less make it to the finish line. The woman seeking independence and autonomy, the man who loves her and pursues her, the police detective, his partner, (Lucid) all trying to solve a mystery. And the presence of God, creeping around the corner. These are the kinds of characters, by their ambitions and dreams, who embody Aaron’s stories. Dare I say, these characters are cynics who understand there is still a finish line to cross, no matter what obstacles fall in their paths. And getting there is how they get there. These characters roll with the punches, as they say. But they’re likeable, and easy to cozy up with.

His works participate with other like-minded books and writers and partake in the ongoing, literary conversation. Aaron’s contribution is uniquely his. Sharing adventures we might be familiar with, or perhaps have experienced ourselves. It was Jorge Luis Borges who identified four main plots in literature: a valiant fight, a journey, a quest, and a sacrifice. The billions of millions of stories told around the world, and throughout time, all depart from that theorem. What Aaron has done with These Americans is introduce them into the ongoing literary conversation while creating the mythology of his world and characters. They are parts of him. He is the conduit by which their tales are told. This is the blood, sweat and love of characters born from, I’m sure, real-life people and events. I paraphrase Ralph J. Gleason’s liner notes for Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew: ‘it’s all in there, the beauty, the terror, and the love, the sheer humanity of life.’