This is a collection of short stories by Maurice Carlos Ruffin. Ruffin's first novel was a satire but these stories fully inhabit the present, even when Ruffin pulls things into the near future. These are also stories set in and about New Orleans, but not the one the tourists or wealthy in-comers see, but a New Orleans of people just getting by, of hustlers and kids and working folk. Many of the stories are vignettes, short pieces of just a page or two but for all their brevity, they didn't feel like fragments.

Ruffin inhabits different characters with an easy grace that comes of keen observation, but he's at his best in writing from the point of view of children trying to get by in a world where they have very little control over what happens around them. A few of the stories reminded me of Jamel Brinkley's A Lucky Man and my favorite story is the one that closes out the book, about a woman trying to save her house while her neighborhood is gentrifying around her. Tip hotel housekeeping, guys! ( )

THE ONES WHO DON'T SAY THEY LOVE YOU, by Maurice Carlos Ruffin, is a collection of short stories that look at issues of race, status, bigotry, loyalty, and desperation. New Orleans is the backdrop for all of the stories, and Ruffin uses the grit and determination of the people of New Orleans to force readers to contemplate life in other people's shoes and what in means to be looked at in a different light than what the reader is used to.
I really liked the balance of all of the stories. Some short and some longer, some were lighter and left me smiling while others brought me to tears. I felt like the book was a study how people in all walks of life get by in New Orleans. Some get lucky, but most come up against relentless and sometimes insurmountable hurdles to find any sort of success or even just upward momentum. There isn't a bad story on the lot, but my favorite was "Ghetto University". It looks at the effects (or lack thereof) of getting an education. It also turns the perception of race on it's head. That story left me considering how I look at education, status, and race in my every day life.
THE ONES WHO DON'T SAY THEY LOVE YOU will stick in my head for a while and I look forward to more stories from Maurice Carlos Ruffin. An excellent read and one I won't soon forget.
Thank you to Random House/One World, Maurice Carlos Ruffin, and Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review! ( )