In this collection of five short stories Kennedy's complex characters are sharply insightful and as damaged as they are intriguingly complex. Jolting the reader into regulr double takes, Burnside Field Lizard and Selected Stories gives an authentic, place based portrayal of some of Portland's less privileged inhabitants. Gender, class and sexual based consciousness seep into the grain of each story but most importantly Kennedy examines a universal question from the perspective of the Portland neighborhoods she knows intimately: What are people willing go take from others in order to survive?
