Fiction. Short Stories. Jim Daniels' NO PETS brings us sad, acutely-observed stories of people who know in their bones that the American Dream does not apply to them -- John Sayles. With swift, deft strokes, in spare, precise language, Jim Daniels can break your heart. He captures the tragic -- maybe tragi-comic -- lives of people whom I long to reach out to, in their blue collar cities, and pluck them from the paths they seem destined to walk ... I carry these characters around with me, in my head and heart, and think of them at unexpected moments of the day -- Lewis Nordan.