In his biting first full-length collection in English, Tijuana poetRoberto Castillo Udiartecommiserates with Zona Norte streetwalkers, embodies the desert lizard, and maps a life lived in the dimnessof the barroom as well as its incisive light. The poems in Smooth-Talking Dog display the countercultureinfluence of a wide range of influences on both sides of the border, from both the page and the rock concert stage, as hilarious and tragic as they are deadly serious. Celebrating Baja California'sstatus outside the Mexican literarymainstream, Smooth-Talking Dog provesjust how...