Entertainment

When you hear about public art, it’s usually the monumental kind that attracts attention, like Mount Rushmore or the Statue of Liberty. The backdrops for these works might be bustling cities or magnificent landscapes, but public art, historically, has not found its way into the suburbs. It’s rarely a feature in shopping plazas or residential neighborhoods.

The author’s writing is superb, but her characters who personify death, sickness, self-destruction, depravity and despair are never able to see beyond the confines of a very small block of row houses on Union Street.