Middle Class

The Surreal Adventures of Dr. Mingus (Las aventuras surreales de Dr. Mingus) is an adventure of the mind, inspired by Fellini, classical theatre, Dante, and the Mexican drug wars. The dreams of the eccentric doctor will carry readers from the chaos of the third world through the nightmare of middle class America. Félix Rodriguez has created a tapestry of modern life unlike anything you have ever read. This book contains both English and Spanish versions of this one of a kind story from one of Mexico's newest, boldest artists.

There was a time in this country when people who were well-off had two homes, and the super-rich may have had three residences. In 2008 a prominent politician was asked how many homes he had. He didn’t know. The number was eight...and in the ensuing years the income gap has only widened. Billionaires now have so much money and power that the very fabric of our nation is coming unraveled. Tax policy is fundamental to a nation’s stability. We need to return to the system that brought us a large, dynamic, educated middle class.

Weaving the brackish humor of Chuck Palahniuk with the empathy of Barbara Ehrenreich, J. R. Helton brings to life an obscured underside of the American psyche in this unflinching account of life inside the working class of Texas in the 1980s. We first meet Helton as a struggling writer succumbing to the bleak reality of what it means to support himself and a wife. That despair is transformed into resilience as Helton insightfully narrates his wayward years, enduring hateful employers and mind-numbing manual labor.