Kem Nunn's stories are supremely strange, combining the simplest and lowest cliches of Americana with bizarrely violent situations. It's all a bit hard to categorize or recommend. Above it all, however, rises Nunn's own style, gripping enough to make any story work. Here, a tale of a vacuum-cleaner salesman sharing with trailer-trash bikers a night of drunken revenge becomes a modern-day adaptation of the history of Pomona, CA. A book that's hard to like but easy to love. ( )