Got That Fire. Fiction by Tazio Ruffilo. Illustrations by Jade Ramos. Paperback. 56 pages. December 20th, 2022. ISBN 9781948800884.

Paterson, New Jersey, has all the vices associated with a post-industrial American city, and not enough of the saving graces. Living or working there does a number on people. It’s a primordial soup for urban archetypes. Working class heroes. White knight yuppies. Kids who’ll steal a car just to arrive on time. The decaying but not yet dead. Real friends, ride or die. Got That Fire is about the Patersonians I knew, growing up there in the ‘90s.