Books by Jeff Gomez

The first serious study of the Guided By Voices, one of the most important rock groups of the past thirty years.

A new retelling of the classic novelInspired by Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck's timeless tale of Depression-era friendship, Unfamous Men chronicles a different group of doomed dreamers: Mexican fruit pickers in Southern California in the years following World War II. Tomás, a small man with a weakness for women and gambling, is constantly getting into trouble. Juanito, on the other hand, is a gentle giant with limited emotional intelligence who craves only quiet.They’re on their way to Los Angeles to live with Juanito’s uncle, but first they need to earn money  at a ranch near Ventura. Complicating matters is the fact that Tomás has caught the eye of both Dallas, the ranch owner’s son, and Celedonia, Dallas’s Mexican wife who used to work on the ranch. There’s also Santos, the wise field boss and Custodio, a young Bracero disillusioned about life in America.Over the span of just a few days, these characters collide in a way that ends in betrayal and death—but not in the way you might think.

"A canny study of split personalities, family and roads not taken." -Kirkus Reviews What would you do if there were three of you? That's the startling question at the heart of Beside Myself, a novel about the decisions that you didn't make, the lives that you didn't lead. Beside Myself presents a world where the author comes into contact with-and eventually meets-three different versions of himself: they are all Jeff Gomez, but each one is different based on choices made at a critical juncture. One is married, one is single, and one has a family. As they each gradually discover the other, their various lives begin to overlap and, ultimately, become intertwined in ways they never thought possible. The three Jeffs also discover that this is not an isolated incident. The chapters of Beside Myself can be read in any order, or the reader can follow one Jeff at a time throughout the story. "You, as the reader, feel like you're in the driver's seat." -Literary Platform Review