In "Necklace of Skulls, " a low-grade revolution has broken out on the California border with Mexico. The frontier between two countries is transformed into a shadowy netherworld. At a small college in a desert community, the forces of violence and political absurdity collide. "As for myself, " reveals the narrator, Henry Larson, "I wanted all hell to break loose. Disaster was the perfect tonic." But he is unable to turn the tide, as professors battle insurgents, calculating attorneys shield desperate students, and gang members, soldiers, and teachers, along with an ethereal curandera, clash in a strange odyssey of spiritual turmoil. Zielinski's characters are tangled in a poetic web of sputtering technology and daring language.