Book excerpt: From bus rides to bars, to encounters with friends and family and most importantly with strangers, Larry Gross lives his life out loud by drawing on the small slices of life, the little things most people don’t notice. “There is no artifice in Gross’s art. What distinguishes his writing is his knack for seeing and hearing things worth remembering. His pastiche draws on the commonality of urban life, with many of his stories set in downtown bars or on the buses that take him there. The main character is No One Special, a person who appears in various guises, capable of both unfettered generosity and burdensome peevishness.” Gregory Flannery, Managing Editor, Streetvibes