[2] The collection was released to rave reviews by several reputable critics, as well as authors, for its brutal realism and genuine portrayal of the marginalized masses.

[3] His book contains 29 stories separated into three distinct sections, which epitomize the perspective of the working classes and Chicano culture.

Gilb's prose is simplistic in nature and his writing belongs to a proletariat genre, which explores the existence of labor, love, families, friends and the immigrant community in America.

Once Richie meets, and loses, his first love Nancy Flores, the protagonist revels in the ongoing debasement of the boy who stole her from him (Trey).

A man meets his great-grandmother in Hollywood, only to then realize that her revered status as a great actress has largely been a fabrication, and that her previous glamor has dissipated with age.

FDR Was a Democrat is a story that discusses the old/young dynamic of two workers on a construction job and the validity of judging things at face value.

Vic Damone's Music is the story of a young teenager's job in a laundry plant and his first romantic experience with a co-worker.

[5] At the award ceremony, American journalist and author E. Annie Proulx praised Gilb's collection by declaring, "The stories are leavened with compassion and humor and there is not a shred of sentimentality.

The Magic of Blood marks the introduction of an important new voice in American literature.” [6] Alongside these accolades, reputable publications, such as Newsweek, The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Nation,[7] called Gilb's writing "... the most exciting and emotionally draining since Raymond Carver's.

[9][10] Dagoberto Gilb's The Magic of Blood is a collection of short stories about proletarian life from a Chicano perspective.

Major themes prominent throughout Gilb's collection include: proletarian work and love, vacations, the family, friendships, youth and aging.

[11] E. Annie Proulx mentions many of the collection's themes, "a Southwest world of bills and debts and being laid off, of old trucks, paychecks that bounce, greedy landladies, fights, cheap girls, drugs, unemployment compensation, difficult bosses, color of skin, language games, a hunger for work," in her citation for PEN's Ernest Hemingway Foundation Award.