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Writing Los Angeles A Literary Anthology David L. Ulin, Editor Library of America September 30, 2002 Hardcover/873 pages ISBN: 1931082278 |
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". . . multi-faceted and fascinating . . ." ". . . a collage of novel excepts, short stories, essays and poetry . . ." ". . . captures the quintessence of the city and the authors who wrote of it." |
Complex, multi-faceted and fascinating as the city itself, Writing Los Angeles, A Literary Anthology, is a book that you will want to visit and stay for a weekend, a few months, or even a lifetime. Including a collage of novel excepts, short stories, essays, and poetry from more than seventy master wordsmiths, this book offers something for everyone to sample and enjoy.
The 873-page work–like the city Simone De Beauvoir describes as “not a city, but a collection of villages, residential neighborhoods, and encampments”–is overwhelming at first glance, and the reader can feel lost. The works, not arranged in chronological order or alphabetical sequence, seem to have been tossed together with no design or plan much like the city it portrays.
Maybe that’s the secret to the intrigue and appeal of Los Angeles and this book. Pure randomness that allows the freedom for one to hop from Upton Sinclair’s "Oil" to James M. Cain’s “Paradise”, or tour the “Golden Land” by William Faulkner before settling on “The Mattress by the Tomato Patch” written by Tennessee Williams.
Regardless of where you begin or end, this anthology captures the quintessence of the city and the authors who wrote of it. |
