Customer Reviews

Big Dreams: Into the Heart of California

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Bill Barich travels throughout the state, meets people, and describes California's various places. As a native Californian, it was interesting to see how he described the various people at the various places that both he and I have been. In order to be pithy, he has to distill a town into a short description, which risks greatly oversimplifying matters. Barich pulls it off amazingly well, with dead-on descriptions of many places. Readers may take issue with how he depicts a favorite place, but I think he manages to capture the feel of each place he goes. Definitely worth reading if you're from California or know someone who is.

The Kirkus review missed the point. The book was on California, technically. It tells the history of places there. But what the reviewer missed was the ride each reader gets to take with Mr. Barich as he drives from the tip of California down briefly into Mexico. On it we hear bits of Mr. Barich's past when he first moved to California, then settled down with his wife only to be upheaveled again 15 or so years later when that love ends. Those are brief mentions with the crux of the story being HIS observations on the state of things in California, meaning the state of things all over. How we haven't grown much as a culture (despite our young dreams and hopes for ourselves), how we still remain ignorant to others experiences, and how kindness is so rarely shown but desperately needed. Reading the book I didn't feel like a reader at all, but a listener along on the journey.

Barich can write colorfully about California, no doubt about that, but he errs in including too much minutinae and not enough about California's most important issue: water. The politics of water must be central to ANY discussion of California. Southern California would not exist as we know it today without Northern California water. The movers and shakers in the water game are crucial for any understanding of 20th century California. Barich misses the boat, so to speak.