Call Someplace Paradise [Hardcover]

Pat Hartman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 21, 2000

Venice, California, is a ghetto/bohemian/affluent beachfront community as well as a state of mind, a place so special that poets write love lyrics to it and sociologists study it. This tribute to Venice makes you wish you had been there and glad that you weren't.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

The author was always impressed by book jacket bios that listed an eclectic assortment of jobs, and consequently went on to do several interesting things for pay. Overtaken in 1978 by the urge to live in a really weird place she moved to Venice, California, and stayed there six years. More recently, she edited and published 25 issues of a well-reviewed zine, Salon: A Journal of Aesthetics. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 276 pages
• Publisher: Xlibris Corp; 1 edition (June 21, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0738820059
• ISBN-13: 978-0738820057
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 1.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,568,593 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars The Perfect Book for the bohemian freak on yer shopping list, March 23, 2005

By 

Ace Backwords (www.geocities.com/acebackwords2002) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Call Someplace Paradise (Hardcover)

Pat Hartman may be the best undiscovered writer in America. This could all change with the recent publication of her two new books about her experiences living in Venice from 1978-1984. GHOST TOWN is about her private life, her home life in the Oakwood ghetto of Venice. CALL SOMEPLACE PARADISE focuses on the public side of her life in Venice. All the legendary Venice street freaks are here, such as Swami X, the mad street sage of the Venice boardwalk. All the characters are brought to life with Hartman's lively pen and wry sense of humor. A lot of books have been written about the Haight Ashbury in the 60s and all that stuff. But Venice during the late 70s, early 80s may have been the peak flowering of America's bohemian counterculture. All the 60s hippie-types are still going strong, with the 70s punks chomping at the bit adding new life to the scene. Check this book out, soon to be a classic bit of Americana.

5.0 out of 5 stars An intriguing, insightful collection of vignettes, February 21, 2001

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Call Someplace Paradise (Paperback)

This tribute to Venice, California will appeal to any who have a special interest in Southern California history and travel: Hartman's chapters cover 1978-84 and provide intimate first-person experiences and reflections on the culture and people she encounters in the area. An intriguing, insightful collection of vignettes.

4.0 out of 5 stars The Most Bizarre Parade of Characters I Have Ever Seen!, December 22, 2000

By 

STEVE OKEEFE "Tulane University Professor" (New Orleans, LA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Call Someplace Paradise (Hardcover)

Pat Hartman is probably the most underrated journalist in America. Her style is eloquent, her vocabulary enormous, and her razor-sharp wit carves startling insights out of ordinary events. There is nothing ordinary, however, about this chronicle of six years in Venice Beach. This book is a time capsule spanning America's transition from unchecked freedom to ugly conservatism. If you're looking for character studies for a novel, you'll find hundreds of them: transgender rollerskaters, cutthroat comedians, heartbreakingly homeless bag ladies, and a spleef of hippies slipping past their prime. Timothy Leary's best (and worst) acid trips pale by comparison. One caveat: Pat Hartman's greatest work is yet to come. This book is full intense bursts of immaculate writing. I can't wait to see her stretch out. Get a first edition of this book so you can tell your kids you were into Pat Hartman *before* she won the Pulitzer (and so you can tell them what the late '70s were like -- since you probably can't remember).