Customer Reviews

Depth Takes a Holiday

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I love the writing of Sandra Tsing Loh because she is incredibly witty and acerbic, and doesn't take herself or anything too seriously. And, she can write about the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles in language that makes it sound downright pleasant.

Loh is the Queen of the San Fernando Valley, once a farming community over the hill from Los Angeles, but now a burgeoning suburb. Los Angelenos consider the Valley a foreign country, and, truth be told, getting from Los Angeles to the Valley is, literally, an uphill battle over the Sepulveda Pass. But, even though I lived there and know of whence she speaks, you don't need to be a Valley Girl to appreciate her humor.

This book is a collection of essays on everything from temp jobs to frozen foods, being the less-perfect sibling, her late German mother and her eccentric Chinese father (who keeps importing and losing Chinese brides, and hitch hikes rides with Angelica Huston). Loh's eye is keen, and she can make the most mundane seem downright hysterical.

Loh is a self-professed procrastinator when it comes to pumping out her writing, and I wish she would do more. But, her columns in the late, lamented Buzz magazine were a scream, and I can only hope she gets more columns and books and maybe even a television show. She is a rare gem.

Like many people, I first discovered Ms. Loh through her essays published in the now defunct LA magazine Buzz. Her clear, heavy pop-culure laced writing style is enormously pleasable to read and usually elicits frequent, uncontrollable laughter. I have found myself reading passages from this book to friends, some of whom have never even been to the San Fernando Valley or its environs... and they still laugh! If you enjoy reading humourous stories from the twentysomething unemployment front, the neurotic dating scene, and treatises on the socioeconomic seperation between LA and the Valley, this is your book. Even if you don't, I'm sure you'll find at least a few essays to identify with if you're in your in your 20s-30s, over-educated/under-employed, slightly neurotic, or if you have ever been any of these.

Sandra Tsing Loh is like a long lost friend in Los Angeles. Not only can I relate to her essays of life's everyday situation, but she also does so in a hilarious kind of way. I often found myself actually laughing, especially when she talks about her dad in the essay "Daddy Dearest". It reminded me of my own dad almost to a 'T'. She makes you feel that life doesn't have to be serious all the time but to take life's adversity in a light-hearted way. One doesn't have to live in LA to relate to her essays because one can find themselves in similar situations. She gives great vivid details and that is the strength of the book. On the other hand, with her rambling, you kind of lose sight of her perspective but she quickly gets you back on track. This is one book that is definitely a keeper for anyone's personal library.

I just read three of Ms. Loh's books, and loved them all. My impressions here may reflect a bit of melding of all three of these books ("Aliens in America" and "If you lived here, you'd be home by now" being the other two; my wife hasn't yet let me have "A Year in Van Nuys").

Here in "Depth ...", Ms. Loh has collected her often hilarious, sometimes sad, and always on-target observations of life in the La La land of mere mortals. It turns out that real people do live in LA (which may surprise many); that life is not fair, but that it is often good, at least for someone; that even the better parent can be cruel beyond words; that growing up is hard to do, which may be why so many of us just say "No!"; and that we really ought to sort our the whole sibling thing for the good of the GNP, if not our kids' mental health.

Near-scams, legitimate by no more than the skin of their teeth, abound to prey on the dreams of would-be actors/models/rock stars, and manage at the same time to provide a valuable, school-of-hard-knocks education that breeds a kind of burnt-thrice, four-times-shy savvy.

A message that I perceived in Ms. Loh's work is: being driven to the brink by 10 years of hard work can be be a memory to cherish as well as hate, whether or not all the work made you an overnight success. I'm glad that Ms. Loh is now that great success.

Read this book for pleasure and you'll learn from its insights. Then indulge in the sardonic but ultimately human story where "late boomers" come of age in the author's novel, "If you lived here, you'd be home by now."

Depth Takes a Holiday is a lighthearted compilation of essays on life in California and everything that entails living in this unique setting. Sandra Tsing Loh has put together a set of humorous as well as sarcastic thoughts about her experiences. It allows the reader to conjure up images of her descriptions as well as erasing the myths about life in California. The author has made it her task to convey the distortions that are made about Californian life and offers the reader a good laugh along the way. Depth Takes a Holiday is an excellent book for those seeking to find paradise in California as well as providing those who live there with an unspoken knowledge of life in the Golden State. -D.O.Ochoa, California State University, July 21, 1999

Depth Takes a Holiday takes you to the reality of living in Los Angeles on the immigrant side. Sandra Tsing Loh's essays portrays the adventures of a girl interacting in one of the most diverse cities in the world. Using a very fresh style Sandra Tsing Loh approaches daily life problems in a very funny way. Los Angeles, California is a synonymous of rich and famous, paradise and glory, and Sandra Tsing Loh sees the city in a different manner. She explores Los Angeles with the eyes of a minority group, where a good meal is a fast meal and cheap. Depth Takes a Holiday is fun to read as if you were in a rolling coaster in which you laugh and yell for every essay you finish reading.

Sandra Tsing Loh's Depth Takes A Holiday is a wonderful and hilarious collection of essays about Los Angeles. This collection of essays offers us a view of L.A from an "Overeducated, underemployed" late bloomer who just happens to be drowning in student loan payments (sound familiar). Loh's essays offers a wide assortment of topics from "The Joy of Temping" to "Tonya Harding, Actress". Loh's portrayal of everything L.A in a comical view makes it difficult to stop reading. The only time this book dissapoints is when you realize your at the end. Everyone whose ever been to, or heard of L.A will find something to relate to. If you live in L.A or are coming to L.A you should read this book.

I've enjoyed listening to Sandra Tsing Loh's stories on NPR for years now and the book is just as funny. These stories show how silly our daily dramas really are. Just the ticket to lighten the mood and put things in perspective.

I am a big fan of Los Angeles! I have lived here almost all my life, and love to celebrate all the wacky and diverse things that make this a great city. One of my favorite movies of all time is LA Story, because it really managed to capture LA at its time. Depth Takes a Holiday has provided a big slice of what this town is like now. The writing in this book is a bit unrefined, but that just seems to add to its charm. In all, this little book kept me laughing for hours, and wanted to make me live here forever.

Sandra Tsing Loh's collection of essays called Depth Takes a Holiday is, ironically, an in-depth journey of common, every day life with Loh as our driver. A native of Los Angeles, Loh depicts the many social changes of this vast urban wasteland known as home to millions of other Los Angelinos. The reader gets a better, if not comical, idea of what is going on and where LA and it's inhabitants are from and where they are going. LA is demonstrated as an ever-growing melting pot, both culturally and socially, with its residents who are a people of a lost identity in both aspects. One of the many things I love about this book is Loh's lighthearted approach which shows readers the serious effects of living in a multi-cultural environment where English-only rules dominate. Anyone who resides in LA and feels the need to laugh at its harsh realities will enjoy this book. I did.

Melanie Ulloa Cal State LA, Liberal Studies Major July 21, 1999