The History of Forgetting: Los Angeles and the Erasure of Memory (Haymarket Series) (Paperback)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Klein specifically asks us to imagine L.A. as the nation's largest, most expensive consumer product: a controlled, domesticated and anti-urban experience whose structures of politics and law enforcement, like the "backstage" tunnels under Disneyland, were kept out of the view of middle-class buyers. Klein provides a vocabulary for talking about the successively erased landscapes and lives the commodification of the Los Angeles experience required. -- Los Angeles Times Sunday Book Review, D. J. Waldie

Norman Klein is full of ideas, brilliant and beautifully expressed. -- Journal of American History

Product Description

Analysis, photography, and fiction combine in a bracing portrait of LA. Los Angeles is a city which has long thrived on the continual re-creation of its own myth. In this extraordinary and original work, Norman Klein examines the process of memory erasure in LA. Using a provocative mixture of fact and fiction, the book takes us on an "anti-tour" of LA, examines life for Vietnamese immigrants in the City of Dreams, imagines Walter Benjamin as a Los Angeleno, and finally looks at the way information technology has re-created the city, turning cyberspace into the last suburb.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 330 pages
• Publisher: Verso (June 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1859841759
• ISBN-13: 978-1859841754
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #705,879 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One I won't forget, November 8, 2002

By	saliero (NSW Australia) - See all my reviews

I read this book while waiting for delivery of the more well-known book `City of Quartz' by Mike Davis. I am glad I read this one first. It is a well-documented and scholarly book, yet full of passion and feeling about the City of the Angels. It focuses almost exclusively on `Downtown', whereas Davis's book ranges more widely.

I was left in no doubt about Klein's feeling for that part of LA - he lives in Anegelino Heights - the first suburb just north of Downtown. Klein brings to life through personal anecdote the vitality and multiculturalism (and problems) of his, and other neighbourhoods.

You get to boo and hiss at the villains who have alienated greater LA from its Downtown, but you also get a sense of Klein's affection, and sense of hope for the city.Davis's view is much bleaker and perhaps nihilistic - he rails against the racism upon which LA is foundered, and upon which the powerful thrive, but I note in passing that he lives in the uppermiddle class enclave of Pasadena. Klein, on the other hand (at least at the time of writing) remains part of the inner urban fabric of the city. I get the feeling that Klein is a supporter of urban renewal, whereas Davis views it as another alienating con on the part of City Hall.

I agree with a previous reviewer that the novella within the book doesn't quite work. I think it contains the seeds of a good story in another genre, but is misplaced here. One problem may be the attempt to speak in a voice for which he has respect, but which is not his.

If you are interested in all things LA, film and fictive noir, the great upheavals and crises of a city such as the Rodney King affair and the LAPD, apocalyptic LA, and more - all of which penetrate the consciousness of many way way beyond the city (through globalised media, which is part of the fabric of LA) , then you will be enthralled by this book. Read it alongside Davis, by all means, but don't neglect it in favour of Davis!

If you like discussion of film and fiction set in LA, there is lots in this book to ponder.

Note: Klein cites Davis in his work. I have not seen Klein cited in any work of Davis (understandable in City of Quartz, which predates Klein's work, but he also does not appear in the index for Davis's later work Ecology of Fear - which at the time of writing this I have not yet read)

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Almost City of Quartz, March 27, 1998

By A Customer

The History of Forgetting is among the best of the newly bourgeoning genre of LA urban history and theory. Much of the information within is presented in an engaging, if leftist style. This book fits well alongside Mike Davis' landmark City of Quartz, though it's rather self indulgent chapter of fiction (written from the point of view of a Vietnamese immigrant), is tiresome and ultimately incongruous with Klein's apparent desire to expose the rewriting of LA's various histories. A strong, if flawed book.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Klein provides an essential vocabulary for understanding LA., April 13, 1999

By A Customer

The the text is full of concepts that put LA into historical and theoretical perspective. The only part of this book that doesn't shine is the middle chapter, seven, where Klein attempts a novel set in LA. This should have stayed in his notebook.

Academic yet accessible, The History of Forgetting gives readers an essential vocabulary through which they can filter their understanding of LA.

"Social imaginary," "trace," "simultaneous distraction," and other ideas help reinforce the central idea that LA exists as a series of what the subtitle calls "erasure(s)."

I'm using this book with my college class, and while they occasionally struggle, they've gained a sense of power in their ability to take the ideas Klein puts forth and use them to interpret fiction set in LA.

The text is more compelling that Mike Davis's latest, book, and certainly of interest to anyone who studies popular culture or contemporary literature.