Inlandia: A Literary Journey Through California's Inland Empire (California Legacy) [Paperback]

Gayle Wattawa (Editor), Susan Straight (Introduction)

Product Details

• Paperback: 433 pages
• Publisher: Heyday Books (October 15, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1597140376
• ISBN-13: 978-1597140379
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #109,292 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Gayle Wattawa, thoroughly addicted to contemporary literature, always carries with her a well-worn public library card and a relentless weakness for book reviews, literary journals, and lit news blogs. She is the founding editor of the New California Writing series and editor of Inlandia: A Literary Journey through California's Inland Empire. As Heyday's acquisitions and editorial director, she has supervised the assemblage of a half-dozen other literary anthologies as well.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Anthology honors much-maligned region of California, January 21, 2007

By 

Daniel Olivas (West Hills, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Inlandia: A Literary Journey Through California's Inland Empire (California Legacy) (Paperback)

Long the Rodney Dangerfield of Southern California, the Inland Empire sits about an hour east of Los Angeles and encompasses the fast-growing counties of Riverside and San Bernardino.

Far from the beaches of Malibu, it is a tough land, some say, the home of biker gangs and urban sprawl, a land buffeted by the unrelenting Santa Ana (or "Devil") winds that can flip cars and jangle nerves. Tell an Angeleno that you make your home in the Inland Empire and be prepared for the condescending half-smile followed by a wisecrack: "Oh, the methamphetamine capital of the world."

But this era of insult might have come to an end, if Heyday Books and Santa Clara University have any say in it. Inlandia: A Literary Journey through California's Inland Empire, meticulously edited by Gayle Wattawa ($18.95 paperback), is an ambitious collection that finally gives the area its due as a culturally and historically vital component of Southern California.

In the anthology's introduction, Riverside native and National Book Award finalist Susan Straight tells us that she has striven to infuse her writing with "the fierceness we retain in these small places where people loved their own with the vehemence, the stubborn and suspicious and inventive qualities required to survive this part of Southern California."

Straight is not alone in attempting to depict all the complexities and beauty of the Inland Empire and its people. More than 70 authors are represented in fiction, poetry, native legends, journal entries and other writings from the 1700s to the present.

Some of the writers enjoy worldwide fame and have been translated into many languages. We're treated to an excerpt from a 1930 tough-guy novelette, "Blood-Red Gold," by Erle Stanley Gardner, the creator of Perry Mason. And there's the exquisitely creepy essay, "Some Dreamers of the Golden Dream" by Joan Didion, concerning a woman accused of murder in the 1960s. Other "big names" abound, including Norman Mailer, John Steinbeck, Joan Baez and Raymond Chandler.

Wattawa includes newer voices, writers who have lived or are living in the region and who feel compelled to chronicle the history and culture of their home through fiction. Kathleen Alcalá, who grew up in San Bernardino, offers the short story "Gypsy Lover," a haunting tale of one girl's attempt to come to terms with her older sister's mysterious disappearance. And in "Georgie and Wanda," Michael Jaime-Becerra skillfully fictionalizes the racial bigotry faced by a young couple in Riverside circa 1956.

Many of the nonfiction pieces are simply heartbreaking. Diary excerpts from George Fujimoto Jr. starkly recount the federal government's rounding up of his family members, who were housed in Arizona internment camps for the duration of World War II. Similarly, Malcolm Margolin's "The Cupueño Expulsion of 1903" details the removal of a native people for their valuable land.

Smaller-scale tragedies are perfectly rendered here, too, as in Alex Espinoza's powerful short story, "Santo Niño," that brings us into the lives of two young women as they battle economic hardship, infertility and strained relationships. And in "hap & hazard highland" by Keenan Norris, a young ex-con tries to reconnect with his old neighborhood as well as with his youthful dreams.

At the turn of each page, there are surprising little shocks as we enter themes radically different from the one before. For example, after the essay "909," Percival Everett's wry and provocative contemplation of Riverside County, out of the blue follows Sholeh Wolpé's poem, "Morning After the U.S. Invasion of Iraq," in which the community of Redlands seems unfazed by the beginning of the war: "The chatter is as always, quiet, / The smiles as always, broad."

No review can fully capture the breadth and spirit of this remarkable anthology. Suffice it to say that each author surprises, informs and entertains. Inlandia paints a complex and compelling portrait of a region that is simultaneously beautiful and harsh, multicultural and alienating, vibrant and destructive. Without question, it is a portrait that commands our respect. [This review first appeared in the El Paso Times.]

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Regional Literature, June 7, 2007

By 

Toni Sammons - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Inlandia: A Literary Journey Through California's Inland Empire (California Legacy) (Paperback)

It is quite moving to read and love a book about a place you actually hated while living there(years ago). Such a strong sense of California and its inland landscape in this book. I recommend it for collectors of regional works and for people who once lived in or near the Inland Empire.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's a solid pick of literary reflections and images promising to reach a wide audience of the region, February 8, 2007

By 

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

This review is from: Inlandia: A Literary Journey Through California's Inland Empire (California Legacy) (Paperback)

INLANDIA represents the first Inland Empire literary anthology - the region described as the area east of Los Angeles - and packs in stories and insights by both native and non-Inland Empire natives. Many have been inspired to write about the area; but typically these writings have been spread out over mediums and areas, so it's especially notable to see them altogether under one cover. It's a solid pick of literary reflections and images promising to reach a wide audience of the region; from college-level collections to general-interest lending libraries with special interests in the Inland Empire.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch