Customer Reviews

Pasadena

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Entangled in the past and driven by conflicted loyalties, the protagonists are introduced via the curiosity of Andrew Jackson Blackwood, a real estate entrepreneur with a shady past. Using Blackwood as a device, this "Wuthering Heights" plot unfolds with Linda Stamp (Cathy) and Bruder (Heathcliff) as the star-crossed lovers. Their drama is played out in the early years of the 20th Century, when California falls prey to the avid schemes of developers.

Part of Pasadena takes place just a few miles south of where I live, so I chose this book partly for the familiarity of place. Often Ebershoff's descriptive passages are as perfect as the rows of orange trees that once filled the acres of Southern California. But at other times, his extravagant phrases grow tedious, describing myriad flora and fauna native to the state. If I hadn't known the lush hillsides and pure blue skies, now smog-filled and over-built, it is possible to glean a bit of the former beauty of California. As well, the profligate wealth of the era and the careless use of natural resources plundered by entitlement are stark reminders of the disrespect for nature's generosity.

In the beginning, the story is enchanting in its praise of simple farm life and the rewards of hard work in a setting of natural splendor. But by the time the novel moves to Pasadena, the dialog is thick with duplicity, complications, misunderstandings and secrets. In the city of Pasadena, affluence exists side by side with poverty, an uneasy coexistence, with the workers who sustain the privileged lifestyle crammed into inadequate housing, the rambling estates surrounded by acres of groves. That said, Ebershoff does a fine job of portraying wealthy Pasadenans as vapid, elitist and full of energy to better the lives of those less fortunate, ad nauseum. That the upper classes of the 1900's consider the immigrant workers less capable is obvious and belabored.

The great flaw in Pasadena is the promise of its title. Pasadena, the novel, connotes a more comprehensive attention to the city and its origins, yet the book, but for a few asides, is located on one private estate of producing groves, and limited to this very specific world. All of this is historically accurate, but not really of the scope the title suggests. The story is quite compelling on its own, with the psychological twists and turns of the characters, rendering Mr. Blackwood unnecessary. Some incisive editing of about 100 pages might have made this novel more memorable. But there is still the problem of the lover's complete inability to communicate with each other, and the tiresome denouement of their choices.

"Pasadena" is a splendid novel which affirms David Ebershoff's talent for writing great fiction. It is a far different novel than his critically acclaimed - and popular - literary debut "The Danish Girl"; one still worth the time of a devout reader of contemporary fiction. Ebershoff's latest novel is a sprawling epic which covers almost the first half of the 20th Century, focusing on the shattered lives of Linda Stamp, her father Dieter, and the two men she falls in love with; the mysterious orphan Bruder and the equally enigmatic Captain Willis Poore. Ebershoff tells a compelling yarn about Pasadena's rapid rise from a frontier haven to wealthy Easterners to a surburban city soon to be engulfed by Los Angeles, as seen through the eyes of these four protagonists. And yet, as splendid as Ebershoff's writing is, it did not quite captivate me as much as China Mieville's "The Scar" (Although Mieville's novel is fantasy, it too also tells a compelling saga about dysfunctional characters.). Still I am sufficiently impressed with Ebershoff's latest tale to grant it five stars; it is among the most compelling works of contemporary mainstream fiction I've come across.

This muddled rip-off of Wuthering Heights would be a must-miss were it not for the audiobook narrator Lorna Raver's superb, nuanced reading. She gives us vivid characterization where the author gives none, and excels at mood and atmosphere. A beautiful voice beautifully employed on an unworthy project.

The time I spent plodding through this book was not time well spent, so I'm not going to waste much more on this review. Although publicized as a serious read, this book reminds me of a Harlequin romance, just longer and with bigger words and without protagonist names such as Lance or Crystal, although Bruder, the spurned lover, comes close. This is the type of book you find on the shelves of a rented beach house, next to the sections devoted to Danielle Steel and Anne Rivers Siddons: the same misunderstandings, contrived plots, and improbable coincidences. If you must read it, save it for the beach or a long plane trip.

Although this novel is meticulously researched and presents an unscathing (and very honest) depiction of Pasadena old society, the love story dominates rather than any real history of Pasadena. And I feel its necessary somewhere to acknowledge Emily Bronte for said love story. Pasadena is Wuthering Heights, but in Southern California at the beginning of the twentieth century. And that being mentioned nowhere, not even in any of the reviews I have read, it took me by surprise. However, I read it in one day, could not put it down. It just didn't live up to my expectations as historical fiction.

This wonderfully crafted story keeps you interested from the first page until the last. The characters are fascinating and the history of Pasadena was interesting and almost like an extra character. A great read!

I actually did enjoy this book in spite of the 3 stars, but it was far too long, and the story jumped around too much. The author would very briefly tell the reader some major development in the story, and then much later the reader finds out how that development occurred.

I liked reading about early days in Pasadena, CA.

I loved A Danish Girl--it's up there with my favorite books ever, and I'd love to write the screenplay. I looked forward to Ebershoff's new novel, but Pasadena is off-the mark. I loved the concept--I loved the first quarter of the novel, with the start of the Wuthering Heights romance, etc. Only, I feel like Ebershoff took so long writing this section that he ignored Bronte's pace . . . the book is LONG, and yet he never gets to the second generation's story . . . and our "Heathcliff" and "Catherine" never have their firey reunion w/ Catherine's mad scene . . . heck, he only barely brushes over Heathcliff's marriage to "Edward's" sister. Ugh. I looked forward to these scenes, only for the book to end on a flat note. Could've been good, I wish he'd try again and think about plot a little more. The generational saga with a little boost would have really set Pasadena off.

David Ebershoff has entered the arena of current writers able to carry off The Big Story, his comrades in this arena being Richard Russo, Jocye Carol Oates, Annie Proulx, Cormac McCarthy among others. PASADENA: A Novel is epic in length at 500 pages and for those readers who find books of this length daunting, all fear of ennui can be put aside. Ebershoff knows how to spin a tale and develop branches, twigs and fruit on his basic trunk of an idea that maintain the reader's interest in carefully following the unfolding of this saga of California from the turn of the century to mid 20th century. Wisely he incorporates all the ethnic groups, the miscegenation, the influx of the Eastern US wealthy into a land of the pioneer spirit and in doing so he successfully defines what exactly makes his chosen locale of Pasadena unique. The story is about people - men and women who strive for independence and social acceptance simutaneously, who drive their lives through pledges secretly made and just as secretly dismantled, who search for love for all right reasons but settle for less than their ideals, whose lives intertwine with the ever changing permutations of individuality only to come full circle to their own altered origins.

The characters Ebershoff creates are wholly three dimensional and do not stray beyond the boundaries of credibilty. Love, longing, lust, lying, and the building and destroying of dreams are on every page. Bruder, an orphan from an unknown family is seen as trash as a child in Pasadena where the Top 100 percenters or accepted Society members determine the lives of too many people, but becomes the stalwart force that carries this tale of war, of greed, of the 'gold in California' spirit, and ultimately the arrival of the foundations of the freeways and housing developments that have transformed current day Pasadena from its origins as a winter haven for the East Coast wealthy who basked in the glory of the lush landscape of orange groves and the Sierra Madre mountains. He is a giant of a man, but then he walks among equal giants in the personas of Linda Stamp, her father Dieter, her ultimate husband Willis Poore, and the myriad supporting cast of characters who weave in and out of this unfolding mystery with unflagging stealth. If the critical eye finds that the author at times pushes the descriptive language of the genus/species flora/fauna of his locales (he seems especially bent on informing us of the beginnings of many extant Pasadena families, businesses, and buildings) to the point of excess, then at the same time that eye must admit that few writers are so well researched in all the details that make us secure in the knowledge that this story could be a true tale.

Ebershoff is a full-fledged novelist with the publication of this tome. He is one elegant writer! The promises made in his earlier 'The Danish Girl' and in the tightly detailed 'The Rose City' are not only kept but surpassed. Here is a man who can spread his wings over a vast canvas and bring home a story that leaves indelible imprints of characters that are difficult to leave behind with the closing of the last page. This book is a worthwhile commitment of your reading time. Highly Recommended!

Good novel about Pasadena. Complex and entertaining. Should be read by all Pasadena residents. Prize winning author. Begins with the early days when the city was mostly orange groves.