Customer Reviews

In Search of Literary L.A.

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Way back in the 1970s and '80s, the five or six practicing intellectuals in Los Angeles were morbidly embarrassed about their burg's lack of cultural history.... That all began to change with Lionel Rolfe's thesis in "In Search of Literary L.A." -- the fact that, like it or not, a sizeable number of world-class writers lived and worked in L.A., and produced some classic books there. Now it's become an obsessive pastime in L.A. for cultural recyclers to rummage around in far-flung nooks and crannies in search of historic and cultural plaudits (however questionable) to trumpet, but Rolfe was the first to even suggest that "Literary L.A." was a valid concept rather than a good title for a blank book. As such, he deserves some respect for being a prophet without honor, doing the unnecessary for the ungrateful. If those people who have just started to read are disgruntled because Rolfe left out their favorite scribbler, or would prefer a more academic writing style to "In Search of Literary L.A."'s jocular yarn-spinning, all they have to do is wait for the inevitable spate of bandwagon-jumpers to start publishing their opinions. Can "In Search of Liteary L.A.: The Movie" be far behind? END

If you are able to wade through the author's poor writing style, there are some interesting nuggets of information within, though read cautiously; there are a great many dubious anecdotal stories for all the hard facts of Los Angeles' rarely documented literary past. Probably the best available (for now).`