Customer Reviews

Writing Los Angeles: A Literary Anthology (Library of America)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
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"definitive" is a an overused adjective... but this volume is indeed just that. ulin's winning (and sometimes surprising) selection of material captures the breadth and depth of a literary milieu artfully and evenhandledly. (ulin must be uniquely well read and/or uniquely familiar with his material - some of his choices, e.g. robert towne's intro to chinatown screenplay, are fun just to consider in a potentially crusty dusty Lirbrary of America anthology). forget the heavy intellectual (and physical!) weight of this tome -- this is no door stop or boat anchor, its a joyous sojourn in the searing sun. brevity, clarity and wit!

Los Angeles has always meant/will always be/is many things to many people. Some write it off as the City of Pilates-loving, Yoga meditating, Chai Tea Consuming Crack Pots. Well, yes...it is that and so much more as exemplified in the mind expanding, colossally comprehensive, edited by David Ulin: "Writing Los Angeles: A Literary Anthology." That so many important writers have deemed Los Angeles as appropriate subject matter, both positive and negative, only supports the notion that the City of the Angels "gets" to everyone who comes in contact with it. Some like Faulkner and Fitzgerald came to Hollywood late in their careers and left disillusioned to say the least while Nathanael West and James M. Cain thrived and wrote some of their best stuff here.
"Writing Los Angeles" is exhaustively researched and some of the expected writers are represented here: Cain, West, Ellroy, Didion but what of Simone De Beauvoir and Umberto Eco? Probably the most important thing Ulin has done is introduce us to SoCal writers we didn't know or of whom we've forgotten: D.J. Waldie or Ruben Martinez, for example.
If nothing else, Ulin has proven that Los Angeles is fertile ground for the creation of writing of the highest order. And for this, we Los Angelenos are forever in his debt.

Compiled and edited by David L. Ulin, Writing Los Angeles: A Literary Anthology is a unique and diverse collection of fiction, poetry, essays, journalism, diaries, and more, contributed by over seventy writers (ranging from William Faulkner, M.F.K. Fisher, and Bertolt Brecht, to Ray Bradbury, Norman Mailer, and Tom Wolfe), and showcasing the "City of Angels". Through varied eyes, the teeming and diverse West Coast metropolis manifests its best and its worst during its eventful history as Writing Los Angeles explores a wide range of issues and events ranging from the post World War I economic boom to recent and nationally televised violence. A very highly recommended compendium of artistic, emotional, severe, gritty, nostalgic, and clear-eyed literary pieces, Writing Los Angeles vividly brings a city and its people to life throughout the generations.

I purchased this book for an English course emphasizing Los Angeles HIstory and I loved reading it! The book made class discussion very interesting. Wonderful resource on los angeles history.

I've never been a literary anthology person. I'm not one for short stories or excerpts. But, I've been reading up on LA history to include its literary past, so Writing Los Angeles seemed a perfect match. And, for the most part it was. In near-chronological order, Writing Los Angeles provides a unique window through which LA, in all its manifestations, comes alive. Some of these manifestations are more compelling than others. I personally find the first half of LA's 20th century more interesting. Later eras and aspects thereof, not so much. But, LA is a complex and ever-changing menagerie and an anthologist certainly needs to stay true to his source. Ulin does a fine job of editing, even if my tastes don't jive with his full range of selections.

If there is a downside to this effort, it is length. I prefer weighty tomes, but I found Writing Los Angeles somewhat of a slog through the last quarter or so of its pages. No doubt, this is partially a result of my period preference, but I also found the selections less substantial as the chronology wore on. I ate up this book for 600-some pages and then fell a little bit out of love.

My love loss aside, should one desire a representative sample of LA-area literature over a wide swath of time, Writing Los Angeles probably can't be beat. It's all in there, love it or not, and its not like you can't skip around. In this, of all things considered, I find final justification for a rating of 4+ stars. With a little selective omission, you might mold this anthology into the book that you need.

What is Los Angeles? The utopical golden land of new beginnings or the ruinous end of the American dream? It is both, as this anthology will show. A precious book for everyone looking for a comprehensive collection of the manifold ideas and representations Los Angeles has inspired through its history, "Writing Los Angeles" comprises two centuries of great literature. From William Faulkner to Joan Didion, from Nathanael West to James Ellroy, every great author shows a different aspect of the City of Angels: City of noir, city of apocalypse, city of pictures, city of dreams and nigthmare, "autopia", "lost world" and what else?
I found this anthology pretty useful and inspiring. Though not all voices are heard with the same intensity, it comprehends works by novelists, architects, journalists, urbanists. There are American voices and European voices, angry ones and enthusiastic ones. A must-be for every kind of audience.