Great for its sunshine, glamor and free spirit of possibility, Los Angeles also has a dark side, and it’s fascinating how writers have depicted the contrasts and cultural clashes that abound in it. as the new york times said about mike davis’s quartz city, if this is hell, why is it so popular? Last week, Kate Gale blogged about some of the essential literary works set in the, and our readers had plenty to add. These are some of her recommendations:
1. quartz city: excavating the future in los angeles by mike davis (1990)
Davis deconstructs the forces that shaped the modern United States throughout history, from the ruins of a 1914 socialist community to the influence of real estate developers, journalists, crime writers, and WWII exiles. world, among many other groups [latest editions of the book are updated to include events from the 1990s]. It was overwhelmingly recommended by our readers. elagabal said:
You are reading: Books set in la
Quartz City is a fantastic and maddening read, a brutal and vivid account of a city and its endless suburbs produced by real estate speculation and conflicts between elites. although he updated it to bring the story into the riots of the early 90’s, there is still no edition that updates the story, unfortunately (to my knowledge). a shame, as the city and its environs have continued to undergo massive change and be sclerotic and scintillating at the same time: congested highways, massive real estate price inflation, absurd wealth on one side of town and deprivation on the other, conflict racial and stimulating cultural hybridity.
djhurley said:
if you’re talking about essential reading for la, it has to be city of quartz: it tells the sordid and gritty history from the earliest days to the 1990s. you’ll never look at la the same way again.
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quartz city was also recommended by vera456, canukbound, liamkelly, peninsularguy, jeremy simms, ron jacobs, and cbroc.
2. the informants of bret easton ellis (1994)
Los Angeles-born Bret Easton Ellis set several of his works in Los Angeles, but two of his books were repeatedly recommended by our readers. stellabaraklianou said of the informants, a collection of stories:
la is inevitably a writer’s “paradise” or refuge, since it integrates the necessary scenery…half the time it’s like living and driving on a set. I was lucky enough to live there for a couple of years. when i left, a friend of mine gave me a gift, bret easton ellis insiders, perfectly summed up my memories and thoughts on the. it is made up of short stories from various people that are closely and rather loosely connected. written in ellis’s distinctive style, it’s like putting a knife to the bone, inhumanly accurate and true to what most people experience living in los angeles, where car culture and vast distances can distance one another. Humans. a must read!
“the information contains some funny and unpleasant representations of social nihilism. however, it turned into a terrible movie,” added bigzot. But let’s make this a two-in-one: Ellis’s classic Less Than Zero is another essential read: This 1985 novel was a zeitgeist portrait of the excesses and amorality of the city’s young and rich, and “totally sums up the” according to rua29, it was also recommended by lozinger, mervmoore and by tallulahsmith and leroyhunter, as well as the informants.
the in quotes of the books:
greed is good. sex is easy. youth is forever. —the informants
I come to a red light, am tempted to go through it, then stop once I see a sign I don’t remember seeing and look at it. all he says is ‘disappear here’ and even though it’s probably an ad for some resort, it still freaks me out a bit and I hit the gas really hard and the car screeches when I leave the light on. —less than zero
3. my dark places by james ellroy (1996)
the james ellroy la quartet, made up of black dhalia, the big nowhere, la confidential and white jazz, was widely praised by our readers. my dark places, his haunting autobiographical book about the murder of his own mother, was recommended by bigzot, who said:
ellroy owns the entire noir subgenre. Don’t underestimate his autobiographical essay, My Dark Places, which is an unprecedentedly horrific first-person narrative about growing up in the world’s most seedy and potentially dangerous environments.
lindyloo72 shared:
My Dark Places is haunting but quite brilliant and incredibly honest. he’s a legend, but his life could have gone many other ways, don’t you think?
On the overall gloomy description of the town of ellroy, bookmike said:
I think I’d be disappointed if I went to la and wasn’t the sweaty, seedy glamour, floating precariously and regularly bathing in a river of sin that ellroy paints.
and jongematador shared:
ellroy without a doubt. her descriptions of hers are so visceral that i half expect to see dudley smith appear out of nowhere in an alley.
in quotes from the book:
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The dead belong to the living who claim them with the greatest obsession.
I wanted to go home. I wanted to see Helen. I wanted to write these memoirs. dead women held me. They died in Los Angeles and she told me to stay for a while. he was burned out on detective work.
I parted ways with l.a. in ’81. it was too familiar and too easy. oh it was too easy. I wanted to get rid of all the people hooked on 12-step therapy and religion. he knew he could stay sober anywhere. wanted to fly out of l.a. and limit my l.a. admission to the fictional l.a. in my head.
4. ask the dust by john fante (1939)
This depression-era novel featured the character of arturo bandini, a young italian-american from colorado trying to make it as a writer in the city, based on fante himself. Liamkelly traveled to Los Angeles recently and read many novels beforehand, and this one stands out as his “by far” favorite. this interesting capstone explains why, even if the novel is now widely regarded as a classic of American literature, it nearly fell short of greatness. it was also recommended by davidcosta and cbroc.
in quotes from the book:
ah, the angels! dust and fog of your lonely streets, I am no longer alone. just wait, all you ghosts in this room, just wait, because it will happen, as sure as there is a god in heaven.
I’ve loved women whose shoes are worth everything I’ve ever owned.
Come down from the heavens, god, come down and I’ll hammer your face all over the city of Angels, you miserable unforgivable prankster. if she weren’t for you, this woman wouldn’t be so mutilated, and neither would the world.
5. the harry bosch novels by michael connelly
This series of seventeen mysteries, in which homicide detective Harry Bosch investigates all kinds of crimes on the streets of Los Angeles, was recommended by many readers. mizdarlin said:
I grew up in Los Angeles, I still have a love/hate relationship… to me, no one relates the realities (there are so many) of Los Angeles as well as michael connelly. Any one of his books instantly transports me to those crazy, dirty streets of Hollywood, those tall downtown buildings and silent staring street characters…the melting pot that simmered under the blazing California sun. ..
nothing like him before or since, his prose is so evocative that I can feel myself breaking out in a sweat reading his work, even in a brutal Canadian winter.
They were also recommended by mrfabjp, jnatchoz, lakis fourouklas, simonstylites, papistpal and lindyloo72.
in quotes from books:
The setting sun dyed the sky pink and orange in the same bright hues as surfers’ swimsuits. It was a beautiful deception, Bosch thought, as he drove north on the Hollywood Freeway toward his house. sunsets did that here. it made you forget that it was the smog that made its colors so bright, that behind every pretty picture there might be an ugly story. —the black echo
6. tc boyle’s tortilla curtain (1995)
the tortilla curtain, boyle’s furious novel about immigrants in contemporary california, received high praise from patlux as a novel that encapsulates many of the disturbing contradictions of contemporary angels:
It took me months to get it out of my head. the lives of illegal immigrants intersect with those who live in horrible gated communities. the tragedy of life in the united states as some live it.
bettybrandenburg said she read it years ago and still thinks about it, “at least when I’m in LA.” it was also recommended by mcsee, mignonnette and id367007.
in quotes from the book:
there are always surprises. life can be perpetually bleak and the surprises disproportionately unpleasant, but it wouldn’t be worth living if there were no exceptions, no sunny days, and no random acts of kindness.
7. anything by ross macdonald
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the ross macdonald books are must-reads for anyone looking to dive into noir (assuming raymond chandler is done and dusted off). Macdonald’s mastery of structure and story, as well as his grace, sensitivity, and insight, make him unique and perhaps even better than Chandler, according to many genre lovers and crime novelists. reader rowenac said:
ross macdonald is my favorite noir writer…although many of his books are set on the coast. the way some people die is great and it starts in Los Angeles. his prose is so good, wiry and athletic, that he feels like he’s jumping off the page; or as if he could give you a black eye.
was also recommended by bertisg.
in quotes from books:
Behind the semi-elliptical bar, four cowboys who had never been near a cow sang Western songs that sounded like they originated in the Far East. —the underground man
8. this book will save your life from am homes (2006)
This witty comedic novel about a middle-aged divorcee’s efforts to turn his life around pokes fun at the wealthy of Los Angeles, but that only makes him stronger, according to a New York Times article sarcastically praising the ” California talent for turning absurdity into sustenance”: “It’s the only big city on the planet that treats bitter satire as interesting suggestion and can transform the outrage it inspires into vital cellular nourishment.” According to the Guardian review, homes “captures the allure of generosity, that sense of adventure you get when you step out of your own circle of need into someone else’s, and the weird sense of invulnerability it gives you.It helps, of course, that the book is set in Los Angeles, where you pretty much it all feels like a metaphor.” id367007 called it “one of the funniest novels I’ve ever read,” and it was also recommended by maccamacmac wahsnailuj.
in quotes from the book:
driving a bentley towards the target: this only makes sense in Los Angeles.
we are all good when we want to be, otherwise we are fucking animals. there is no vip room in reality, and there is no reality in this city. you can’t google the answers. people talk about being on the ride of a lifetime: this is your life.
9. evelyn waugh’s beloved (1948)
mcsee, carlrusso, and jakestockwell all recommended waugh’s satirical novel about the film industry, the expat british community in hollywood, the pet funeral business, and the sometimes ridiculous connections between the three:
evelyn waugh growls at the hypocrisy and ridiculousness of the american dream and the british trying to maintain the pomp of their diminished homeland. a very good movie adaptation too (monster mr joyboy) which is nice for a story featuring the movies.
in quotes from the book:
outside the windows, cars continually passed by, out of town, into town, lights on, radios blaring. “I slowly wither in your arms,” she read. “Here on the quiet edge of the world”, and he repeated to himself: “here on the quiet edge of the world. here on the quiet edge of the world”… like a monk he will repeat a simple and fruitful text, over and over again in prayer.
10. inherent vice by thomas pynchon (2009)
Pynchon’s infamous stoner mystery, recently adapted for the big screen by Paul Thomas Anderson, is a completely chaotic, yet perfect portrayal of the hippie atmosphere of ’70s Los Angeles. It was recommended by Spike Tea and Ron Jacobs.
in quotes from the book:
This seemed to be happening more and more lately in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, between gatherings of carefree youngsters and happy junkies, where doc had begun to notice older men, there and not there, stiff, serious, that he knew were were. seen before, not necessarily the faces, but a defiant stance, an unwillingness to fade, like everyone else at psychedelic events in those days, beyond the official skin envelopes.
It had been dark on the beach for hours, he hadn’t smoked much and it wasn’t the headlights, but before she turned around she could swear she saw a light falling on her face, the orange light just after the sunset. that she catches a face turned to the west, watching the ocean for someone to come with the last wave of the day, toward shore and safety.
However, after dark, most of the stops here seemed to wind up down the bleak arteries of dingy L.A. backwaters, seeking in some helpless fatality the company of the thugs of opportunity.
additional notes
- part fiction, part travelogue, mapless angels was mentioned by jean o’sullivan, who said that it “reflects my first few months in los angeles when I lived there in the late 70s. actually it should be called “los angeles sans car” which is his experience of the place…”
- jimlevy recommended harvey mudd’s long poem the plain of smokes (1982): “a literary but very readable piece in 3 parts. In the first, William Wordsworth visits the contemporary from heaven and reports his experience to his equally deceased sister. Unsurprisingly, he was horrified.”
Did we miss your favorite? add it in the comments. next: new orleans.
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