A separate place

Charles Jones has a superb grasp of place, and proves it in this book about one place: La Honda, a California town buried in a deep valley and hidden behind and among ancient trees. Writing in the back room of a saloon, living in various places such as a cabin, an old ranch building and a blue tent, Jones writes perceptively about the feeling of his place. He begins "Coming home to a place I had never been before was easier than I had expected ..." Then he unrolls his written tapestry of the people, the times past and present and even the myths of the place. Photographs by Susan Friedman perfectly embody Jones' mobile sculpture of words.