Highway 99: A Literary Journey Through California's Great Central Valley

Through poetry and prose, a fair amount of it sprinkled with Spanish, editor Yogi presents the natural history of the Valley along with absentee landlord farmers who dammed, diked and irrigated it, or got the government to do it for them... and the various underclasses of different races and ethnic groups imported to the Valley to do the grunt work of farming it. But this is much more than farm and nature history. The sociological distinctions of the different inhabitants are a central part of this book. See the kalidescope of California.

This book was my text in a university class about the life and literature of the Great Central Valley of California. It was the perfect companion piece to the course, deepening my understanding of writers who came from the Valley, and of the immigrant groups that settled there.

As a SF Bay Area resident, I thought I knew California. Not a chance. Highway 99 has always had a special allure for me - as I take it to go camping in the summer. The magical names of towns that linger on the fringes of recognition are compelling. As a private pilot I often fly over the great central valley, privileged to zoom overhead at 100mph. Now, having read the stories, the land is so much more alive, with textures and passions soft-spoken, waiting for the patient listener. I'm off to read Ernest Finney - Winterchill, having been totally captured by the snippet in this book.

Having lived on the fringes of 99, Bay Area-Delta (Antioch, Brentwood) I know the Okie stories from living it, cutting "cots" the whole 9-yards. These are wonderful writers because they lived their words.