The surreal City of Angels is a unique amalgam of past and present, tradition and revolution, dreamscape and reality. Whether in history books or on the silver screen, the Los Angeles landscape has long served as an ever-shifting backdrop against which countless American anxieties and aspirations play out. New York-based novelist and short-story writer A. M. Homes distills the elusive, quixotic splendor of this most beguiling of great American cities. She checks us into the famed hotel Chateau Marmont and uses life at this iconic landmark as a multifaceted prism through which to view and experience Los Angeles culture, past and present. Built in the 1920s, the Chateau Marmont is where the famous and infamous have always come to stay-- for a few days or months at a time--and sometimes, to die.
I am a huge fan of Homes' fiction and it's really nice to see her branch out--what I like about this book is that it has some of the same characteristics as her novels and stories, a really unique point of view, and the people she selected to intervew are smart, interesting and end up telling the reader a lot not justabout LA, but about human behavior and the need to need to be seen/noticed.
LA from the outside in
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 22 years ago
This book offers an outsider's perspective on the city of Los Angeles, and all the things that make "LA" what it has come to represent culturally and geographically to the rest of the country. The interviews provided insight into the fabric of the city and introduced us to a variety of memorable personalities. I enjoyed looking at LA the way a novelist would approach a character in a story --> what makes the city tick?
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