Synopses & Reviews
Teddy Roosevelt once exclaimed, andldquo;When I am in California, I am not in the West. I am west of the West,andrdquo; and in this book, Mark Arax spends four years travelling up and down the Golden State to explore its singular place in the world. This is California beyond the clichandeacute;s. This is California as only a native son, deep in the dust, could draw it.
Compelling, lyrical, and ominous, his new collection finds a different drama rising out of each confounding landscape. andldquo;The Summer of the Death of Hilario Guzmanandrdquo; has been praised as a andldquo;stunningly intimateandrdquo; portrait of one immigrant family from Oaxaca, through harrowing border crossings and brutal raisin harvests. Down the road in the andldquo;Home Front,andrdquo; right-wing Christians and Jews form a strange pact that tries to silence debate on the War on Terror, and a conflicted father loses not one but two sons in Iraq. andldquo;The Last Okie in Lamont,andrdquo; the inspiration for the town in the Grapes of Wrath, has but one Okie left, who tells Arax his life story as he drives to a funeral to bury one more Dust Bowl migrant. andldquo;The Highlands of Humboldtandrdquo; is a journey to marijuana growing capital of the U.S., where the old hippies are battling the new hippies over andldquo;pollution potandrdquo; and the local bank collects a mountain of cash each day, much of it redolent of cannabis. Arax pieces together the murder-suicide at the heart of a rotisserie chicken empire in andldquo;The Legend of Zankou,andrdquo; a story included in the Best American Crime Reporting 2009. And, in the end, he provides a moving epilogue to the murder of his own father, a crime in the California heartland finally solved after thirty years.
In the finest tradition of Joan Didion, Arax combines journalism, essay, and memoir to capture social upheaval as well as the sense of being rooted in a community. Piece by piece, the stories become a whole, a stunning panorama of California, and America, in a new century.
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Review
Carolyn See, Making a Literary Life“Mark Arax has achieved something truly wonderful. He shows us a California we don't know or haven't yet heard about: Post 9/11 racism and craziness in the Central Valley; dunderhead FBI agents prowling the land; the plight of immigrants as it really pans out; marijuana moguls dealing in stacks of cash that stinks of weed; the disgraceful decline of the once-great LA Times—all of it set in the larger frame of a generation of Armenian immigrants tied to the old country, in love with the new country, struggling to discover the meaning of life with all their might.”
Review
Carolyn See, Making a Literary Life“Mark Arax has achieved something truly wonderful. He shows us a California we don't know or haven't yet heard about: Post 9/11 racism and craziness in the Central Valley; dunderhead FBI agents prowling the land; the plight of immigrants as it really pans out; marijuana moguls dealing in stacks of cash that stinks of weed; the disgraceful decline of the once-great LA Times—all of it set in the larger frame of a generation of Armenian immigrants tied to the old country, in love with the new country, struggling to discover the meaning of life with all their might.”
Review
Carolyn See, Making a Literary Life “Mark Arax has achieved something truly wonderful. He shows us a California we don't know or haven't yet heard about: Post 9/11 racism and craziness in the Central Valley; dunderhead FBI agents prowling the land; the plight of immigrants as it really pans out; marijuana moguls dealing in stacks of cash that stinks of weed; the disgraceful decline of the once-great LA Times—all of it set in the larger frame of a generation of Armenian immigrants tied to the old country, in love with the new country, struggling to discover the meaning of life with all their might.”
Kirkus
“A lucid, warts-and-all portrait of California by a native son….[W]orthy of a place alongside the works of … Carey McWilliams and even Joan Didion.”
James Ellroy, author of The Black Dahlia and the forthcoming Blood’s a Rover
“West of the West is a dreamscape as much as a landscape—and heart-stirring in its style and acute perception. It could be titled ‘Why We Live Here Anyway’—I exhort you to read this book.”
Jack Miles, author of God: A Biography
“I intended to spend half an hour and spent half a day. This is that kind of book. You think you know California? Think again, and settle in.”
Review
Publishers Weekly, starred review, February 25, 2009 These swift, penetrating essays from former Los Angeles Times writer Arax (In My Fatherandrsquo;s Name) take the measure of contemporary California with a sure and supple hand, consciously but deservedly taking its place alongside Didionandrsquo;s and Saroyanandrsquo;s great social portraits. Expect the unexpected from Araxandrsquo;s reports up and down the state: on the last of the Okies, the latest migrants from Mexico, the tree-sitters of Berkeley, Bay Area conspiracy theorists, an Armenian chicken giantandrsquo;s infamous fall or the mammoth marijuana economy of Humboldt County, among much else. For Arax, a third-generation Californian of Armenian heritage who spent years covering the Central Valley as an investigative reporter, the stateandrsquo;s outrandeacute; reputation and self-representation are a complex dance of myth and memory that includes his own family lore and personal history. Itandrsquo;s partly this personal connection, running subtly but consistently throughout, that pushes the collection past mere reportage to a high literary enterprise that beautifully integrates the private and idiosyncratic with the sweep of great historical forces.
Carolyn See, Making a Literary Life
andldquo;Mark Arax has achieved something truly wonderful. He shows us a California we don't know or haven't yet heard about: Post 9/11 racism and craziness in the Central Valley; dunderhead FBI agents prowling the land; the plight of immigrants as it really pans out; marijuana moguls dealing in stacks of cash that stinks of weed; the disgraceful decline of the once-great LA Timesandmdash;all of it set in the larger frame of a generation of Armenian immigrants tied to the old country, in love with the new country, struggling to discover the meaning of life with all their might.andrdquo;
Kirkus
andldquo;A lucid, warts-and-all portrait of California by a native sonandhellip;.[W]orthy of a place alongside the works of andhellip; Carey McWilliams and even Joan Didion.andrdquo;
James Ellroy, author of The Black Dahlia and the forthcoming Bloodandrsquo;s a Rover
andldquo;West of the West is a dreamscape as much as a landscapeandmdash;and heart-stirring in its style and acute perception. It could be titled andlsquo;Why We Live Here Anywayandrsquo;andmdash;I exhort you to read this book.andrdquo;
Jack Miles, author of God: A Biography
andldquo;I intended to spend half an hour and spent half a day. This is that kind of book. You think you know California? Think again, and settle in.andrdquo;
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San Diego Union Tribune article, 4/17
andldquo;Arax dug deep into the dirt of California, and he didn't come away with his hands clean.andrdquo;
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Los Angeles Times
Arax gives us andquot;intimate dramasandquot; shaped by the andquot;intense subtleties of his writing... He goes at events with the fierce bulldog tenacity that is one of his trademarks as a writer.... charged and highly moving stuff.andquot;
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Las Vegas Review Journal
andldquo;The many strengths of andldquo;West of the Westandrdquo; include solid reporting, taut writing and an author who has a firm grasp on his subject. Araxandrsquo;s California isnandrsquo;t about beaches or Hollywood or Disneyland. Itandrsquo;s about a mix of real people who live there, mostly not in the limelight. You can trust that when Arax writes about this subject, he knows what heandrsquo;s talking about.andquot;
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San Francisco Chronicle
andquot;Arax is the perfect cicerone through the heavenly and hellish landscapes and historical evolutions he has chosen to chronicle... He knows how to write colorfully.... The tales are never hurried but unfolded in a measured, controlled manner for maximum context and texture. And he has come up with some doozies!... Haunting.andquot;
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Sacramento Bee
andldquo;Native son Mark Arax travels the state side-to-side, end-to-end to gather its stories, writing about the andlsquo;realandrsquo; California lost in the gloss of tourism teasers.andrdquo;
Washington Post
andquot;Mark Arax is a great reporter. He knows where the action is, and the remarkable level of detail he captures tells us he's as tenacious and unrelenting as the most hard-boiled noir detective... Arax successfully evades the tropes about California being the land of either dreams or nightmares. Instead, his essays paint an impressionistic landscape of a land of frustration.andrdquo;
Contra Costa Times
andquot;In West of the West, Arax demonstrates the same uncanny ability to get closer to his subjects than you would ever think possible. These are compelling, sometimes heart-rendering, eminently readable stories.andquot;
Minneapolis Star Tribune
andquot;West of the West: Dreamers, Believers, Builders and Killers in the Golden State is a book by a writer andquot;bound to this placeandquot; even as that place changes every day. It is immediate in the best ways, sometimes intemperate, but always interesting.andrdquo;
The Atlantic
andldquo;By turns lucid, harrowing, and comical, this collection of dispatches paints a darkly impressionistic portrait of modern California. A journalist and native son, Arax puts paid to vestigial West Coast clichandeacute;s and replaces them with ominous realities and discontents encountered during four years of intrastate travel. Migrants, exiles, dreams, schemers, murderers, hippies, fundamentalists, conspiracists, environmentalistsandmdash;all share space in these pages and in that vast Golden State. The possibility of crazy-quilt discursion looms high, but Arax calmly sews the diverse stories and dramatic studies into coherence and poignancy. The effortless mix hereandmdash;memoir and reportage, psychography and geographyandmdash;cooly achieves the authorandrsquo;s aim: andlsquo;to find the truth and the lie of the California mythandrsquo;.andrdquo;
Review
and#8220;At a time when states are closely reexamining capital punishment, particularly in light of the Innocence Projectand#8217;s scathing findings that dozens have been wrongly sent to prison and to Death Row, Kathleen Cairnsand#8217;s meticulous and moving reprise of the notorious 1950s case of Barbara Graham is a sobering, insightful, and welcome study of why the swift and awful justice of execution is neither swift, nor just, but merely awful.and#8221;and#8212;Dennis McDougal, author of Privileged Son: Otis Chandler and the Rise and Fall of the L.A. Times Dynasty
Review
and#8220;Proof of Guilt is a fascinating book that details the case of Barbara Graham and also explores the issue of the execution of women. Although the Graham case occurred decades ago, Cairns brings Barbara Graham back to life in this compelling narrative. The book sheds new light on the issue of the death penalty and dispels many myths and misconceptions surrounding it.and#8221;and#8212;Gloria Killian, exonerand#233;e and coauthor of Full Circle: A True Story of Murder, Lies, and Vindication
Review
andquot;This outstanding book is a major contribution to the history of the criminal justice system and its limitations.andquot;andmdash;Gordon Morris Bakken, Montana, The Magazine of Western History
Synopsis
In the tradition of Didion, Stegner, and McPhee, an intimate portrait of California in flux by the best-selling author of The King of California
Synopsis
Barbara Graham might have been a diabolical dame in a hard-boiled detective storyand#8212;beautiful, sexy, and deadly. Charged alongside two male friends in the murder of an elderly widow during a botched robbery attempt, and#8220;Bloody Babsand#8221; became the third woman executed in Californiaand#8212;after a 1953 trial that played out before standing-room-only crowds captured the imaginations of journalists, filmmakers, and death penalty opponents. Why, Kathleen A. Cairns asks, of all the capital cases in the twentieth century, did Grahamand#8217;s have such political resonance and staying power?
Leaving aside the question of guilt or innocenceand#8212;debated to this dayand#8212;Cairns examines how Grahamand#8217;s case became a touchstone in the ongoing debate over capital punishment. While prosecutors positioned the accused woman as a femme fatale, the media came to offer a counternarrative for Grahamand#8217;s life highlighting her abusive and lonely beginnings. Cairns shows how Grahamand#8217;s case became crucial to the abolitionists of the time, who used instances of questionable guilt to raise awareness of the arbitrary and capricious nature of death penalty prosecutions. Critical in keeping capital punishment in the forefront of public consciousness until abolitionists homed in on a winning strategy, Graham's case illustrates the power of individual stories to shape wider perceptions and ultimately public policies.
About the Author
Award-winning author and journalist Mark Arax is a co-author of The King of California and author of In My Fatherand#8217;s Name. He is a contributing writer at Los Angeles magazine and a former senior writer at the Los Angeles Times. He teaches nonfiction writing at Claremont McKenna College and lives in Fresno.