![]() ![]() Maria is a solitary figure, adrift in a world of celebrity and false friendships, on the verge of a breakdown. In this pinnacle LA novel, you can take a map and trace Didion’s protagonist Maria Wyeth as she heads east towards the desert to dry out, or north to meet a lover in Ventura, or sometimes-just for the thrill of it-she attempts to navigate the Hollywood freeway interchange without breaking. Her Los Angeles is artificial, a place where loneliness eats at the soul. Some are classics, others lesser known, but all have captured part of that elusive LA soul.ĭidion moved to Los Angeles in the 1960s, where she and her husband quickly became regulars at parties in the Hollywood Hills. Here I’ve listed ten books that have shaped Los Angeles’s character, but also show how Los Angeles shapes its people. The literature of Los Angeles paints a city that is rich but also a brutal playground, its inhabitants balancing on that tightrope of contradiction. Or when the sun is baking downtown, we think of John Fante’s LA-that sad little flower in the sand. Take those Santa Ana winds, they kick up and we think of Joan Didion’s Los Angeles Notebook, or Raymond Chandler’s Red Wind-those meek little wives and their carving knives. Maybe it’s the continuous sunlight, the threat of earthquakes, the Santa Ana winds-or maybe it just takes up so much space in our imagination that LA can only ever feel half-real. ![]() ![]() ![]() Living in Los Angeles does something to you. ![]()
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