Imagining Los Angeles: A City in Fiction by David Fine (review)

B o o k R e v i e w s Im ag in in g Los A nge le s : A City in F ic tio n . By D avid Fin e. Alb u qu erqu e: U n iversity o f N e w M e xico Press, 2000. 294 pages, $29.95. Reviewed by David Wyatt U n iversity o f M arylan d, C olle ge Park H elen H u n t Jack so n . C h arles Lu m m is. U p t o n Sin clair. Jam es M . C ain . R ay m on d Ch an dler. N at h an ae l W est. Jo h n Fan te. Jam es Ellroy. Lu is Valdez. Car oly n Se e. T h a t ’s t h e list— th e t en figures t h at D avid Fin e offers up as exe m ­ plary L.A . w riters. It’s n ot an u n im pressive bu n ch , as good a list, if you’re m ak in g on e for th is literary region , as an y oth er. A n d Fin e brin gs t o ou r atten tion at least tw o h un dred m ore w orkers in th is vin eyard, from th e deeply an ti-Sem itic G rah am broth ers an d th eir Que e r People (1930) t o th e so-called D an n y San t iago, t h e “C h ican o ” au th or o f Famous A ll Ov e r T ow n (1983), w h o tu rn ed ou t t o be, on ce h e w as ou ted by Jo h n Gregory D un n e, th e blacklisted Irish A m er ican w riter D an iel Jam es. N o on e can quarrel w ith Fin e’s coverage o f th e territory; h e h as pu lled togeth er th e m ost essen tial survey o f th is terrain sin ce Fran klin W alker’s A Literary History of Southern California (1950). “Tw o d om in an t gen res” oversh adow Fin e’ s accou n t: H ollyw ood fiction an d crim e fiction (127 ). T h is argu m en t n arrow s th e list, th en , t o its tw o sem in al fig­ ures: N at h an ae l W est an d Ray m on d Ch an d ler. It ’s a dark legacy, darker even perh aps t h an th at o f th e A m er ican So u t h , sin ce th ese in fom iin g sen sibilities, in t h eir d evot ion t o a h erm en eu tic o f su spicion , preclu de in ad v an ce an y o f th e r om an ce t h at m ak es possible a b ook as playful as Eu dora W elty’s T he Robber Bridegroom (1942) or even W illliam Fau lkn er’s T he Tow n (1957). T h is is a fic­ t ion w ith ou t a stron g t radition o f experim en t, sin ce it origin ates n ot in a m od ­ ern ist im pulse but rath er from th e pen s o f “satirists an d debu n kers” (53). W est an d C h an d le r each pu blish ed th eir key books in 1939, a year Fin e refers t o as Los A n gele s’s “A n n u s m irabilus” (162 ). T h e d at e poin t s to t h e fact t h at t h e literature o f Los A n gele s is a fairly r ecen t affair; “th ere w as little im por­ t an t fiction ab ou t...