The first-ever stand-alone written work from Ry Cooder, Los Angeles Stories is a collection of loosely linked tales that evoke a bygone era in one of America's most iconic cities. Rich with the essence and character of the times, suffused with patois of the city's underclass, these are stories about the common people of post-WW II LA and the strange things that happen to them.
The first-ever stand-alone written work from Ry Cooder, Los Angeles Stories is a collection of loosely linked tales that evoke a bygone era in one of America's most iconic cities. In post-World War II Los Angeles, as power was concentrating and fortunes were being made, a do-it-yourself culture of cool cats, outsiders and oddballs populated the old downtown neighborhoods of Bunker Hill and Chávez Ravine. Ordinary working folks rubbed elbows with petty criminals, grifters and all sorts of women at foggy end-of-the-line outposts in Venice Beach and Santa Monica. Los Angeles Stories is published by City Lights Publishers.
Rich with the essence and character of the times, suffused with patois of the city's underclass, these are stories about the common people of Los Angeles, "a sunny place for shady people," and the strange things that happen to them. Musicians, gun shop owners, streetwalkers, tailors, door-to-door salesmen, drifters, housewives, dentists and pornographers, new arrivals and hard-bitten denizens all intersect in cleverly plotted stories that center around some kind of shadowy activity. This quirky love letter to a lost way of life will appeal to fans of hard-boiled fiction and anyone interested in the city itself.
Ry Cooder's previous literary endeavor came in the form of a 95-page novella in the deluxe version of his 2008 album I, Flathead, the tale of Kash Buk, a hard-living, car-racing, guitar-playing man with a space-alien sidekick.
Written by Ry Cooder
Published by City Lights Publishers
Paperback: 224 pages
MH8-529127