Bibliotrek

Berkeley, California

"GOLDEN DAYS CAROLYN SE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS Berkeley â˘ Los Angeles â˘ London"

Los Angeles, California

"GOLDEN DAYS CAROLYN SE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS Berkeley â˘ Los Angeles â˘ London"

London, England

"GOLDEN DAYS CAROLYN SE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS Berkeley â˘ Los Angeles â˘ London"

United States of America

"Printed in the United States of America."

United States of America

"Printed in the United States of America 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA"

Los Angeles, California

"1. Nuclear warfare—California—Los Angeles—Fiction."

Los Angeles, California

"2. Friendship—California—Los Angeles—Fiction."

Los Angeles, California

"3. Women— California—Los Angeles—Fiction."

Paris, France

"Sitting in a park in Paris, France Reading the news, and it sure looks bad."

California, United States

"Ah, but California, California, I’m coming home. I’m gonna see the folks I dig, I’ll even kiss the Sunset pig, California, I’m coming home."

East Coast, United States

"I interviewed that East Coast photographer who made a good living taking pictures of people as they jumped."

New York, New York

"I took a look outside of his white studio into the grimy New York streets below;"

Los Angeles, California

"in the parched and arid heart of Los Angeles."

Micheltorena Hill, Los Angeles, California

"kicking at leaves with heavy shoes, up the buckling sidewalks of Micheltorena Hill, in the parched and arid heart of Los Angeles."

Paris, France

"I’ll go further and say that after several short trips to Paris, Madrid, Rome, I realized that I’d been going in the wrong direction; the further east you got the further back in you were."

Madrid, Spain

"I’ll go further and say that after several short trips to Paris, Madrid, Rome, I realized that I’d been going in the wrong direction; the further east you got the further back in you were."

Rome, Italy

"I’ll go further and say that after several short trips to Paris, Madrid, Rome, I realized that I’d been going in the wrong direction; the further east you got the further back in you were."

Los Angeles, California

"Los Angeles, in 1980, was a different city from the one I’d left."

Santa Monica, California

"I drove far out, to Santa Monica, found a bad motel, with two double beds and a television that worked."

San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles, California

"I drove with the kids one dreadful morning into the San Fernando Valley and felt that if there had to be a nuclear war, certainly it might do some good in this area."

Santa Monica Freeway, Los Angeles, California

"Then a thin stem, the Santa Monica freeway, heading due west and putting out green* ery, places in this western desert where you’d love to live—if things went right."

Topanga Canyon, Los Angeles, California

"I drove through Topanga Canyon, fifteen miles from the Valley to the coast (like Switzerland after the A-bomb, some friend of mine had said years before), hands sweating on the steering wheel as I took the curves, and had to think that maybe I wasn’t ready for the Canyon; maybe I just didn’t have the nerve."

Malibu, California

"I braked at the Pacific, knowing that Malibu was north and no way could I afford it yet."

Lakewood, California

"It’s true there are a zillion places no one in his right mind would like: Lakewood, Torrance, Brea, Compton, Carson, no one real lived there, any more than real people lived in those grey asphalt boxes that line the roads between New York’s airport and its island."

Torrance, California

"It’s true there are a zillion places no one in his right mind would like: Lakewood, Torrance, Brea, Compton, Carson, no one real lived there, any more than real people lived in those grey asphalt boxes that line the roads between New York’s airport and its island."

Brea, California

"It’s true there are a zillion places no one in his right mind would like: Lakewood, Torrance, Brea, Compton, Carson, no one real lived there, any more than real people lived in those grey asphalt boxes that line the roads between New York’s airport and its island."

Compton, California

"It’s true there are a zillion places no one in his right mind would like: Lakewood, Torrance, Brea, Compton, Carson, no one real lived there, any more than real people lived in those grey asphalt boxes that line the roads between New York’s airport and its island."

Echo Park, Los Angeles, California

"I headed west again: Echo Park, old houses, fine artists in them. I didn’t like the neighborhood; it was too close to where I’d started."

Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles, California

"Further west and to the right, the Hollywood Hills with the sign and all, and Aldous Huxley’s widow tucked in just below the H."

Westwood, Los Angeles, California

"Sixty miles an hour and ten minutes later, there was Westwood to look at. A pretty town, safe, and rich, and if the kids wanted to go to UCLA, perfect for them."

Discovery Inn, Topanga Canyon, Los Angeles, California

"We stopped at a place called the Discovery Inn (Innkeeper, Marge Dehr)."

Rocky Mountains, United States

"I’d driven through eastern sleet to get here, and “unseasonal” snow in the Rockies, and heat like a flat plate in the High Desert."

High Desert, California, United States

"I’d driven through eastern sleet to get here, and “unseasonal” snow in the Rockies, and heat like a flat plate in the High Desert."

Switzerland, Europe

"I drove through Topanga Canyon, fifteen miles from the Valley to the coast (like Switzerland after the A-bomb, some friend of mine had said years before), hands sweating on the steering wheel as I took the curves, and had to think that maybe I wasn’t ready for the Canyon; maybe I just didn’t have the nerve."

Santa Monica, California

"…once you got up there, in those mountains north of Santa Monica, you were safe; they couldn’t get to you."

Topanga, California

"…later I learned that during Prohibition outlaws from all over California vamoosed to Topanga, because all the overlapping city limits that made up Los Angeles had left one lawless hole."

Los Angeles, California

"…all the overlapping city limits that made up Los Angeles had left one lawless hole."

Glendale, California

"Yes, there were sweatshops in downtown L.A. and I remember a ceramics factory out in Glendale, but they soon went out of business."

Downtown L.A., Los Angeles, California

"…all this only forty minutes away from downtown L. A.!"

Los Angeles, California

"And so, at the age of thirty-eight, I came back to L.A., I came back."

Manhattan, New York, United States

"I’d majored in the wrong things in college, lived precariously in Manhattan’s wrong sections."

San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles, California

"On one cliff you might see great grim stretches of that modern midden the San Fernando Valley, and on another rocky outcropping you might climb…"

Venice, Italy

"I turned south, looking for Venice … and headed—like a gerbil in a cage—back downtown."

Carson City, Nevada

"It’s true there are a zillion places no one in his right mind would like: Lakewood, Torrance, Brea, Compton, Carson, no one real lived there, any more than real people lived in those grey asphalt boxes that line the roads between New York’s airport and its island."

Beverly Hills, California

"Picture this then: Ms. Langley drives up, stamps up the brick pathway, 11:30 A.M., to a Beverly Hills mansion."

New York, New York

"I knew grey flannel was for New York only, but wouldn’t raw silk pass as the flannel of the desert?"

UCLA, Los Angeles, California

"…I took my jeweler’s glass, or “diamond loupe,” my briefcase, and two dozen good stones to an extension lady’s home—out of UCLA, of course—and spoke to a class of affluent matrons."

Australia, Oceania

"We might have been in Australia with just a couple of aborigines for company, but instead we could hear Van Morrison, the Doors, windchimes, barking dogs."

Argentina, South America

"His children, he said, lived with their mother in Argentina."

Buenos Aires, Argentina

"After they’d deplaned in Buenos Aires and he’d deposited his frantic wife and tired kids in a suite in the best hotel in town, Skip said he’d gone out for a stroll, to see where it was, exactly, they’d be making their new life."

UCLA, Los Angeles, California

"“Just don’t go to UCLA,” I blurted. “It’s a butcher shop.”"

Santa Monica, California

"I drove carefully, Van Morrison blaring his “Tupelo Honey” and other repetitive hits, out of the maze of the marina and into Venice, up along the Palisades of Santa Monica, trying to re* member what 1 knew about Buenos Aires."

Palisades, Santa Monica, California

"up along the Palisades of Santa Monica, trying to re* member what 1 knew about Buenos Aires."

Los Angeles, California

"And in six months I was a member of the board of what was going to be L.A.’s Third Women’s Bank, if Skip’s boys could get it off the ground."

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

"We zipped up as far north as Vancouver, as far south as Panama (no farther), but never east."

Panama City, Panama

"We zipped up as far north as Vancouver, as far south as Panama (no farther), but never east."

Santa Monica Airport, Santa Monica, California, United States

"One Friday morning in early summer we got into the Porsche and careened down to the Santa Monica airport. It was a clean, sunny day, the kids were visiting their dads for a long weekend."

The Clift Hotel, San Francisco, California, United States

"After our meetings, we went up to our room at the Clift to change and saw the flowers and the fruit they had waiting for us."

Tampa, Florida, United States

"The camera flashed and flashed again, to the power of ten, showing us the city of Tampa, the state of Florida, the earth, the galaxy, and then the film was through and the lights went up."

San Francisco Bay, California, United States

"Then we saw the world again—the bay itself skimming the landing gear. We whiffled just above that shifting blue surface, climbed out of clear air into fog again..."

Hong Kong, China

"When you talked to Skip you got the idea that in Hong Kong, Taipei, even, they worked seventeen‐hour days, then stayed up all night and danced."

Taipei, Taiwan

"When you talked to Skip you got the idea that in Hong Kong, Taipei, even, they worked seventeen‐hour days, then stayed up all night and danced."

Hiroshima, Japan

"Her mother had been a Hiroshima maiden."

San Francisco, California

"“Only in San Francisco!” somebody said, and walked out."

The Clift, San Francisco, California

"We took a cab back to the Clift. The old hotel was so exquisite, the waiters and bellboys so silly in their uniforms, their faces so human and new."

New York, New York

"I flashed on the streets of New York, every person striding about: Don’t mug me! I am a serious person! Watch my briefcase! Watch my boots! Watch my …!"

Alaska, United States

"I’ve always wanted to go to Alaska, but somehow I’ve never found the time."

Oregon, United States

"My partner wanted to go to Oregon and raise pigs."

California, United States

"But Lion took the position—as did so many other California evangelists—that 'the universe always said yes."

San Francisco, California

"Skip and I kissed in the cab, snaking back through a new world, magic San Francisco."

Haight Street, San Francisco, California

"We had the man drive through the Haight, that little street that had gone through acid-magic and heroin-death and now glimmered late at night halfway between the two."

L.A. State College, Los Angeles, California

"Edith? Edith? Is it you? It’s Lorna! Loma McAvey. Loma Sullivan. Loma La Boeuf. Loma Israel. Don’t you remember me? L.A. State College? How are you? I thought it was you! I just flew in this morning."

UCLA, Los Angeles, California

"I’m working over at UCLA as a research assistant, what are you doing?"

Los Angeles, California

"Back in L.A., Skip finally made an appointment to go in to the doctor."

Buenos Aires, Argentina

"the doctor was quite impatient, and said no, there was nothing, there was no question of a cure because there was no shadow, no nothing anywhere at all; there must have been a faulty machine in the other doctor’s office, down in Buenos Aires."

Alaska, United States

"In the weeks that followed, Skip and I took a cruise to Alaska."

Thomas Starr King Junior High School, Los Angeles, California

"… little Nancy Stone playing what she was pleased to call gnip gnop on the cement Ping-Pong tables under wide shady trees at Thomas Starr King Junior High School until I die."

Los Angeles State College, Los Angeles, California

"I met Lorna at Los Angeles State College in the first years of its existence."

East L.A. barrio, Los Angeles, California

"Twelve quonset huts on a vacant lot in an East L.A. barrio, and that was the best it ever looked."

San Francisco, California

"We were flying to San Francisco for the same amount of time."

Pacific Ocean, Earth

"…and on the bottom more dark blue than you could ever imagine in one place, the vast Pacific."

Venice, Italy

"I drove carefully, Van Morrison blaring his “Tupelo Honey” and other repetitive hits, out of the maze of the marina and into Venice, up along the Palisades of Santa Monica, trying to re* member what 1 knew about Buenos Aires."

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

"And do you know what? His mother s coming out here to visit, from Pittsburgh, for two weeks."

Los Angeles, California

"David Mandlebaum (you may have seen him twenty years later on local television; he turned out to be the "spokesman for independent taxi drivers in Los Angeles"), and he’d had a cold for close on to a week."

Sierra Madre, California

"I knew Loma’s husband was a contractor and that he’d been making a lot of money. I knew they lived in the suburb of Sierra Madre."

Glendale, California

"We drove off with the baby across Glendale, Eagle Rock, Pasadena, and up into rough, scrubby hills, where Harry or Harold had built his new palace for Loma;"

Eagle Rock, Los Angeles, California

"We drove off with the baby across Glendale, Eagle Rock, Pasadena, and up into rough, scrubby hills, where Harry or Harold had built his new palace for Loma;"

Pasadena, California

"We drove off with the baby across Glendale, Eagle Rock, Pasadena, and up into rough, scrubby hills, where Harry or Harold had built his new palace for Loma;"

San Bernardino, California

"Apple green and cerise were the predominant colors in this domestic contraption that seemed to us as big as San Bernardino."

Rome, Italy

"on the walls those weird swatches of wallpaper you sometimes used to see in Italian restaurants: columns from Rome or Naples, with the Mediterranean in waves going off to the far comers of the room,"

Naples, Italy

"on the walls those weird swatches of wallpaper you sometimes used to see in Italian restaurants: columns from Rome or Naples, with the Mediterranean in waves going off to the far comers of the room,"

Mediterranean Sea, Europe

"on the walls those weird swatches of wallpaper you sometimes used to see in Italian restaurants: columns from Rome or Naples, with the Mediterranean in waves going off to the far comers of the room,"

Silver Lake, Los Angeles, California

"They lived in a little house in the Silver Lake district of Los Angeles—a place you never used to read about or hear about, but it was there, west of downtown, east of Hollywood, north of Inglewood, south of the San Fernando Valley, a place with no borders and little character."

Hollywood, Los Angeles, California

"They lived in a little house in the Silver Lake district of Los Angeles—a place you never used to read about or hear about, but it was there, west of downtown, east of Hollywood, north of Inglewood, south of the San Fernando Valley, a place with no borders and little character."

Inglewood, California

"They lived in a little house in the Silver Lake district of Los Angeles—a place you never used to read about or hear about, but it was there, west of downtown, east of Hollywood, north of Inglewood, south of the San Fernando Valley, a place with no borders and little character."

El Monte, California

"I think of Loma in some motel room in Alhambra or El Monte, the poor southeast agricultural dregs of Los Angeles, sweating under the form of our American literature professor, staring at the ceiling, considering her thirties, coming soon, and with them the end of youth."

Los Angeles, California

"I think of Loma in some motel room in Alhambra or El Monte, the poor southeast agricultural dregs of Los Angeles, sweating under the form of our American literature professor, staring at the ceiling, considering her thirties, coming soon, and with them the end of youth."

Paris, France

"And when we’d gone to the opera in Paris as students, he’d worn a sweater and every other man there wore a tie!"

Reno, Nevada

"Some time later, when I got around to getting a divorce, I sat in Reno in a drive-in movie, during the intermission between the second and third features."

Los Angeles, California

"IN THE EARLY EIGHTIES, YOU HAD THE SENSE THAT there was nothing you couldn’t do in L.A."

California, United States

"For a while, five years before, the whole California world had taken to roller skates—or so it had said in the slick national magazines and the New York Times Sunday supplement."

Santa Monica, California

"but south of the towns of Santa Monica and Ocean Park, down a street called Washington, which ran headlong into a parking lot and then sand and then a fishing pier and then the sea"

Ocean Park, California

"but south of the towns of Santa Monica and Ocean Park, down a street called Washington, which ran headlong into a parking lot and then sand and then a fishing pier and then the sea"

Washington Boulevard, Los Angeles, California, United States

"“Officer,” Loma said, “isn’t it true that this is the shortest point home, I mean to Washington Boulevard? I wonder if…”"

Venice Canals, Los Angeles, California, United States

"We put on wrap around skirts and walked across the bridges of the Venice canals until we found a Thai restaurant."

Alhambra, California, United States

"They were all out in a garage in that crappy place they lived, Alhambra, for God’s sake, so I never had a place to keep my car."

San Francisco Bay, California, United States

"All we could perceive was the yacht, peacefully bobbing in the San Francisco bay under cool grey skies."

Europe

"… even traveled for a year in Europe, found myself now with an artist husband and a load of “ambition” which must have been very much like a hard‐on."

Sierra Madre, California

"I hated those kids of Harry’s! I hated Sierra Madre or wherever the hell it was."

Sausalito, California

"Forty or fifty of Lion’s closest assistants, Lorna included, would split up and declare four square miles of Sausalito war country!"

Washington Street, Boston, Massachusetts, United States

"down a street called Washington, which ran headlong into a parking lot and then sand and then a fishing pier and then the sea"

San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles, California

"They lived in a little house in the Silver Lake district of Los Angeles—a place you never used to read about or hear about, but it was there, west of downtown, east of Hollywood, north of Inglewood, south of the San Fernando Valley, a place with no borders and little character."

Alhambra, California, United States

"I think of Loma in some motel room in Alhambra or El Monte, the poor southeast agricultural dregs of Los Angeles, sweating under the form of our American literature professor, staring at the ceiling, considering her thirties, coming soon, and with them the end of youth."

Perth, Western Australia, Australia

"Dirk Langley, the bronzed man who had come all the way up here (by way of his thumb, he said) from the west coast of Australia, Perth, to make it as a director of surfing movies."

Oahu, Hawaii, United States

"And when he left L.A., to travel to Oahu’s windward coast, then back to Reno for the divorce..."

Manzanillo, Colima, Mexico

"and down to Manzanillo, then over to the Marquesas, then over to Capetown,"

Marquesas Islands, French Polynesia

"then over to the Marquesas, then over to Capetown,"

Cape Town, South Africa

"then over to Capetown,"

Newfoundland, Canada

"they’d whistle half a million dollars worth of drugs across the North Atlantic and into Newfoundland,"

Nova Scotia, Canada

"catch a ferry south, past Nova Scotia, and right on in under the Statue of Liberty’s chipping nose,"

Statue of Liberty, New York City, United States

"catch a ferry south, past Nova Scotia, and right on in under the Statue of Liberty’s chipping nose,"

Lake Geneva, Switzerland

"They’d rise at dawn for icy dips in Lake Geneva,"

Galapagos Islands, Ecuador

"I had adventures, I told Loma, sadly. 'I’ve been to the Galapagos."

Buffalo, New York, United States

"Lion and his few trusted male associates were thrown into a cold, hard Buffalo, New York slammer, where—within two weeks—they escaped in the soft clammy fragrance of a garbage truck."

Pyramids of Giza, Egypt

"Lion suddenly took a trip to the pyramids, which—when he came back—he said had changed his life."

Los Angeles, California

"All we knew when he left L.A. was that Lion had it in his mind to materialize those wristwatches."

San Francisco, California

"Meeting at midnight in a sleeping San Francisco suburb, making the plan with people you knew so well."

Santa Monica, California

"she made me come out to the Santa Monica palisades, just five blocks west of the deli where she worked, to watch as she handed that silken swatch to an old, sad woman on a bench."

Mammoth Lakes, California

"leaving gleaming trails of stars (which she explained away at work as frostbite from a skiing trip to Mammoth)."

Topanga, California

"This one was south of Topanga, a few miles inland from the beach, a strict and conventional middie‐class paradise—but we still kept our wiL demess home."

Buenos Aires, Argentina

"Skip was down in Buenos Aires this week, attending to family matters, and to business."

Central America, North America

"Another war had started in Central America. The ladies in our house united in blaming men for it."

Vietnam, Southeast Asia

"They diligently trained. Then they deserted, taking their guns and uniforms with them. Let’s bring the war home! the old Vietnam slogan, became the grief‐stricken catch phrase of the poor."

UCLA emergency room, Los Angeles

"as Franz and Callie had taken little Matt off to the UCLA emergency room"

America, United States

"It was interesting to think that all across America other boards and clubs and investors and people everywhere were making the decision without talking much about it."

Central America, North America

"Some one of those low-life, unevolved Central American patrols had finally used some small—oh, I hate to say the word now—the hated adjective that modifies “device.”"

La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina

"May I suggest that the little house where Estelle and I used to live, above the banks of La Plata, would be a perfect place for the two of you to spend your first years?"

southern Mexico, Mexico

"“Another weapon,” he said, “this time in southern Mexico. I imagine this is what they were talking about last night. Twenty thousand killed.”"

Pasadena, California

"… because you’re working for the Pasadena post office for eight hundred and fifty a month…"

Santa Monica Beach, Santa Monica, California

"Between us and it, palm trees; then that living strip of bright green grass along the cliffs of Santa Monica Beach, against a thoroughfare where even the traffic was a pleasure to get caught in, made up, as it was, of tan Mercedes and silver Porsches, and even the Volkses were shiny lemon yellow."

United States

"I even (in my memory, at least) extended an invitation on behalf of my country, if not myself, for Estelle to spend a few weeks up here in the States."

Hollywood, Los Angeles, California

"The garden party was held at the home of Sid Jacobson, who later that year would be at the center of so many Hollywood scandals."

Southern California, United States

"I suppose selfishly I’d have to say that marked my first real entrée into the highest level of southern California society."

UCLA, Los Angeles, California

"reminding her hulking high school compatriots, who, most of them, had gone on immediately to UCLA or to marriage or both, 'I’m an international courier!"

Manhattan, New York, United States

"on a winter’s day in Manhattan."

Reno, Nevada

"then back to Reno for the divorce."

West Los Angeles, California

"It was only a matter of days after these raids had begun when a group of west Los Angeles parents came to Skip (and to me), saying that there was a need for a 'new wave' of private, middle and upper centers of education, much as there had been during the black integration scare of the early seventies."

Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, California

"Denise commuted from our canyon home into a junior high school she hated in the Pacific Palisades—another of those lovely communities that have no boundaries, can scarcely be found if you don’t know where they are."

Ocean Avenue, Los Angeles, California, United States

"Across Ocean Avenue, on that narrow, grassy picnic ground that stretched as far as our eyes could see, old ladies walked sedately two by two, a few college men rollerskated considerately, and families got out of station wagons carrying wicker baskets, sacks of briquets, folding tables, and checkered cloths."

Cairo, Egypt

"Hal? Can you tell me how she keeps those plants watered? Isn’t she in Cairo now?"

Barcelona, Spain

"In 1975 I had met the maître d’ of the Tour d’Argent one afternoon on vacation in Barcelona, and he said Nixon knew how to eat."

Tour d’Argent, Paris, France

"In 1975 I had met the maître d’ of the Tour d’Argent one afternoon on vacation in Barcelona, and he said Nixon knew how to eat."

Brentwood, Los Angeles, California

"A Brentwood wife in one of my seminars refused to paint her swimming pool black, even though she “loved the look,” because she thought her husband’s enemies would somehow smuggle a shark past the house and into the yard, and then into the pool."

Los Angeles, California

"Why should anyone lie—even in this climate of domestic unrest—in the blistering Los Angeles heat, for minutes or hours, to grab the ankle of a middle-aged woman, no matter how well cared for and how prosperous?"

Reno, Nevada

"The day I left I cooked up a huge pot of spaghetti and left it in the refrigerator. I came back from Reno after the divorce, and the spaghetti remained, with perhaps an inch and a half of mold in fine green threads all over it."

San Diego, California

"Sometime in the late seventies, after my father’s disease had been diagnosed, I drove with the kids down the coast to San Diego and across the border into Tijuana."

Inglewood, California

"Another two* bedroom house to the south of the city: we’ll say Inglewood, or the City of Industry. An unmown lawn and a sheet tacked up across the living room window."

City of Industry, California

"Another two* bedroom house to the south of the city: we’ll say Inglewood, or the City of Industry. An unmown lawn and a sheet tacked up across the living room window."

Phoenix, Arizona

"What was there to be afraid of in a painted breakfast nook with a harsh overhead light and my father with a desperate look: 'There were some days, over there in Phoenix, I made a C note a week?"

California, United States

"She lounged in that smoke-filled, tiny living room laughing, her Christmas present, a full-length mink coat, across her shoulders, although it was a sunny California day of about seventy degrees."

Indiana, United States

"I ask you, wherever you were then—in Indiana, lining up at the Dairy Queen; in Beloit, Wisconsin, driving out to watch the lights of the A&W Root Beer stand reflected on the river. If you were in New York City, in that genital softness of May and June, didn’t you know, in your heart, that we were safe?"

Beloit, Wisconsin, United States

"I ask you, wherever you were then—in Indiana, lining up at the Dairy Queen; in Beloit, Wisconsin, driving out to watch the lights of the A&W Root Beer stand reflected on the river. If you were in New York City, in that genital softness of May and June, didn’t you know, in your heart, that we were safe?"

Stanford, California

"Or the man from Stanford law school who took out Fran O’Donnell and bound and gagged her before he (all too quickly) did it?"

Rocky Mountains, United States

"Not my first husband, Jack, because he, along with a girlfriend, climbed up into the Rocky Mountains to live in a tent."

Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, California

"He runs five miles, through the Pacific Palisades."

Beverly Hills, California

"So there they are, at Jimmy’s, in beautiful Beverly Hills; one o’clock, the height of the lunch hour."

Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles, California

"It’s a sellout game at Dodger Stadium, he’s paid fifty dollars apiece for these tickets from a private agency and used up the last of his Mastercharge."

Santa Monica Freeway, Los Angeles, California

"Then it’s back into the car after signing out and driving downtown on the Santa Monica Freeway."

Chavez Ravine, Los Angeles, California

"They have a few beers, leave one car there, and wait until the first half of the first inning is over before they make the last fifteen‐minute push up the Chavez Ravine hill, because the truth is, neither one of them is that crazy about baseball."

Tai Hong, Chinatown, Los Angeles, California

"He meets Chas at Tai Hong in Chinatown."

New Mexico, United States

"Twenty- two deaths in New Mexico alone so far this year; the year’s only half over, and nothing has even 'happened' yet."

Jalisco, Mexico

"Listening to the tapes, he exclaims: “Que Lindo Es Jalisco! How beautiful, Jalisco, how beautiful. So beautiful that even when you got there, you never really got there …”"

Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico

"Marya, Buzz’s Latvian girlfriend, would come into the Foreign Club, down in Tijuana late at night, and she’d have some greaser on her arm, prepared to pay."

Manila, Philippines

"His carrier has docked at Manila. Will he be allowed to disembark in order to participate in an all‐Pacific track meet and risk death in the 120-degree heat…"

Newfoundland, Canada

"Or he might be a morose, heavy‐drinking clerk-typist up in Newfoundland, called upon to explain where the company has mislaid a bright orange, $52,000 earth-mover that has inexplicably been heisted?"

Beverly Hilton, Beverly Hills, California, United States

"… or the cruel lover who stopped asking if she’d like to forget this world with him at the Beverly Hilton …"

Rhine River, Germany

"The boy I met once on a Rhine cruise, his hair shaved to peach fuzz and his poor brain the size of the pit that went with it, who said, by way of conversation, 'I just love missiles'?"

Helmsley Palace, Los Angeles, California, United States

"even as he checked that Lorna (staying this week at the Helmsley Palace) would get her two dozen white roses every day."

China, Asia

"Then there he is in Chinatown at ten‐thirty at night, with a lot of Chinamen giving him looks like, 'Didn’t I hear your mother calling you? Isn't it time for you to go home?"

Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico

"Sometime in the late seventies, after my father’s disease had been diagnosed, I drove with the kids down the coast to San Diego and across the border into Tijuana."

Pacific Ocean, Earth

"Far in front of us the turquoise glitz of the Pacific. Between us and it, palm trees; then that living strip of bright green grass along the cliffs of Santa Monica Beach..."

Bel Air Hotel, Los Angeles, California, United States

"He excuses himself, makes reservations in a bungalow of the Bel Air Hotel."

Los Feliz Boulevard, Los Angeles, California

"They walked for miles in the center of the city, Los Feliz Boulevard, which was like a ribbon park, house upon house with moist lawn tendrils down to the busy road."

Griffith Park Boulevard, Los Angeles, California

"They walked northeast and down a long sweet incline to where Griffith Park Boulevard and Los Feliz and Fletcher Drive met to form a strange frontier between the neighborhoods of Atwater, Glendale, the “Los Feliz District” and “the Valley”— not the San Fernando Valley but that three‐block strip between the hills that sheltered Chavez Ravine and railroad tracks that snaked along, parallel to the hills, into the depths of downtown."

Fletcher Drive, Los Angeles, California

"They walked northeast and down a long sweet incline to where Griffith Park Boulevard and Los Feliz and Fletcher Drive met to form a strange frontier between the neighborhoods of Atwater, Glendale, the “Los Feliz District” and “the Valley”— not the San Fernando Valley but that three‐block strip between the hills that sheltered Chavez Ravine and railroad tracks that snaked along, parallel to the hills, into the depths of downtown."

Atwater, Los Angeles, California

"They walked northeast and down a long sweet incline to where Griffith Park Boulevard and Los Feliz and Fletcher Drive met to form a strange frontier between the neighborhoods of Atwater, Glendale, the “Los Feliz District” and “the Valley”— not the San Fernando Valley but that three‐block strip between the hills that sheltered Chavez Ravine and railroad tracks that snaked along, parallel to the hills, into the depths of downtown."

Glendale, California

"They walked northeast and down a long sweet incline to where Griffith Park Boulevard and Los Feliz and Fletcher Drive met to form a strange frontier between the neighborhoods of Atwater, Glendale, the “Los Feliz District” and “the Valley”— not the San Fernando Valley but that three‐block strip between the hills that sheltered Chavez Ravine and railroad tracks that snaked along, parallel to the hills, into the depths of downtown."

Los Feliz District, Los Angeles, California

"They walked northeast and down a long sweet incline to where Griffith Park Boulevard and Los Feliz and Fletcher Drive met to form a strange frontier between the neighborhoods of Atwater, Glendale, the “Los Feliz District” and “the Valley”— not the San Fernando Valley but that three‐block strip between the hills that sheltered Chavez Ravine and railroad tracks that snaked along, parallel to the hills, into the depths of downtown."

Chavez Ravine, Los Angeles, California

"They walked northeast and down a long sweet incline to where Griffith Park Boulevard and Los Feliz and Fletcher Drive met to form a strange frontier between the neighborhoods of Atwater, Glendale, the “Los Feliz District” and “the Valley”— not the San Fernando Valley but that three‐block strip between the hills that sheltered Chavez Ravine and railroad tracks that snaked along, parallel to the hills, into the depths of downtown."

Downtown, Los Angeles, California

"They walked northeast and down a long sweet incline to where Griffith Park Boulevard and Los Feliz and Fletcher Drive met to form a strange frontier between the neighborhoods of Atwater, Glendale, the “Los Feliz District” and “the Valley”— not the San Fernando Valley but that three‐block strip between the hills that sheltered Chavez Ravine and railroad tracks that snaked along, parallel to the hills, into the depths of downtown."

Hyperion, Los Angeles, California

"They walked the old streets, Hyperion over to Vermont, stopping at the grocery store at the other “junction”—Sunset and Hollywood Boulevard—"

Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, California

"They walked the old streets, Hyperion over to Vermont, stopping at the grocery store at the other “junction”—Sunset and Hollywood Boulevard—"

Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles, California

"They walked the old streets, Hyperion over to Vermont, stopping at the grocery store at the other “junction”—Sunset and Hollywood Boulevard—"

Hollywood, Los Angeles, California

"Or they turned west on Sunset, to Hollywood itself, riding on the “red car,” over to the Pantages Theatre, or the Egyptian, or Grauman’s Chinese."

Pantages Theatre, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California

"Or they turned west on Sunset, to Hollywood itself, riding on the “red car,” over to the Pantages Theatre, or the Egyptian, or Grauman’s Chinese."

Egyptian Theatre, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California

"Or they turned west on Sunset, to Hollywood itself, riding on the “red car,” over to the Pantages Theatre, or the Egyptian, or Grauman’s Chinese."

Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California

"Or they turned west on Sunset, to Hollywood itself, riding on the “red car,” over to the Pantages Theatre, or the Egyptian, or Grauman’s Chinese."

Vine Street, Los Angeles, California

"Or just got off at Vine and walked the width of the town they knew, over to La Brea, stopping for hot fudge sundaes at C. C. Brown’s and then heading back on the south side, looking at Baker’s Shoes, and Joyce’s, loitering in the Broadway Hollywood, playing with the costume jewelry."

La Brea, Los Angeles, California

"Or just got off at Vine and walked the width of the town they knew, over to La Brea, stopping for hot fudge sundaes at C. C. Brown’s and then heading back on the south side, looking at Baker’s Shoes, and Joyce’s, loitering in the Broadway Hollywood, playing with the costume jewelry."

Griffith Park, Los Angeles, California

"At that junction, of course, the Griffith Park fountain and, across the street, the Griffith Park swimming pool."

California, United States

"TME LGT AGES May 1987-July 1990 Some say it was a Bad Time But I say it was a Good Time HERE’S WHAT FRANZ DEGELD DID WHEN THINGS BEGAN to look iffy in California—some of this I know first hand; some I picked up from Lorna, some I read in the columns, some I heard from Golden Oaks parents, O.K.?"

Sydney, Australia

"Franz took out Australian visas and was on the phone to Sydney and Melbourne all day long; all night long."

Melbourne, Australia

"Franz took out Australian visas and was on the phone to Sydney and Melbourne all day long; all night long."

Vermont, United States

"They walked the old streets, Hyperion over to Vermont, stopping at the grocery store at the other “junction”—Sunset and Hollywood Boulevard—"

Venice, Italy

"Often those girls—dressed to the nines, as we say—had hitchhiked or had their mothers drop them off at the far west of the city, down in the bowels of Venice."

Griffith Park, Los Angeles, California

"…borrow each other’s clothes, go to the park, ride the merry -go- round, pick out a grassy hill at Griffith Park, climb to the top and roll down. Then do that again. And again."

Ritz Carlton, Boston, Massachusetts, United States

"Loma wouldn’t find out about it for sure for another five days, when she moved to Boston, to the Ritz Carlton, and the roses stopped coming."

Covina, California, United States

"Or the stupid ones, the really stupid ones, who lived in the goatish eastern suburbs of L.A.—Pomona, Covina, Alhambra, Upland—took their impulse to flee but took it east."

Alhambra, California, United States

"Or the stupid ones, the really stupid ones, who lived in the goatish eastern suburbs of L.A.—Pomona, Covina, Alhambra, Upland—took their impulse to flee but took it east."

Upland, California, United States

"Or the stupid ones, the really stupid ones, who lived in the goatish eastern suburbs of L.A.—Pomona, Covina, Alhambra, Upland—took their impulse to flee but took it east."

La Toque, Los Angeles, California, United States

"And there were those of us who spent the “last” two or three weeks at La Toque, or Michael’s, or the American Bar and Grill—that got a few laughs—or Spago or the Polo Lounge."

Michael's, Los Angeles, California, United States

"And there were those of us who spent the “last” two or three weeks at La Toque, or Michael’s, or the American Bar and Grill—that got a few laughs—or Spago or the Polo Lounge."

American Bar and Grill, Los Angeles, California, United States

"And there were those of us who spent the “last” two or three weeks at La Toque, or Michael’s, or the American Bar and Grill—that got a few laughs—or Spago or the Polo Lounge."

Six Flags Magic Mountain, Valencia, California, United States

"Imagine the white-knuckle rides at Magic Mountain, the Simi Valley earthquake (and the floods that came later), and two or three Bel Air fires whooshing up at once;"

Simi Valley, California, United States

"Imagine the white-knuckle rides at Magic Mountain, the Simi Valley earthquake (and the floods that came later), and two or three Bel Air fires whooshing up at once;"

Topanga, California

"lie down on damp green grass—or the dry weeds of Topanga, or the red ants of Lancaster—and say thank you, I love you, I love this."

Lancaster, California

"lie down on damp green grass—or the dry weeds of Topanga, or the red ants of Lancaster—and say thank you, I love you, I love this."

Santa Monica, California

"lay down in some retirement hotel on the Santa Monica bluffs."

Brentwood, Los Angeles, California

"There was just the perfectly trimmed corner yard of Franz deGeld’s exquisite Brentwood home, and he most probably locked up inside with his wife, his children, his hardwood floors."

Los Angeles State College, Los Angeles, California

"I am a girl from Los Angeles State College, and I got my education in a quonset hut."

Malibu, California

"Lorna worked Brentwood, Santa Monica, Malibu."

Germany, Europe

"I had to apologize in my mind for all those things I’d ever thought about the Jews. Why didn’t they get out of Germany!? Because they didn’t want to? Because they decided the only thing to do was “experience their fear and go through it”?"

Los Angeles, California

"We found, in fact, that the dry climate of L.A. lent itself to this ancient way of taking away the dead: let them lie there and dry, seemed to be what people said later that they had done."

Old Topanga Canyon Road, Topanga, California

"Walking home, holding the water carefully, one of us might whisper, “Ingmar Bergman.” And the other one might smile. The only time I can remember terror down on Old Topanga Canyon Road was when, as several of us were silently dunking our pans into the shallow stream (and it took all the time in the world to do it right, to hold the pan so that the clearest liquid might seep over the lid of the pan, to avoid the sometimes very hideous things that oozed on the bottom, to avoid the pale foam that collected at the side), a noise, I can’t even tell you what a noise, a hideous, barking metallic vibration shook us all and from out of a bank of ashes, faster than a snake platoon, a figure flashed past us and out of sight, leaving an odor of shit and fear, and the shit was right there in spots on the pitted road."

Valley Drive, Topanga, California

"I don’t know who wrote up this one, but he put it right by the tree trunk down on what used to be Valley Drive—a riverbed now —the way down to Old Topanga Creek."

Los Angeles International Airport, Los Angeles, California

"Every day, in eight- and ten-hour special “reports” the screen showed us the riots at L. A. airport as would-be passengers brought down their wealth..."

Brentwood, Los Angeles, California

"Callie deGeld had ordered food up to the Brentwood house for three months, including fifty cases of Dom Perignon, and what the hell was going on?"

El Segundo, California

"The price of oil in El Segundo had gone up at the very first; but then cars became useless except as dwellings and armor."

Santa Monica, California

"Florists all over the city had 'folded their tents' and let their roses wither, so the handsome waiters at Michael’s scurried out and plundered all the gardens of Santa Monica to bring back great branches of bougainvillea and entire plants of furiously blooming marguerites."

Palm Springs, California

"Besieging the rich at Palm Springs, hiking or driving with great anguish up and over the Cajon Pass, with apparently not the slightest knowledge that what they would find on the other side of the mountains was miles of desert waste..."

Cajon Pass, San Bernardino, California

"Besieging the rich at Palm Springs, hiking or driving with great anguish up and over the Cajon Pass, with apparently not the slightest knowledge that what they would find on the other side of the mountains was miles of desert waste..."

Bel Air, Los Angeles, California

"Imagine the white-knuckle rides at Magic Mountain, the Simi Valley earthquake (and the floods that came later), and two or three Bel Air fires whooshing up at once;"

Pomona, California

"Or the stupid ones, the really stupid ones, who lived in the goatish eastern suburbs of L.A.—Pomona, Covina, Alhambra, Upland—took their impulse to flee but took it east."

Spago, Beverly Hills, California

"And there were those of us who spent the “last” two or three weeks at La Toque, or Michael’s, or the American Bar and Grill—that got a few laughs—or Spago or the Polo Lounge."

Polo Lounge, Beverly Hills, California

"And there were those of us who spent the “last” two or three weeks at La Toque, or Michael’s, or the American Bar and Grill—that got a few laughs—or Spago or the Polo Lounge."

Old Topanga Creek, Topanga, California

"I don’t know who wrote up this one, but he put it right by the tree trunk down on what used to be Valley Drive—a riverbed now —the way down to Old Topanga Creek."

Australia, Oceania

"And I thought so much about going to Australia in those last days before the war that I can’t remember what months up here are supposed to be cold."

Paris, France

"Then, with the exaggerated panache of a Parisian dandy, he reached over, plucked one away from the crumbling concrete, held it up against the drizzling poisoned rain to wash away the ash, and with a hideous sucking noise that I remember even now, removed it, protesting, from its shell and sent it sliding to its own Armageddon."

Catalina Island, California

"And all of us had grown up with the story of the California Indians, those dipshit Chumash, who had rowed over to Catalina Island to gather shells and left a woman over there absentmindedly and didn’t get back to pick her up for over twenty years. “To see Catalina again.”"

Malibu, California

"and on my right, as I looked toward the ocean, a low wooden building which used to be the Malibu Feed Bin but looked now more like the old center in the canyon"

Topanga Gulch, California

"I was the one who said, “That woman, Marina, who lived in Topanga Gulch, a frog ate a wire at her place and it went…”"

Topanga, California

"the pane of window glass as it jerked from its precarious moorings in our old home on the skyline of Topanga, the last seconds before the thick air came to sear our skins and change it forever"

California, United States

"what if we only remember California?"

Playa del Rey, Los Angeles, California

"Many people were killed south of Playa del Rey. Even now people don’t go down there."

Catalina Island, California

"…the ones whose boats were out on the far side of Catalina when it came and hove to, sailing back out of pure curiosity."

Florida, United States

"…to say that people lived all over, in midwestern sod huts, and in Florida swamps, and especially in the great canyons of New York, where an entire cranky tribe survives underground, and the Dirty Dozens are their stories!"

California, United States

"Half a life later, one brackish, sweaty, hazy, California winter day, I wanted to wash my face and scraped away some foamy scum from a tide pool in Topanga Gulch."

Topanga Gulch, California

"Half a life later, one brackish, sweaty, hazy, California winter day, I wanted to wash my face and scraped away some foamy scum from a tide pool in Topanga Gulch."

Appalachians, United States

"and the last man on earth died in the Appalachians, of pancreatic cancer, all alone."

Southern California, United States

"Born and raised in southern California, she has a Ph.D. in American Literature from UCLA,"

Los Angeles, California

"she has a Ph.D. in American Literature from UCLA, where she is an adjunct professor of English."

Topanga, California

"lives in Topanga, California."

California, United States

"CALIFORNIA FICTION California Fiction titles are selected for their literary merit and for their illumination of California history and culture."

London, England

"What if we took those members of the London branch of the Royal Society in the seventeenth century who’d thought they were on to something when they took up science, and whiffled them and the next three hundred years, away into the smiling universe?"

Pacific Ocean, Earth

"Then we saw the Pacific, the peaceful ocean. I heard Denise behind me, starting to cry, “Oh, Mommy. Oh, my God.”"

New York, New York

"Later, when Lorna Villanelle had her picture up in New York subways with the caption, God loves you and so do I,"

New York, New York

"…to say that people lived all over, in midwestern sod huts, and in Florida swamps, and especially in the great canyons of New York, where an entire cranky tribe survives underground, and the Dirty Dozens are their stories!"

New York, New York

"After the day of the clumsy jump I realized I wasn’t built to live in New York. It was the greatest city in the world, but I couldn’t get on its pretty side."

New York, New York

"I ask you, wherever you were then—in Indiana, lining up at the Dairy Queen; in Beloit, Wisconsin, driving out to watch the lights of the A&W Root Beer stand reflected on the river. If you were in New York City, in that genital softness of May and June, didn’t you know, in your heart, that we were safe?"

Los Angeles, California

"When, safely back in L.A., I told her she couldn’t be invisible, she wouldn’t let up on me for several weeks, arranging to meet me on crowded corners..."

San Francisco, California

"saving her money for round-trip PSA fare up the coast to San Francisco for Lion’s weekend trainings."

Boston, Massachusetts

"Loma wouldn’t find out about it for sure for another five days, when she moved to Boston, to the Ritz Carlton, and the roses stopped coming."

Europe

"You know what he wanted to be when we came home from Europe? He wanted to be a gardener in a nunnery!"

Hollywood, Los Angeles, California

"Because one reason that an absolutely authentic miracle in the home of one of Hollywood’s richest and most corrupt moguls didn’t get any media coverage, ever, even when there were “people” there from four separate independent stations, was that at the same time Franz and Callie called for their limo..."

Golden Days (Google Books ⧉, Amazon ⧉, Bookshop ⧉)

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