Californian Sensibility

[bekah]

I live in California and lived here in the 60s and early 70s.   I 
only lived in Oklahoma and Texas for a brief time in the very late 
70s and my early childhood was spent in the mid-west.  I was 19 for 
1967 in Haight Asbury and I was there - on Sacramento St. and 
elsewhere.   I've usually been here in the southern San Joaquin 
valley, just north of Bakersfield.

I love Vineland; it was my intro to Pynchon.   I enjoyed Drop City by 
Boyle but it's certainly not his best,  Riven Rock and Tortilla 
Curtain both take place in California - maybe others?  (it's early) 
I enjoy Dideon, too,  fwiw although I've only read The White Album 
and Year of Magical Thinking but they were both quite good.  Like 
others,  I really ought to read Slouching ...

Fwiw,  I think you can "get" Vineland,  Boyle and Dideon without 
living here.  Only Dideon is native and left long ago.  Try Umberto 
Eco's Travels in Hyper-reality for essays about California's love 
affair with and faith ins fakes.   It's really quite funny.

Bekah