Los Angeles Stories
Encyclopedia
Los Angeles Stories is a short-story collection by Ry Cooder
. Cooder's first published story collection, the book was published by City Lights Books
in late 2011 as part of its City Lights Noir collection.
and Noir
", with "musicians, streetwalkers and other hard-nosed denizens cruising through the madness of our city." San Francisco Chronicle
reviewer Jonah Raskin
said, "Cooder fans will enjoy the upbeat mix of music and murder. Aficionados of noir fiction will love the characters . . . ." Mother Jones
critic Tim McDonnell called it "a requiem to a city wherein the world's tides swept together an impossibly diverse culture that was quickly squandered and homogenized by Hollywood and hit-hungry record executives" and "a deeply humane history of the time before instant pop hits and sprawling superhighways."
Ry Cooder
Ryland Peter "Ry" Cooder is an American guitarist, singer and composer. He is known for his slide guitar work, his interest in roots music from the United States, and, more recently, his collaborations with traditional musicians from many countries.His solo work has been eclectic, encompassing...
. Cooder's first published story collection, the book was published by City Lights Books
City Lights Bookstore
City Lights is an independent bookstore-publisher combination that specializes in world literature, the arts, and progressive politics. It also houses the nonprofit City Lights Foundation, which publishes selected titles related to San Francisco culture. It was founded in 1953 by poet Lawrence...
in late 2011 as part of its City Lights Noir collection.
Table of Contents
- All in a day's work
- Who do you know that I don't?
- La vida es un sueno
- Kill me, por favor
- End of the line
- My telephone keeps ringin'
- Gun shop boogie
- Smile
Reception
Early reports in the Los Angeles media described the book as "an atmospheric look at post-World War II L.A. that unfolds in Chavez Ravine and Venice, Santa Monica and Bunker Hill." and compared the style to "the BeatsBeat generation
The Beat Generation refers to a group of American post-WWII writers who came to prominence in the 1950s, as well as the cultural phenomena that they both documented and inspired...
and Noir
Hardboiled
Hardboiled crime fiction is a literary style, most commonly associated with detective stories, distinguished by the unsentimental portrayal of violence and sex. The style was pioneered by Carroll John Daly in the mid-1920s, popularized by Dashiell Hammett over the course of the decade, and refined...
", with "musicians, streetwalkers and other hard-nosed denizens cruising through the madness of our city." San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
reviewer Jonah Raskin
Jonah Raskin
Jonah Raskin is an American writer who left an East Coast university teaching position to participate in the 1970s radical counterculture as a free-lance journalist, then returned to the academy in California in the 1980s to write probing studies of Abbie Hoffman and Allen Ginsberg and reviews of...
said, "Cooder fans will enjoy the upbeat mix of music and murder. Aficionados of noir fiction will love the characters . . . ." Mother Jones
Mother Jones (magazine)
Mother Jones is an American independent news organization, featuring investigative and breaking news reporting on politics, the environment, human rights, and culture. Mother Jones has been nominated for 23 National Magazine Awards and has won six times, including for General Excellence in 2001,...
critic Tim McDonnell called it "a requiem to a city wherein the world's tides swept together an impossibly diverse culture that was quickly squandered and homogenized by Hollywood and hit-hungry record executives" and "a deeply humane history of the time before instant pop hits and sprawling superhighways."