Product Description

Hear and feel this dynamic California in the words of established writers like John Steinbeck, Maxine Hong Kingston, and Joan Didion, as well as compelling new voices that reveal California in all its complexity.

California Uncovered is a central component of the California Stories Uncovered campaign—a statewide program sponsored by the California Council for the Humanities designed to inspire people to tell and listen to stories that get at the reality beneath the headlines, statistics, and stereotypes about the state and its people.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #69155 in Books
• Published on: 2004-11-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 379 pages

About the Author
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is the award-winning author of The Mistress of Spices, Sister of My Heart, Queen of Dreams, and many other books.

William E. Justice studied Russian literature at the University of Kansas and is currently special projects manager at Heyday Books.

James Quay has served as the executive director of the California Council for the Humanities since 1983.

Customer Reviews

short stories are good for our times......
Someone loaned me this book on a backpacking trip and was I surprised to find such rich reading fare. The stories all focus on some aspect of life in California. The authors - a mix of old and new- are well chosen. This book made me remember how entertaining the short story genre can be. It defiinitely has a place in this hurried world we occupy. I think this is a higly worthwhile read.

Made me think
A collection of short stories, excepts from novels, and a few poems sounded like a nice selection. I thought it would be something I could easily pick up and put down. Each story is about someone living in California - almost all told from the point of view of immigrants and from different time periods. I thought the idea was good, but I found that I missed the feel of short stories. Only one of the excerpts from a novel left me feeling satisfied.

I did find a couple of quotes -
"At some point in your story grief presents itself. Now, for the first time, your room is empty, not merely unoccupied."
- D.J. Waldie, from Holy Land

"There bodies don't work, their minds have wandered off to meet old friends and new horizons, and their own families treat them like they are idiots."
- Laila Halaby, The American Dream

"Money, though, is an illusion with green faces. I think this is so money has a personality - like the way our dieties end up with traits like the rest of us. People create money then they let money create them."
- Luis J. Rodriguez , "My Ride, My Revolution" from The Republic of East L.A.

If nothing else, I think I found a couple new authors. I am curious to read the rest of the story. I look forward to discussing it at book club.