Rating: 
Summary: Interesting slice of California
Review: The author takes a trip down the San Andreas fault from the North Coast to the Salton Sea, and talks about the communities (villages, San Francisco, Palm Springs) along the way. These California towns are facing the same problems with developers wanting to make a quick buck and local governments desparate for tax money to build prisons. The author's geology is lacking, but his sense of the people he's met makes up for it.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting slice of California
Review: The author takes a trip down the San Andreas fault from the North Coast to the Salton Sea, and talks about the communities (villages, San Francisco, Palm Springs) along the way. These California towns are facing the same problems with developers wanting to make a quick buck and local governments desparate for tax money to build prisons. The author's geology is lacking, but his sense of the people he's met makes up for it.
Rating: 
Summary: Searching for unity in a divisive state.
Review: The fear, fatalism, and futility that earthquakes inspire in Californians may be the one true element that binds them all despite their political, sociocultural and economic and, may I add, hydrological divisiveness. Still, earthquakes may not necessarily factor in the psyche of people who live a comfortable distance from the state's many faults or for people who do not think they should be affected at all. The book probably works out fine for readers who have not been to California or who are curious about earthquakes and the alleged capabilities of some people to make predictions sans scientific instruments.The strongest message that I got from the book is this: Just as the beauty of California belies the terror that its geologic instability can bring about, the popularity of the state as a favorite destination belies the sad realities that come with unstoppable population growth: the lack of rootedness and an appreciation for history, the ever-increasing isolationism of gated communities and housing developments, and the homogenization of suburban living, shopping, and other recreational diversions. The description of teenage ennui in privileged Saratoga, the suburban anonymity of Cupertino in Santa Clara Valley and Palmdale in Antelope Valley, and the increasing hazards of spending a weekend at the San Gabriel Mountains were particularly telling. Earthquakes may cause people not to move to, or to move out of, California, but the big challenge for Californians is to balance a viable economy with preserving what is left of this gorgeous state. The author lamented the lack of community in places that have just sprouted from what once was rangeland or farmland. Will the sense of community improve when immigrant communities are more established? The children of immigrants and transplants will have to understand the history of this vast state and listen to the voices of reason (voiced out by its eccentrics? bohemians? environmentalists?) in order to come up with a solution to preserve the attributes that make California great.
Rating:
Summary: Despite some warts, it's an entertaining and worthwhile read
Review: Thurston Clarke explores the San Andreas Fault from end to end in this highly entertaining book. Along the way, he examines California and Californians, and consequently is able to offer some fresh insights into life in the Golden State. The book is presented as a series of vignettes, based on his experiences in various locations along the fault from Humboldt County south to the Salton Sea. Not surprisingly, some sections are more effective than others. His treatment of the legacy of Indian massacres in the Eureka area is hauntingly vivid, as is his analysis of Ferndale's attempts to resist losing its soul to commercialization and yuppification. He also provides what ultimately proves to be a passionate discourse on the never-ending controversy over logging and clearcutting along the north coast. Another excellent section of the book comes much later, when he explores the hellish new suburban landscape of Palmdale, in the Antelope Valley, His dissection of the emptiness of "the suburban dream" in that sad community is masterful. Perhaps surprisingly, the weakest aspect of the book is his treatment of geology and earthquakes. He gives WAY too much space and credence to earthquake prediction quackery, including folks who *claim* to predict quakes through headaches, planetary alignment, and the analysis of radio waves. Here, Clarke comes across as gullible and a bit too eager to find "some grain of truth" in pseudo-science. Also, whereas one cannot expect any book of this scope to be error-free, Clarke commits some small factual blunders here that can grate on the reader who knows better. He misterms an earthquake's "hypocenter" as its "hydrocenter," and actually, the phenomenon he is referring to is its "focus." He misplaces the feisty coastal town of Bolinas in "East Marin," and he cites the Coalinga earthquake as having occurred in 1982, instead of 1983. In a lengthy book of this kind, I suppose such errors can be overlooked. The freshness of Clarke's insights and his skill as a journalist make this book well worth reading for any student of California history and culture.
Rating:
Summary: Despite some warts, it's an entertaining and worthwhile read
Review: Thurston Clarke explores the San Andreas Fault from end to end in this highly entertaining book. Along the way, he examines California and Californians, and consequently is able to offer some fresh insights into life in the Golden State. The book is presented as a series of vignettes, based on his experiences in various locations along the fault from Humboldt County south to the Salton Sea. Not surprisingly, some sections are more effective than others. His treatment of the legacy of Indian massacres in the Eureka area is hauntingly vivid, as is his analysis of Ferndale's attempts to resist losing its soul to commercialization and yuppification. He also provides what ultimately proves to be a passionate discourse on the never-ending controversy over logging and clearcutting along the north coast. Another excellent section of the book comes much later, when he explores the hellish new suburban landscape of Palmdale, in the Antelope Valley, His dissection of the emptiness of "the suburban dream" in that sad community is masterful. Perhaps surprisingly, the weakest aspect of the book is his treatment of geology and earthquakes. He gives WAY too much space and credence to earthquake prediction quackery, including folks who *claim* to predict quakes through headaches, planetary alignment, and the analysis of radio waves. Here, Clarke comes across as gullible and a bit too eager to find "some grain of truth" in pseudo-science. Also, whereas one cannot expect any book of this scope to be error-free, Clarke commits some small factual blunders here that can grate on the reader who knows better. He misterms an earthquake's "hypocenter" as its "hydrocenter," and actually, the phenomenon he is referring to is its "focus." He misplaces the feisty coastal town of Bolinas in "East Marin," and he cites the Coalinga earthquake as having occurred in 1982, instead of 1983. In a lengthy book of this kind, I suppose such errors can be overlooked. The freshness of Clarke's insights and his skill as a journalist make this book well worth reading for any student of California history and culture.
| 
