Fogtown : A Novel (Yankee Girl)

Rating:
Summary: Lifestyles of the poor and unknown
Review: I decided to give this one a shot after reading a review. Having lived in San Francisco for almost four years, I wanted to read some fiction set in the seamier areas of the city. This was the first book I read by Peter Plate, who has been named a Literary Laureate of San Francisco, and for good reason. After finishing Fogtown, I picked up two more of Plate's works. Right now I'm in the process of reading his second novel Darkness Throws Down the Sun, and based on the two books I would say he is one of my new favorite authors.

I would describe this novel as an updated version of hard-boiled pulp writings such as those of Chester Himes or Jim Thompson. In true noir fashion, there are no real heroes to be found: police and thieves are shown as equally corrupt and flawed individuals. Plate describes the San Francisco setting accurately, bringing to life specific locations around Market Street in the Civic Center and upper Mission districts. The beauty of the city is acknowledged as Plate lends a tarnished appeal to the streets, and successfully communicates the depressing aura of the soup kitchen and the residence hotel. Having spent time in the areas where Fogtown takes place (I once had Christmas dinner in the Saint Anthony dining room), I can honestly say that Plate paints a true, balanced picture of what San Francisco really is.

The characters that inhabit this setting are depicted with care as well. Whereas a less talented writer may have portrayed them as despicable or as simple products of their environment, Plate sketches the drug dealers, prostitutes and otherwise downtrodden denizens of the city's darker side as complex human beings. I found my opinions of the characters changing constantly; they would act differently based on the situation at hand, which made them believable and unpredictable at the same time. While setting a story amidst extremes of poverty and desperation, Plate still manages to lend the story good amounts of humor to temper the darkness. There are even religious overtones to much of what occurs, giving the reader a sense of hope within the wreckage.

The only thing that distracted me from the story was a subplot about the turn-of-the-century Mexican outlaw Jose Reyna, which may be a hallucination of one of the main characters or possibly an actual ghost. I think it was just the fact that I was so immersed in the modern part of the story; I just didn't want to leave the contemporary setting. As the story concludes, this subplot makes more sense in relation to the present-day happenings; parallels are drawn between the outlaw life of the past and the current condition of the streets. I feel that upon further readings, this subplot would have more relevance to the reader. I look forward to future readings of Fogtown, and for that matter, all of Plate's work. It's always refreshing to find a novelist who can portray the unrecognized, unseen population of a city with compassion and complexity.