Southland

Rating:
Summary: Contemporary LA
Review: I started reading this the day after I visited the Watts Towers in south central LA. As a rather nervous visitor to the area (not without reason - there was a drive by killing of an 11 year old outside a church the same day) I was absolutely glued to this book.

I love the LA noir genre of detective fiction. This is very different, and offers far more insight into WHY LA is as it is. It takes us to other parts of LA - the more middleclass areas of West LA (where I was staying), for example.

This book is a riveting story, and it deftly juggles the historical context and so achieves so much 'explanation' and 'history' in a naturalistic way.

It also, most importantly of all, offers hope (which, by contrast, noir fiction rarely does)

Rating:
Summary: In response to the "Edgar Nominee" Review.
Review: It's obvious to me that the person writing this review did not read the book well. The people who died in the freezer were four Black boys, not Japanese. Because this book is about race relations, this is an important distinction.

As far as the book itself, it's enjoyable...a page turner. There are parts that are a bit overdone or that drag, but overall the book was very well-written and researched.

Rating:
Summary: It ended far too soon...
Review: Revoyr's Southland was one of those books that as soon as your eyes absorbed the final sentence, you felt a particular sorrow and a small shred of guilt for being voracious in your reading. For the time spent between it's covers, the reader is locked in the roller coaster ride of it's characters - the ebb and flow of emotions, the tiring yet exhilirating journey of self discovery and awareness of family. Racial tensions, family secrets, the sheer horror that could be trapped within the human soul - all made for the backdrop of this novel, and all manage to draw the reader further into the juxtaposition of Los Angeles in the sixties and early nineties. Each central figure becomes real and vivid, breathing and weaving his or her own story of sorrow and triumph, love and hardship. Each is familiar, and therefore the reader follows the untangling of the central intrigue of Southland with intense interest and concern. The L.A. painted within it's pages is painfully reproduced, harsh and yet with promises struggling to come to fruition. In sum total, at it's end, Southland emerges a beautiful story heralding the lives of it's beautiful and none-too-fictitious people.

Rating:
Summary: An Edgar nominee
Review: Sometimes I am amazed by the sheer volume of books the Edgar committees must consider. Surely they must feel even more overwhelmed when they are faced with the daunting task of having to consider a very long book written in a leisurely manner and difficult to get into. Forget about why they would consider SOUTHLAND. How the heck did they ever have the time, energy or motivation to read this?
Jackie Ishida who is Japanese American, is faced with the death of her grandfather, Frank Sakai. As she sorts through his will with her aunt, they note the will contains a name they never heard. As Jackie investigates who this person is, she comes upon a story of three young Japanese men being trapped in the freezer located in the shop of her grandfather. The deaths occurred during the Watts Riots in 1965. Who were they and why were they never mentioned before?
There is a problem with this book. It is well written with some truly beautifully conceived vignettes each revealing that the book is carefully constructed with much thought. However, there is a supreme lack of inertia that not only threatens but finally manages to overwhelm the complex plot with pacing being the ultimate casualty. The story just goes nowhere for what seems like forever. However, just when the frustration level reaches it's peak, the story begins to coalesce. The separate characters begin to merge through both time and space toward the common goal of getting at the truth. This is a heartbreaking tale told with great compassion. It is a book meant to be read leisurely and thoughtfully. In this hectic world in which we live, many readers might find it hard to give this book the careful reading it so very much deserves. Kudos to the Edgar Committee for taking the time and effort to read this one. Akashic Books also deserves our gratitude for taking the chance.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting Read
Review: This is the second book by Nina Revoyr but the first one that I have read by her. It is a story set in Los Angeles during 1930 to present and is the tale of a Japanese family and a murder that takes place during the Watt�s uprising in 1965. There were 4 black Negro boys found murdered in Frank Sakai�s walk-in freezer. His grand daughter has found something in an earlier will leaving money to a man named Curtis Martindale and when she goes to find him, she finds out that he was one of the boys found in the walk-in freezer. Jackie, Frank�s granddaughter, teams up with a man by the name of James Lanier who was a cousin to Curtis to hopefully find the truth.

The story goes from Frank being a young boy in Angeles Mesa to present day when he has just passed on. He has left a box of items that Jackie has went through to see if there are any clues for the $40,000, Frank left in cash. Whether the money should go to her aunt to help in the buying of a house or it should go to Curtis Martindale who is in the first will that was written. If it should go to Curtis Martindale, why should it have gone to him? Was there something that Frank did not share with the rest of the family?

It took me a while to get used to the book jumping from one time frame to another and also from one person to another person. But I am glad that I stuck with it, because it is a very well done book. There is also a lesbian relationship that Jackie is trying to work out for herself in this book that adds to the adventure in this historical fiction book. Overall, I thought the book well done and I am very happy to have read it.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting Read
Review: This is the second book by Nina Revoyr but the first one that I have read by her. It is a story set in Los Angeles during 1930 to present and is the tale of a Japanese family and a murder that takes place during the Watt's uprising in 1965. There were 4 black Negro boys found murdered in Frank Sakai's walk-in freezer. His grand daughter has found something in an earlier will leaving money to a man named Curtis Martindale and when she goes to find him, she finds out that he was one of the boys found in the walk-in freezer. Jackie, Frank's granddaughter, teams up with a man by the name of James Lanier who was a cousin to Curtis to hopefully find the truth.

The story goes from Frank being a young boy in Angeles Mesa to present day when he has just passed on. He has left a box of items that Jackie has went through to see if there are any clues for the $40,000, Frank left in cash. Whether the money should go to her aunt to help in the buying of a house or it should go to Curtis Martindale who is in the first will that was written. If it should go to Curtis Martindale, why should it have gone to him? Was there something that Frank did not share with the rest of the family?

It took me a while to get used to the book jumping from one time frame to another and also from one person to another person. But I am glad that I stuck with it, because it is a very well done book. There is also a lesbian relationship that Jackie is trying to work out for herself in this book that adds to the adventure in this historical fiction book. Overall, I thought the book well done and I am very happy to have read it.