Five Favorite Books Set in California by Golden State Author David Prybil

Five Favorite Books is a special feature at LA Books Examiner in which our favorite authors share their five favorite books within a category. In this edition, local author David Prybil discusses his five favorite books set in California. A writer-producer based in LA, David is the author of Golden State, his award-winning debut novel which follows a quartet of Californians pursuing their own American Dreams during the crazy recall election season of 2003 that brought Arnold Schwarzenegger to power. You can learn more about David and his fresh and entertaining new book at www.davidprybil.com or read the first chapter of Golden State here at LA Books Examiner.

Five Favorite Books Set in California by Golden State Author David Prybil

Even before it officially became a state, California symbolized the American Dream better than anyplace else in our union. It’s where dreamers have always gone to make their dreams come true, whether those dreams involved striking it rich, becoming a star, or reinventing oneself entirely and starting anew. Thus, it should not be surprising to discover that it also offers a rich setting for storytellers looking for big, dramatic stories to tell. Some of these stories are true, and some are merely based on truths, but they all derive their power from the vast possibilities that California has to offer, and the perils for those who lose their way.

1) The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck (1939)
No list of California fiction would be complete without this seminal work, which follows the struggles of the Joad Family, who head west to California from the Dust Bowl of Oklahoma, hoping for better lives and opportunities. Here, we get an early glimpse of the downsides to a dream that is being shared by too many, as the hard-working, good-hearted Joads endure endless setbacks and privations at the hands of God, nature, and those who have come ahead of them, but never see the fruits of their labors, even when the things they seek are so close that they can literally reach out and touch them. Also: for a more modern take on many of these same themes, played out between the denizens of an upscale gated community and the family of illegal Mexican immigrants living in a dried-out gulch behind their sprawling homes, see The Tortilla Curtain by T.C. Boyle. [Read Frank Mundo's interview with T.C. Boyle.]

2) A Way of Life, Like Any Other, Darcy O’ Brien (1977)
While there has been no shortage of great Hollywood novels written through the years, the thing that sets this lesser-known novel apart is its sharp-eyed depiction of fame’s afterglow, when the good times are largely past, the good roles are few and far between, and all that remains are the memories, the trappings, and the delusions of grandeur. In this regard, the book is of a piece with the film Sunset Boulevard, but because the main character here is a child, based on the writer’s own experience as the son of two fading Golden Age stars, it avoids the usual jaded tones, and instead offers refreshing humor, an insider’s knowing detail, and a wide-eyed innocence that things might still work out for the best.

3) Ham on Rye, Charles Bukowski (1982)
A perfect counterpoint to O’ Brien’s book of privileged hardships is found in this early novel by Bukowski, the first in which he uses his alter ego character, Henry Chinaski, to detail an acne-ridden adolescence in low-class East LA that is so raw, mean and ugly, it is hard not to look away. But because Bukowski himself never flinches, because he is so unsparing with his own flaws and failings, it achieves a sort of transcendent, hard-bitten beauty that is uniquely his own. A true original.

4) Tapping the Source , Kem Nunn (1984)
Can’t have a California fiction list without a little surf and sand, right? With this cult-hit novel, Nunn created his own unique sub-genre called “surf noir.” In it, a young man infiltrates the tightly-knit world of Huntington Beach surfer/drug dealers, looking for his missing sister, who was last seen there. If this sounds a bit like the Kathryn Bigelow movie Point Break, that’s because the book loosely inspired it. But while the movie was kitschy cool in its own Swayze-esque way, this book is another beast entirely. Darker, for sure, yet also poetic in its descriptions of the surf and its Zen-like appeal. A perfect meld of the California Dream and its hidden dark side, all in one well-written tale.

5) The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Tom Wolfe (1968)
Wolfe’s on-the-scene account of the Merry Pranksters, led by Ken Kesey, and their magical cross-country journey in a psychedelic-painted bus called Furthur, driven by no less than Beat icon Neal Cassady, represented a groundbreaking new art form called New Journalism. It also marked a high point for the generation of people coming of age in the ‘60’s, who were all about peace and love and creatively-driven good times. For the darker side of this storyline, check out Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi, which harrowingly details the moment when that movement and its ideals went sour. Charles Manson started with these same goals and dreams – he even tried to write songs for the Beach Boys - but his vision gradually mutated into paranoid, drug-fueled rants about a race war, which led him and his followers to commit a series of bloody, ritualistic murders, including that of pregnant actress Sharon Tate. It is the stuff of nightmares, but it is also as telling of the California culture and its value-warping allures as anything ever written.

Purchase Golden State by David Prybil in hardcover, paperback and eBook at Amazon, iUniverse, Barnes and Noble and www.DavidPrybil.com.