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A Los Angeles Times's and Southern California Indie Bookseller
Association's Bestseller! Los Angeles Stories is a collection of
loosely linked, noir-ish tales that evoke a bygone era in one of
America's most iconic cities. In post-World War II Los Angeles, as
power was concentrating and fortunes were being made, a
do-it-yourself culture of cool cats, outsiders, and oddballs
populated the old downtown neighborhoods of Bunker Hill and Chavez
Ravine. Ordinary working folks rubbed elbows with petty criminals,
grifters, and all sorts of women at foggy end-of-the-line outposts
in Venice Beach and Santa Monica. Rich with the essence and
character of the times, suffused with the patois of the city's
underclass, these are stories about the common people of Los
Angeles, "a sunny place for shady people," and the strange things
that happen to them. Musicians, gun shop owners, streetwalkers,
tailors, door-to-door salesmen, drifters, housewives, dentists,
pornographers, new arrivals, and hard-bitten denizens all intersect
in cleverly plotted stories that center around some kind of shadowy
activity. This quirky love letter to a lost way of life will appeal
to fans of hard-boiled fiction and anyone interested in the city
itself. "Taken as a whole, this collection offers a panoramic view
of a rapidly changing Los Angeles and its immigrant communities,
rich in period detail and idiomatic dialogue, sometimes based on
Cooder's own memories of growing up in the same neighborhoods in
which the stories are often set." --Uncut Magazine "Cooder
shouldn't stop making records. He should keep writing, too."
--Rolling Stones "The stories of Ry Cooder are a lot like his
music: stately, precise, well constructed; they grab you by the
throat, quietly, and never let go..." --Andrew J. Khaled Madigan,
The Iowa Review "The strict Los Angeles setting - the city's highs
and lows romanticised ceaselessly - make them like Raymond Chandler
or Mickey Spillane." --Chris Johnston, Sydney Morning Herald "In
Los Angeles Stories, his first published collection of stories,
Cooder pays homage to the jazz, the blues and the Latin beat of a
bygone era. He also honors a cast of boisterous musicians, some
murdered, others spared to tell their gritty tales of life and
death. A few famous musicians - John Lee Hooker and Charlie Parker
among them - make cameo appearances in these pages, but most of the
guitar players, drummers and lounge singers are as unknown as the
repossession men, waitresses and mechanics they entertain in
forgotten bars and derelict nightclubs." -- San Francisco Chronicle
Ry Cooder is a world-famous guitarist, singer, and composer known
for his slide guitar work, interest in roots music, and more
recently for his collaborations with traditional musicians from
many countries, including The Buena Vista Social Club. He has
composed soundtracks for more than twenty films, including Paris,
Texas. Two recent albums were accompanied by stories Cooder wrote
to accompany the music. This is his first published collection of
stories.
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Various Artists - Mi Sueno (CD)
Nick Gold, Roberto Fonseca, Ry Cooder, Jerry Boys; Performed by Ibrahim Ferrer
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R157
Discovery Miles 1 570
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Ships in 10 - 20 working days
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