When I travel, I like to read things which are set in the location I’m visiting. I enjoy travel guides, personal travelogues and social histories, too, but I also look for books which will suit the landscape and culture I’m going to be reading them in - even if only slightly.
Given that we’re off to the Bay Area and Northern California this weekend, I’m looking for recommendations of books set in or around (or loosely based on) San Francisco, wine country and the Northern California coast, extending as far as, well, basically any of the Pacific Northwest.
Also, works by authors who are from those areas would be equally useful…
You know, I’m surprised there isn’t a site which does this already….
Update: Let me correct that: There IS a site which does this already (but it’s not very extensive yet).
‘A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius’ by Dave Eggers paints a bit of a picture of the Bay area (though I’d be surprised if you haven’t already read it by this stage).
Enjoy the holiday.
“Microserfs” by Douglas Coupland - Seattle Silcon Valley.
“Hell’s Angels” by Hunter S. Thompson. Observations of the Bay Area outlaw motorcyclists as told in Gonzo style. Also, “Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas” if you are ever going that way. Two of his greatest books.
If you’d have asked earlier I’d have lent you ‘Sideways’ - you’re going to be driving right through the wine country north of LA in which it’s based.
With San Fran, you’ve got all the Beats to play with - although these generally read better when you’re a teenager. There’s a Pynchon novel based out west, but I can’t remember it and I don’t really think Pynchon is a great holiday read.
“Carter Beats the Devil” is a fantastic book set in turn of the century San Fran, if you haven’t read it already. Michael Chabon lives in San Fran now, but I don’t think any of his books are based out there. Fitzgerald’s “The Last Tycoon” is set in Hollywood, but it’s not his best book.
I’d go for a good Raymond Carver collection - especially if you’ve never read anything by him before. Loads of really good short stories about suburban lives falling about on the fringes of the West Coast cities. Buy “Where I’m Calling From”, whack up the Tom Waits on the iPod, and you’re there . . .
yes…Carter Beats the Devil really is rather excellent.
Actually, there’s also an author called Christopher Moore who I do find rather funny and he’s got a new book You Suck which, although i’ve not yet read, is set in San Fran so could be good.
Always Coming Home, Ursula Le Guin.
Chris & Simon: I’ve read and loved Carter Beats the Devil a couple of times now - it makes me wish I hadn’t read it so I could enjoy it this time around…
For Bay-Area based authors you could go the Dave Eggers/McSweeneys-connection route and pick something by Vendela Vida (his wife) or Alice Sebold (who happens to be married to Glenn David Gold)… Lovely Bones is, well, lovely, if a tad unsettling). Their writing isn’t necessarily based in the region, though. Or anything by Anne Lamott - she has published a ton of fiction and nonfiction depending on your mood and lives in Marin county, where most of her stuff’s based. If you’ve never read any Armistead Maupin (Tales of the City and so on) then they’d be fabulous SF reads - like one long soap.
I don’t know if you’re heading up the coast or just fancied extending your reading this far, but a cool sort-of-guide book to Portland is the one written by Chuck Palahniuk (he wrote Fight Club and lives in Portland, or at least used to). And then for Seattle the obvious choice (again, if you haven’t already read it) is Snow Falling On Cedars by David Guterson - beautiful to read up here at this time of year when the weather pretty much matches the descriptions in the book. Or Jonathan Raban’s Waxwings - fictional account of an expat Brit living in Seattle (which, strangely enough, would match a description of Raban too).
‘kay, I’d better stop now before you close comments on me. Can you tell this was a subject close to my heart?!
Bit late as you’re already there, but you should really read Simon Winchester’s book A Crack In The Edge Of The World. It’s about the 1906 earthquake and how it recast the city/area, but also details the geological surrounds… a mishmash of stuff, but very interesting.
There’s a new novel, The Year of Fog by Michelle Richmond, that’s about a child who disappears at a beach in San Francisco. I read an interview on The Happy Booker where the author talked about how much of the book is inspired by the city.