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edenseve63's review
3.0
A terrifically diverse collection of short stories spanning the depth, breadth and centuries of the California experience, from native/indigenous people, Spanish conquistadors and missionaries, hopefuls panning the streams for gold, characters from the days of the wild west, Asian workers and builders, gum-shoe detectives, Berkley college nerds and co-eds, denizens of old Hollywood, those who haunt the back alleys of 1940's L.A. and the magnificent flora and fauna that grace the seacoast. With stories from great writer like Mark Twain, John Steinbeck, Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and some lesser known but clearly great writers, there is something for all tastes. One author I was quite taken with in this collection is Walter Van Tilburg Clark. Clark's tale of a mighty California hawk from birth to death, with magnificent depictions of the harsh realities of seasonal drought and rebirth left me in awe. Clark is the author of the brilliant morality work "The Ox Bow Incident", which is a great old film with Henry Fonda - now I think I'd like to read the book it was based on.
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