The frustrating thing if you are writing a book set in California is that you have to leave a lot of things out – the landscape is so variable and the cultures are so numerous that it’s easy to get lost as you explore your subject.
I think every one of the authors I’ve chosen here is more or less an explorer – John Muir, of course, is the most famous depictor of our natural world, but every one of them found her or himself drawn into a world that changes each time you round a corner – I felt that writing A Dangerous Business, set around Monterey in 1851, and also Private Life, which was set in Vallejo, north of San Francisco, in the late 19th century.
In each of the books on this list, there is a vivid sense of the author’s love of California, along with a readiness to tell the truth and offer a critique. And the ways in which the books differ from each other mirror our many landscapes and climates.
1. My First Summer in the Sierra by John Muir
In the summer of 1869, aged 31, John Muir worked for a man who owned thousands of sheep, and summered them in the Sierras, near Yosemite. Muir went as an assistant and an artist. His verbal depictions of what he saw – mountains, clouds, plants, animals, insects, and vistas – are precise, alluring, and informative, as is the background story of how the sheep survive (and the caretakers, too, who run out of food at one point). His sketches are beautiful and very neatly done. I love how he gives the animals and the trees a sort of sentient being which allows him to relate to them, even the bears and the ants. A wonderful reminder that nature isn’t there simply for exploitation.
2. The Pastures of Heaven by John Steinbeck
This set of stories was published when Steinbeck was 30, and developed out of his restless exploration the Monterey Peninsula. The valley where the stories take place is typical of the peninsula – some fertile spots for farms nestled between steep mountains and gorgeous trees, and plenty of wild animals running around. Each story discusses one of the early families, all of whom are connected by a schoolhouse, a small market, and gossip. They don’t have happy endings, but they explore and reveal the emotional and ecological dilemmas that Steinbeck was interested in for the rest of his life. This is an interesting immersion in late-19th century life that was completely off the grid.
3. Savage Dreams by Rebecca Solnit
Solnit has written or edited 29 books, and is known for not pulling punches. This one was her second, and focuses on two areas that might be from different planets, but are very near one another – Yosemite, in California, and the nuclear testing site in Nevada. She begins with the testing grounds, focusing on how oblivious Americans are to the dangers of nuclear testing, as well as protests (not only about the tests, but also about ruthless treatment of the Western Shoshone). But what she shows us about Yosemite is perhaps more affecting. Yosemite, along with Yellowstone, was one of the first national parks. What were they for? Solnit suggests mere decoration, a way to cover up how government and migrants from the east were destroying the natural world. Solnit’s descriptions of both natural landscapes are vivid and, in my experience, unmatched by any other modern author.
4. Little Scarlet by Walter Mosley
Little Scarlet is part of a lengthy series of historical mysteries set in LA. The main character is investigator Easy Rawlins (and Easy always makes sure that no one pronounces it “Rawlings”). This one is set around the time of the 1965 riots in the Watts neighbourhood of LA. Easy’s job is not to uncover the deaths of the 34 African American citizens who were killed by the police, but to uncover the circumstances around the killing of a young woman who seems to have been murdered. The police hire Easy because they know that, given the riots, they would not be able to get any information themselves about the death from any of the African American citizens. The best thing about Easy as a detective is that he tells his own story and reveals what he’s feeling as well as thinking. He’s no imperturbable Holmes or Poirot – he’s a family man trying to navigate city life, family life, racism, and the complexity of life in LA.
5. China Dolls by Lisa See
It’s the 1930s, and three women in their late teens, Helen, Grace, and Ruby, want to gain some independence from the family traditions their parents have brought from China and Japan. They connect through dancing in a Chinese-American nightclub in San Francisco. The dramas of their lives, not only racism and the second world war, are riveting, each narrated in the first person, each doled out bit by bit to one another and to the reader. See’s deft exploration of the women’s psyches is compelling, as is her use of conversational slang of the time.
6. The Sellout by Paul Beatty
A satire of racism in America that turns our recent history upside down – proposing that for African Americans, segregation is good, because then citizens and students can be themselves. Just about every word is funny and sharp. The narrator reinstates “Dickens”, the neighbourhood he grew up in, as a farm and a ghetto – white people not allowed – but when Dickens becomes a desirable place, white people sue in order to “desegregate”. The narrator (“Me”) ends up defending himself in front of the supreme court. It is a perfect example of using a comic and satiric voice to lure the reader into seeing the absurdity of the world.
7. The Harder They Come by TC Boyle
I could recommend any book by Boyle – every one is unusual and imaginative. Some are funny and strange, but this one is realistically morbid, though set in one of the most beautiful places in California: Mendocino County. Three characters connect – a reticent 70-year-old Vietnam vet, his psychotic son, and a middle-aged woman who rejects any form of government as an illegal theft of her rights (not to wear a seatbelt, for instance). It is based on a real case, but its virtue is Boyle’s depiction of the thoughts and feelings of his characters as he follows them through the wild landscape.
8. Coming to My Senses by Alice Waters
How do a bunch of hippies start a restaurant that eventually becomes one of the most famous in the world? Go ask Alice – she knows. Coming to My Senses is about how Chez Panisse evolved as Alice Waters grew up, explored, made friends, and came to know the Bay area (she grew up in New Jersey). Her book explores everything she learned about gardening, travelling, cooking, connecting with others, discovering California and sustaining her ideals over many decades. We also see how Chez Panisse’s idiosyncrasies developed and how they express the sense of connection (and making the best of things) that Waters learned in those days.
9. Y Is for Yesterday by Sue Grafton
The last of Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone mysteries set around Santa Barbara, which she published over the course of 35 years, beginning in 1982. Like Mosley, Grafton tells the stories from Kinsey’s point of view, so we get a lot of insights into what she understands and what she doesn’t. This one jumps back and forth between 1979, when a group of students at a prestigious private school get into trouble for cheating before one of them is shot, and 1989, when the student jailed for the shooting is released. Grafton is brilliant at portraying the way high-school students talk and think, and also the family chaos surrounding both the original crime and the succeeding ones. And Santa Barbara? You feel like you are visiting.
10. There There by Tommy Orange
Orange’s first published novel explores the lives of Native Americans who live in and around Oakland as they prepare for a powwow. Orange jumps from one character to another, offering 12 different characters (male and female, old and young) for the reader to understand. Many of the characters have issues or have undergone trauma, but they all understand that they are Native American and connected to one another, for better or worse. Orange intended his book for a Native American audience, but it is a gift to all readers.
• A Dangerous Business by Jane Smiley is published by Abacus in hardback, priced £16.99. To help the Guardian and Observer, order your copy from guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.
