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Los Angeles Stories

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Los Angeles Stories
Los Angeles Stories
AuthorRy Cooder
LanguageEnglish
PublisherCity Lights
Publication date
October 2011
Pages224
ISBN978-0-87286-519-8

Los Angeles Stories is a short-story collection by Ry Cooder. Cooder's first published story collection, the book was published by City Lights Books in late 2011[1] as part of its City Lights Noir collection.

Table of Contents

  • All in a day's work[2]
  • Who do you know that I don't?
  • La vida es un sueno
  • Kill me, por favor[3]
  • End of the line
  • My telephone keeps ringin'
  • Gun shop boogie
  • Smile

Reception

Early reports in the Los Angeles media described the book as "an atmospheric look at post-World War II L.A. that unfolds in Chavez Ravine and Venice, Santa Monica and Bunker Hill."[4] and compared the style to "the Beats and Noir", with "musicians, streetwalkers and other hard-nosed denizens cruising through the madness of our city."[5] San Francisco Chronicle reviewer Jonah Raskin said, "Cooder fans will enjoy the upbeat mix of music and murder. Aficionados of noir fiction will love the characters . . . ."[1] Mother Jones critic Tim McDonnell called it "a requiem to a city wherein the world's tides swept together an impossibly diverse culture that was quickly squandered and homogenized by Hollywood and hit-hungry record executives" and "a deeply humane history of the time before instant pop hits and sprawling superhighways."[6]

References