About the Book
Conceived as a novelistic journey through the worlds of California West of the West offers a vivid and diverse collection of writings on the state where extremes of every sort are dramatically evident in the weather geography and people. This richly fascinating collection represents the experience of California both physical and metaphysical in fiction poetry essays travel writing confessions reportage and social criticism. The authors are native Californians born-again Californians exiles émigrés critics and visitors of every kind—Jack Kerouac Joan Didion Amy Tan Simone de Beauvoir Carey McWilliams Tom Wolfe Gore Vidal Octavio Paz Jean Baudrillard Ishmael Reed Allen Ginsberg—to name just a few.