![]() ![]() Waldie’s talent for seeing what’s in front of his eyes in Los Angeles enriches these essays and transforms the collection into a beautiful book - even if, sometimes, the pieces hang together about as well as the city itself. Late in the play, the scenery pulls up, and you see the stark, echoing rear of the stage: concrete, curtain ropes, mold, and dust. ![]() This aspect of Los Angeles reminds me of a scenic designer who once gave an interview to American Theatre about his set for a production of Enrico IV, the Pirandello tragedy of a man who believes he’s an 11th-century Holy Roman Emperor. People come here to create new lives, and whether the landscape is “real” or not fails as a valid question. The essays in this section show a deep awareness of his hometown of Lakewood, California, and Waldie argues that a main principle of Lakewood (and Los Angeles as a whole) is self-construction, artificiality. The title is, “You Are Always Somewhere.” Waldie’s new essay collection, Becoming Los Angeles, has a title that captures his immersive and soft-footed approach to the city, an approach that earned him die-hard fans over 20 years ago with Holy Land: A Suburban Memoir. ![]()
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