Where We are Now

Notes from Los Angeles

by D.J. Waldie

Where We Are Now: Notes from Los Angeles is the second book by D.J. Waldie, one of the most gifted writers on the American scene. As Patt Morrison notes in her foreword, "The suburb is America's lifeline and its punchline, and Waldie is its bard."

Few observers can present the facts of everyday life with the texture and emotion of a symphony, the way Waldie does. A breathtaking progression from his much-celebrated book Holy Land: A Suburban Memoir, Where We Are Now is a compilation of Waldie's most intriguing recent works and an exploration of the meaning of place in Los Angeles, long regarded as the most "placeless" of American cities.

Essays include:

Preface: Where I Am
All in the Family
Closing the Suburban Frontier
Gone Hollywood
My Place in California
The City and the River
The Golden Dream Goes Dark
First from Troy, Driven by Fate
Et in Arcadia, Ego
Fallout
Hic Domus Dei Est et Porta Coeli
New Urbanism 101
Knowing Your Place
Real City
Tragic Opera
L.A. Literature
Catching the Urban Wave
Metal and Flesh
On the Bus
Our Town
Pornography of Despair
A Necessary City
For All Its Faults
Ungovernable California
The End of the West in Summerlin
A Very Public Killing
Paradise for One
Alone

ISBN 978-1-883318-38-3

MSRP $16.95