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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9781888451412
ISBN number: 1888451416
Label: Akashic Books
Manufacturer: Akashic Books
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 350
Printing Date: April 01, 2008
Publishing house: Akashic Books
Sale Popularity Level: 97834
Studio: Akashic Books
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
'[A]n absolutely compelling story of family and racial tragedy. Revoyr's novel is honest in detailing southern California's brutal history, and honorable in showing how families survived with love and tenacity and dignity.' -- Susan Straight, author of Highwire Moon
Southland brings us a fascinating story of race, love, murder and history, against the backdrop of an ever-changing Los Angeles. A young Japanese-American woman, Jackie Ishida, is in her last semester of law school when her grandfather, Frank Sakai, dies unexpectedly. While trying to fulfill a request from his will, Jackie discovers that four African-American boys were killed in the store Frank owned during the Watts Riots of 1965. Along with James Lanier, a cousin of one of the victims, Jackie tries to piece together the story of the boys' deaths. In the process, she unearths the long-held secrets of her family's history.
Southland depicts a young woman in the process of learning that her own history has bestowed upon her a deep obligation to be engaged in the larger world. And in Frank Sakai and his African-American friends, it presents characters who find significant common ground in their struggles, but who also engage each other across grounds -- historical and cultural -- that are still very much in dispute.
Moving in and out of the past -- from the internment camps of World War II, to the barley fields of the Crenshaw District in the 1930s, to the streets of Watts in the 1960s, to the night spots and garment factories of the 1990s -- Southland weaves a tale of Los Angeles in all of its faces and forms.
Nina Revoyr is the author of The Necessary Hunger ('Irresistible.' -- Time Magazine). She was born in Japan, raised in Tokyo and Los Angeles, and is of Japanese and Polish-American descent. She lives and works in Los -Angeles.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers -
I agree with a prior reviewer- perhaps this book speaks most poignantly to those Angelinos who can know and feel the reality of Los Angeles depicted in its pages. I loved this book both for the natural beauty of LA which is sometimes lost in our daily lives - and way that it blended the Watts unrest through yesterday to U.S. history of war and occupation. The characters are not cliche- they are very real and very familiar. As a 2nd gen Korean who grew up here the descriptions of JA characters as well as U.S. military in Korea and complicated Black/Asian relationships all resonated with me. As a community organizer working with low-income women of colour and other immigrant workers - I found the same strange familiarity when "meeting" the social workers and non-profit folks in the story.
If you care about LA - you'll care about this story - more importantly, you'll see the truth in it.
As far as the very first reviewer goes - it hardly mattered to the arc of the tale whether or not Jackie was queer or not - but it added a genuine personal dimension (without force or artifice) that I totally appreciated.
Rated by buyers 
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Perhaps this book is more pertinent towards a particular population of people. I am a Japanese-American who grew up in Southern California during the 60's, and this novel held a particular poignancy for me. Despite this, I found the book to be compelling and riveting. As the reader is taken through the multiple plot twists, a horrifying story emerges and the ending will leave you a different person. Love this book!
Rated by buyers -
My wife found a reference to this novel in one of her Japanese language newspapers and suggested that I buy and read it. Am I ever happy that I did! Nina Revoyr has written a wonderful, gripping novel about some very tough times in our country, and has done so with understanding, compassion and feeling. Readers who lived through the era following World War Two will recall the ugly racial tensions of the era with all its denial, and the firestorms that erupted in Watts and other places as a result. Those who didn't live through it will get a harsh dose of reality as the protagonist searches for the killer of four grey young men during the Watts riots, and the unexpected outcome as she discovers who the killer was.
I like Nina Revoyr's writing, I do not at all understand those who brush it off with comments like "trite," "mediocre" and "unrealistic." Having lived through that particular period in our history, I found the book very realistic. I hope Nina Revoyr keeps writing so that I can enjoy more of what she does. I couldn't put this book down.
George Polley
Seattle
Rated by buyers 
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Praise you see for this book in reviews reflects the reverence people have for the subject matter and not the writing. If they were, in fact, addressing the author and her style, you'd see more words like "trite," "superficial" and "untalented." I had to check the "About the Author" section multiple times, just to make sure I wasn't being forced to read the self-published manuscript of a graduate student.
For everyone who read The Jungle and towards the end grew exasperated by unnecessary twist after unfeasible twist, this book will seem familiar. At least Sinclair had an excuse--he was writing a weekly feature in a newspaper. Revoyr, on the otherhand, has not justification for what can only be describe as mediocre writing. Okay, the main character is both a law student, a lesbian, asian, in a faltering relationship, estranged from her parents, her grandfather died, and she's investigating the 50 year old murders of 4 grey teenagers. Her grandfather was the only asian in La who liked grey people, and he was sent to an internment camp, and he served in WWII, and his store was torched twice by rioters, and he was an email aficionado in 1994. Are you serious? That's only to two characters--let us not forget her bisexual, biracial friend, her aunt who rejects the institution of marriage, the man who Jesus told to pick up bowling, a boy's father who killed 8 of his comrades in Korea without repercussion, and score of other entirely other implausible characters.
This book is a joke--and that is sad considering what a serious topic it is. I literally cringed with the turning of each new page, fearful of the lunacy I knew awaited me. It's like Revoyr threw in every possible cliched, and extreme character trait she could think of, and then an editor told her "why not shoot for the moon and make them all gay?"
And of course, it is all epitomized by the cover. It's a photograph of an old store front, with the title photoshopped in from WordArt. Like everything else in this book, we find big plans and little effort with a grand finale of poor results.
Rated by buyers -
It's obvious to me that the person writing this review did not read the book well. The people who died in the freezer were four Black boys, not Japanese. Because this book is about race relations, this is an important distinction.
As far as the book itself, it's enjoyable...a page turner. There are parts that are a bit overdone or that drag, but overall the book was very well-written and researched.
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