I’m a lifelong East Coaster, and California's always been a bit of a mystery to me. How can a state—which to me seems chock full of earthquakes, droughts, wildfires, rightwing crazies, and their opposite New Age apostles—inspire such loyalty, such devotion?
To be sure, I have a limited understanding of the place. Mecca, an ironic title if ever there was one, brought me a little closer to understanding this huge state—at least, the southern part of it. Straight brilliantly interweaves the stories of her characters, starting with Johnny Frias, a California Highway Patrol motorcycle cop, whose action early in the novel connects him to subsequent vibrantly imagined characters.
These include a black single mother raising two sons, and an undocumented Mexican woman who is only two steps ahead of immigration control. Mecca is a cinematic, powerful and, in many ways, passionate portrait of California and its inhabitants, especially those on the margins. (And if you don't want to believe me, Michael Connolly, of Harry Bosch fame, called it "a masterpiece..”
Carin Pratt is one of the remarkably knowledgeable crew at the Norwich Bookstore—and an ardent recommender of books. Before she landed in these parts, she spent 27 years at CBS News, including two decades as the executive producer of Face the Nation.