Frantic Transmissions to and from Los Angeles An Accidental Memoir

by Braverman, Kate

• ISBN13: 9781555974381
• ISBN10: 1555974384
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-01-24
• Publisher: Graywolf Press

Summary

Kate Braverman grew up in Los Angeles in the late 1950s at the time when glitz was just beginning to be manufactured. Her Los Angeles was made up of stucco tenements, welfare, and the marginalized. It wasn't a destination city, it was the end of the line. Frantic Transmissions to and from Los Angeleschronicles the trajectory of Braverman's Left Coast generation with a voice of singular power. She was an antiwar activist in Berkeley, a punk-rock poet on Sunset Strip, a single mother in the East L.A. barrio, and a woman in recovery at AA meetings in Beverly Hills. By 1990 she was married and settled into a life of writing and teaching. In her forties, Braverman did the unthinkable and moved from Beverly Hills to New York's Allegheny Mountains to a 150-year-old farmhouse. In wide-ranging transmissions, Braverman deftly contrasts the social histories of Los Angeles with her new, timeless rural community; describes the effects of the changing seasons on her Californian, sun-drenched soul; and marvels at how a remote farmhouse can offer surprising consolations. Library Journalcalls Braverman a "literary genius";Rolling Stonedescribes her as having the "power and intensity you don't see much outside of rock and roll."Frantic Transmissions to and from Los Angelesoffers an eccentric and insightful view of social and individual transformation.

Author Biography

Kate Braverman is the author of several works of fiction and poetry, most recently, The Incantation of Frida K. She currently lives with her husband in San Francisco.

Table of Contents

Judge's Statement by Robert Polito	3	(6)
Fusion City	9	(18)
Escaping Los Angeles: Incantations and Magic	27	(22)
Escaping Los Angeles: Uncle Irving's Advice	49	(16)
Transmission to Los Angeles #1	65	(14)
Transmission to Los Angeles #2	79	(14)
Transmission to Los Angeles #3	93	(16)
Transmission to Los Angeles #4	109	(14)
Transmission to Los Angeles #5	123	(14)
Transmission to Los Angeles #6	137	(18)
The Collective Voice of Los Angeles Speaks: Marilyn Monroe	155	(12)
Hunting and Trapping Aunt Sarah	167	(24)
P.S. House for Sale	191