California's Over

by Louis B. Jones

California's Over leads us down an unmarked road to the coast and then deep into the rotten, labyrinthine house where James Farmican, the famous poet, shot himself to death years ago, leaving behind a legacy of adulation and bankruptcy. Now his family is leaving, and the young narrator--who calls himself Baelthon--has been hired to haul the furniture onto the lawn and sort through the attic and basement. But as Baelthon excavates, he also discovers layers of family mystery and comedy and cruelty, all of it piled too deeply for anyone to sort the unexplained disappearance of Farmican's ashes, the unfinished novel that may actually be his suicide note, the opera about cannibalism that his son is writing to rescue himself from obscurity, and, finally, the family's migration to the Nevada desert to claim their inheritance.

And Baelthon discovers Wendy, Farmican's sixteen-year-old daughter who keeps her checkers pieces taped to the board where she and her father left them before he died. Emerging from her chrysalis of baby fat and self-loathing, Wendy is destined to be both the love of Baelthon's life and the object of his betrayal.

Twenty-five years later, from the perspective of mid- and middle-class life, Baelthon recalls the mistaken selves he and the Farmicans once inhabited. What he doesn't expect--or think he deserves--is the redemption and abiding against-all-odds love that await him.

Genres: Fiction

336 pages, Paperback

First published August 19, 1997

About the author

Louis B. Jones is the author of three New York Times Notable Books - Ordinary Money (Viking 1990, Penguin 1991), Particles and Luck (Pantheon 1993, Vintage 1994), and California’s Over (Pantheon 1997, Vintage 1998). His newest novel, Radiance, will be published by Counterpoint Press May 2011. He is an NEA fellow and a fellow of the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire. He has written screenplays – originals and adaptations of his own work – for studios and for independents. He's been a regular reviewer for the New York Times Book Review and has served as visiting writer at a number of colleges around the country. For some years he has acted as the Fiction Director for the Squaw Valley Community of Writers.

Reviews

[Jack Arnold · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read this book three times; the last when I was living near Bolinas. So I enjoyed the references to that area. Jones' satirical, dark comedy is an appropriate antidote for wistful memories of days gone by.

[Lainie · Rating 4 out of 5]

My tastes require: Show me, don't tell me. This author gets it right, using details to paint a picture of living, breathing people and objects. He doesn't waste time describing a person, but he will note the sideways glance to the floor, or the flutter of fingers while exhaling in exasperation, or the inward smile--details that add life and authenticity to the characters. He manages to do this even with objects in the crumbling old house where the story is mainly set.

Perhaps I connected well with this novel to begin with because it is set in the late 60s, near the beach in Marin County, peopled with characters all too familiar to me. Using the device of vivid memory, looking back 25 years, Jones exhumes a shimmering bubble of time and sensory detail with exacting care. He appears to have been tempted to wrap the story up in a neat little bow, but then resists. The results are more satisfying this way. The story will keep unfolding after we close the book.

There is an element of poetry in this novel, not just in the plot points, but in the intentional weaving of words--just enough, not too many--to elevate the writing a step above everyday narrative.

Recommended.

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

When an author can find power and drama in the comparatively ordinary events, the cataclysmic can go hang.

California's Over accomplishes this feat, juxtaposing the narrator's past and present without employing an obvious crescendo in the Nevada desert as what a creative writing professor would call the "climax."

We know what shocking and sad events occur before we read the details, but knowing who lives and dies or works in a brothel before it happens can't spoil the pleasure of the tale. Credit to Louis B. Jones for making it hold together, and reveal something without resorting to stock characterizations stretched as easily as the Miso soup.

Watch for the "church minutes." In a way, it and other embedded writing fragments work against the rest of the book, but they amuse all the same.

[Gabriella · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had never heard of Louis B Jones and found this in a (wonderful) thrift store (Community thrift?) and read it immediately under a chilly partly cloudy vacation day sky. Freedom. Unusual upbringing in a macabre crumbling mansion by the sea, the primary threats erosion and cash poor living. A fleeting relationship and an experimental and sonically beautiful style. Validates a solitary life while also celebrating the cacophony of family life and the eerie deep connections among siblings.

[Dianne Morton · Rating 2 out of 5]

Couldn't wait to finish it. Not my cup of tea.