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We Never Called It Frisco
A candid novel about the art, artists, and their tempestuous relationships in the countercultural movement of the 50’s and 60’s, by one of America's most celebrated art critics.
During intermission at the San Francisco Opera, esteemed and incorrigible cultural critic Marcia Lang collapses into a banquette and dies on the spot. It’s soon discovered that Marcia willed her entire estate to Burt—her on-again, off-again roommate-slash-lover. His windfall includes her correspondence, her stilted redwood house in Marin County, and an incomplete draft of her unpublished memoir, We Never Called It Frisco. As he processes Marcia’s death alongside their cadre of Berkeley bohemians, Burt begins to reconstruct Marcia’s work in progress as an elegiac collage for the friend he’s lost and the city that found her.
In his debut novel, renowned art critic Jed Perl, guides his reader down the back alleys of a mid-century San Francisco populated with painters, puppeteers, paperback revolutionaries, and the writers like Marcia who determined their positions in the cultural ecosystem. Through energetic and immersive prose, We Never Called It Frisco tests the structural limits of the novel as a site of reconstitution and remembrance.
During intermission at the San Francisco Opera, esteemed and incorrigible cultural critic Marcia Lang collapses into a banquette and dies on the spot. It’s soon discovered that Marcia willed her entire estate to Burt—her on-again, off-again roommate-slash-lover. His windfall includes her correspondence, her stilted redwood house in Marin County, and an incomplete draft of her unpublished memoir, We Never Called It Frisco. As he processes Marcia’s death alongside their cadre of Berkeley bohemians, Burt begins to reconstruct Marcia’s work in progress as an elegiac collage for the friend he’s lost and the city that found her.
In his debut novel, renowned art critic Jed Perl, guides his reader down the back alleys of a mid-century San Francisco populated with painters, puppeteers, paperback revolutionaries, and the writers like Marcia who determined their positions in the cultural ecosystem. Through energetic and immersive prose, We Never Called It Frisco tests the structural limits of the novel as a site of reconstitution and remembrance.
- GenresFiction
136 pages, Paperback
Published September 8, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 12, 2026
Real Rating: 3.5* of five
The Publisher Says: A candid novel about the art, artists, and their tempestuous relationships in the countercultural movement of the 50’s and 60’s, by one of America's most celebrated art critics.
During intermission at a modern dance performance in San Francisco, esteemed and incorrigible cultural critic Marcia Lang collapses into a banquette and dies on the spot. Her lover, Burt, soon discovers that Marcia willed him her entire estate. His windfall includes her correspondence, her stilted redwood house in Marin County, and an incomplete draft of her unpublished memoir, We Never Called It Frisco. As he processes Marcia’s death alongside their cadre of Berkeley bohemians, Burt begins to reconstruct Marcia’s work in progress as an elegiac collage for the friend he’s lost and the city that found her.
In his first novel, Jed Perl guides his reader down the back alleys of a mid-century San Francisco populated with painters, puppeteers, paperback revolutionaries, and the writers like Marcia who determined their positions in the cultural ecosystem. Through energetic and immersive prose, We Never Called It Frisco tests the structural limits of the novel as a site of reconstitution and remembrance.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.
My Review: The post-war history of US art, in novel form.
If nothing in you perked up at that précis, don't get this read onto your TBR because it's the sum total of the story. Marcia and Burt are names, not characters; their personalities aren't developed, though their...her...critical opinions about art are. Burt is quiet, he's more observant than Marcia's professional eye for art (and its movements) is.
The central tragedy, Marcia's early death, takes place before we-the-reader have the chance to invest in her whether positively or negatively. For that to work as a novelistic technique, the way we learn about her needs to be more personal, more through memories than through her writings. Burt's devastated, naturally; why would that not lead a storyteller into flashbacks, accompanied by her writings? Instead we listen to Marcia's judgmental pronunciamentos interspersed with Burt's sadness. It's not propulsive, nor was I expecting it to be; but it's also progressively less involving.
I liked the idea of this debut novel enough to finish it, and should Author Perl write more fiction, I will seek it out to read. It's not the best work he's done. But it's also not the best work he will do.
The Publisher Says: A candid novel about the art, artists, and their tempestuous relationships in the countercultural movement of the 50’s and 60’s, by one of America's most celebrated art critics.
During intermission at a modern dance performance in San Francisco, esteemed and incorrigible cultural critic Marcia Lang collapses into a banquette and dies on the spot. Her lover, Burt, soon discovers that Marcia willed him her entire estate. His windfall includes her correspondence, her stilted redwood house in Marin County, and an incomplete draft of her unpublished memoir, We Never Called It Frisco. As he processes Marcia’s death alongside their cadre of Berkeley bohemians, Burt begins to reconstruct Marcia’s work in progress as an elegiac collage for the friend he’s lost and the city that found her.
In his first novel, Jed Perl guides his reader down the back alleys of a mid-century San Francisco populated with painters, puppeteers, paperback revolutionaries, and the writers like Marcia who determined their positions in the cultural ecosystem. Through energetic and immersive prose, We Never Called It Frisco tests the structural limits of the novel as a site of reconstitution and remembrance.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.
My Review: The post-war history of US art, in novel form.
If nothing in you perked up at that précis, don't get this read onto your TBR because it's the sum total of the story. Marcia and Burt are names, not characters; their personalities aren't developed, though their...her...critical opinions about art are. Burt is quiet, he's more observant than Marcia's professional eye for art (and its movements) is.
The central tragedy, Marcia's early death, takes place before we-the-reader have the chance to invest in her whether positively or negatively. For that to work as a novelistic technique, the way we learn about her needs to be more personal, more through memories than through her writings. Burt's devastated, naturally; why would that not lead a storyteller into flashbacks, accompanied by her writings? Instead we listen to Marcia's judgmental pronunciamentos interspersed with Burt's sadness. It's not propulsive, nor was I expecting it to be; but it's also progressively less involving.
I liked the idea of this debut novel enough to finish it, and should Author Perl write more fiction, I will seek it out to read. It's not the best work he's done. But it's also not the best work he will do.
June 15, 2026
A look at the San Francisco art scene in the 50s & 60s through the eyes of two people who were romantically involved. Sometimes epistolary and sometimes through a more traditional narrative structure. A bit of an east v west coast vibe. Fast paced and gossipy in a fun way!
3.5
Out 9/8/26!
3.5
Out 9/8/26!
October 1, 2026
Frankly, this was a bit of a slog. In a short space, Perl takes us from the late '40's at UC Berkeley, the '50's in North Beach, the '60's in Manhattan, and the early '70's in (unspecified location amongst redwoods) Marin. The narrative switches from our protagonist, Burt, whose on again off again lover, intellectual doyenne Marcia Lang, leaves him her entire estate; to her unfinished collection of essays on cultural life of San Francisco; to Burt's commentary on Marcia's writings: no effort has been made to distinguish Burt's narrative voice from Marcia's, which may indicate that Marcia formed Burt's opinions to a very large degree, but also makes it difficult at times to figure out which voice we are hearing.
A couple of aspects of this short novel were fairly evocative for me. While my parents migrated from New York in the early '50's, spending a decade between Eugene, Oregon and Pittsburg, California, a coterie of people who would become our close family friends spent the '50's and early '60's living on Carmel Street, in what realtors now market as Cole Valley but back then was just referred to as the Haight. They all pulled the ripcord just before the Summer of Love, settling in San Geronimo, Larkspur and, mostly Mill Valley. This book, for all its shortcomings, made me reflect on that phenomenon.
Another evocative passage was on describing a party in Bolinas, which very much reminded me of my childhood amongst a summer colony of (mostly gay) bohemians.
A couple of aspects of this short novel were fairly evocative for me. While my parents migrated from New York in the early '50's, spending a decade between Eugene, Oregon and Pittsburg, California, a coterie of people who would become our close family friends spent the '50's and early '60's living on Carmel Street, in what realtors now market as Cole Valley but back then was just referred to as the Haight. They all pulled the ripcord just before the Summer of Love, settling in San Geronimo, Larkspur and, mostly Mill Valley. This book, for all its shortcomings, made me reflect on that phenomenon.
Another evocative passage was on describing a party in Bolinas, which very much reminded me of my childhood amongst a summer colony of (mostly gay) bohemians.
October 6, 2026
gorguszt little cover and it was like feeding lots of candy to the part of my brain that loves the bay n believes sf is full of real art and magic and character and people w SPINES. loved the premise until I realized it was fiction n in that sense it was just inexcusably contrived // seems like a set up to write some things u wanna write but maybe not enough to justify all this. I wanted 2 luv her :C SUE ME
October 3, 2026
This is a quiet, thought-provoking book that can be ready in one sitting. I found it most similar to Orbital or On the Calculation of Volume or The Sun Was Electric Light. I loved this book, but it will not be for everyone.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews