Depth Takes a Holiday

by Sandra Tsing Loh

A collection of amusing tales, anecdotes, observations, and experiences by a Buzz magazine columnist captures the unique class structure, style, culture, demographics, and mannerisms of modern-day Los Angeles. Reprint.

Genres: Memoir, Humor, Essays, Nonfiction, Comedy

240 pages, Paperback

First published April 2, 1996

About the author

Writer and performer Sandra Tsing Loh is a contributing editor to The Atlantic, host of the syndicated radio show The Loh Down on Science, and the author of five previous books. Her work has appeared in Best American Essays. In addition to having been a regular commentator on NPR’s Morning Edition and PRI’s This American Life, she has performed two solo shows off-Broadway. She lives in Pasadena, California.

Reviews

[Dolores]

I love the writing of Sandra Tsing Loh because she is incredibly witty and acerbic, and doesn't take herself or anything too seriously. And, she can write about the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles in language that makes it sound downright pleasant.
Loh is the Queen of the San Fernando Valley, once a farming community over the hill from Los Angeles, but now a burgeoning suburb. Los Angelenos consider the Valley a foreign country, and, truth be told, getting from Los Angeles to the Valley is, literally, an uphill battle over the Sepulveda Pass. But, even though I lived there and know of whence she speaks, you don't need to be a Valley Girl to appreciate her humor.

This book is a collection of essays on everything from temp jobs to frozen foods, being the less-perfect sibling, her late German mother and her eccentric Chinese father (who keeps importing and losing Chinese brides, and hitch hikes rides with Angelica Huston). Loh's eye is keen, and she can make the most mundane seem downright hysterical.

Loh is a self-professed procrastinator when it comes to pumping out her writing, and I wish she would do more. But, her columns in the late, lamented Buzz magazine were a scream, and I can only hope she gets more columns and books and maybe even a television show. She is a rare gem.

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sandra Tsing-Loh is hilarious, brilliant, and refreshingly honest. One of the most interesting things about this book: although it's about Los Angeles and is called "depth takes a holiday," she makes a point in the prologue to say that she isn't actually making fun of LA, but saying that sometimes it's necessary to just take it easy and read a light magazine or something--thus taking a holiday from everything depth-oriented ;).

That said, she does skewer many things about her home turf, LA, because it's impossible not to do so, and she also ends with a reference to her wish to live in Telluride or some other small but arty Colorado town (something the protagonist in "If You Lived Here, You'd Be Home By Now" said too).

Laugh-out loud funny, spot-on, great in so many ways. Definitely set in the '90s and late '90s, but it's easy enough to remember this time, and much of it still applies.

[D.M. Dutcher · Rating 1 out of 5]

The first story in the book is a hymn to Ikea.

This is a collection of short vignettes about whatever a particularly neurotic upper-middle class woman living in LA thinks about. Most don't really go anywhere, and all of them are particularly dated. She plays Nintendo! She is amazed at multimedia CD-Roms! She comments on open-mic poetry readings! Lesbianism! Etc.

None of them are really long enough to give any depth on whatever she carries, and she's not a good enough writer to make us care about her subjects. There's a lot of name dropping, a lot of obsessing over younger women and older men, and once in a while a good reflection or detail. The piece on Baywatch was probably the book's best.

However, the advance copy i had really didn't even reach the level of a magazine article. Her later Atlantic pieces are far better than this.

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

For my money, the best of the humorous-NPR-essay set. She brandishes a razor-sharp wit but never takes herself too seriously, doesn't get all artsy like David Sedaris with the weird animal stories he's been crapping out for This American Life lately. She's got the self-absorbed, West Coast, low-rent Tom Wolfe style down pat and she's smart enough to ride that sucker all the way to Judgment Day. Not to mention, she's probably the funniest writer I've ever read. Her book reviews in The Atlantic consistently reduce me to chuckling, grinning idiocy on the subway, which is great because it earns me a couple of extra inches of elbow room.

This book remains hilarious despite being dated.

[Alice Handley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe you have to be a certain age (coughgenerationx) and from a certain place (coughsoutherncalifornia), but I find this hilarious.

[J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title says it all.
This could really only be about one thing, and it is.

Welcome to L.A.

[M.J. · Rating 2 out of 5]

After hearing Loh reader her short story "Bad Sex with Bud Kemp" on NPR's This American Life, I ordered this book, eager to hear more of Loh's dry and witty observations on society and popular culture. Although the content and style of this book is consistent with what I heard on NPR, this book failed to meet my expectations.

Focusing on her experiences as an overeducated, underpaid, writer/artist living in Los Angeles, Loh does an excellent job of capturing a specific time and place -- perhaps too good of a job. Loh's book is loaded with cultural references that can only be understood by readers who are familiar with L.A. and its arts and culture scene. Though these allusions don't make the stories unintelligible, they do keep the reader at arm's length from the material. Consequently, many of the essays come across as an anecdote that should end with the phrase "I guess you had to be there."

However,this problem should not discourage prospective readers. Depth Takes a Holiday still entertains readers with tales of attempting to lead an adult life in the post-collegiate years that are told from an Everygirl perspective.

[Lennie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of essays, written by a fellow Angeleno, regarding the L.A. scene. Some topics include Hollywood, cultural art, pick-up lines, and poetry readings. She even pokes fun at some neighborhoods within L.A. like the Valley, West Covina, and Torrance (where I'm from) but it's all in good humor, so no offense is taken. I found myself nodding in agreement, a few times, as she describes the 405 freeway and Parking Lot C at LAX but most of the time, her essays made me smile or chuckle. A nice, easy read and I give this book four stars.

[Cara Stevens · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you've ever lived in LA, you'll get a great laugh out of this book. Her observations are spot-on and funny!

[Sue Bridehead (A Pseudonym) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm never sure what to think about journalistic collections like this. They always vary in tone depending on the outlet for whom the piece was originally written. You end up feeling like you're reading somebody's personal portfolio, their writing resume in action, instead of a cohesive book with a theme and an evolution.

Overall, Loh's work is very readable, and the essays are - God bless 'em - short (2 pages each on average). A few are much funnier than others. "White Trash" and one about talking dirty stand out for me. The columns where she disingenuously portrays herself as an underemployed slacker are far less appealing. (I guess "White Trash" is one of these, but I forgive it because it's good.)

[Punk · Rating 2 out of 5]

Non-fiction essays. Loh's a writer, a performance artist, a one-woman show, and a former temp in the great city of Los Angeles. Originally published back in the 90s (Buzz magazine, LA Weekly, NPR), these essays are energetic, sarcastic odes to LA. They're a little outdated and probably suffer from being taken out of context, but Loh's biting voice is front and center.

Two stars -- the quality of the writing varies, probably because the intended audience differed for each piece, but in book form it can be a little jarring. And, as promised by the title, some of the essays are so shallow they seem to have no point.

[Nicholas George · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've had this book on my shelf for ages (a gift years ago from a friend), and was tired of looking at it sitting there, so I decided to finally read the damn thing. Loh is a gifted and witty writer, but this collection of columns from various L.A. publications is now very, very dated, concerning itself with topics such as Baywatch and Ikea. Her depiction of L.A. as a vast cultural wasteland is certainly nothing new. I don't know what she's doing these days, but I hope she's moved on to better things.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

More like 3.5 stars. Damn you, Goodreads ratings! Anyway, I think I might have read this before a long time ago. Still, Loh is such a good writer. Her work definitely appeals to Angelenos like me. However, I hold back on the screaming praise because a) these essays are from the 90s and occasionally it's hard to relate here in 2017, but mostly b) she slips a little too often into Industry Town talk which can bore me to no end. I live in Los Angeles, not "Hollywood."

Still this is a witty, thoughtful, and intelligent romp through La La Land.

[Brimley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book a few years ago after I had spent time in LA. I was shocked because I LIKED LA, and as a Seattle native I thought I should feel differently. This book made be laugh because I found myself thinking the similar thoughts after meeting people at parties and wondering what planet they were from.

She has such a shrewd eye for telling funny details. I can't go to Trader Joe's without thinking of her.

The title alone is priceless.

[Cindywho]

I was looking for some levity between A Gift upon the Shore and The Scar. I can't say I didn't think that L.A. would be a horrendous place to live. The only writer who has endeared it to me is Francesca Lia Block. Sandra is resigned to it in a snerky, semi-hysterical way. It's mostly funny, but also uncomfortable to watch. Most of the essays are probably magazine pieces and I may have heard some on the Loh Life. It's funnier to hear her read them in the KCRW archives. (January 03, 2004)

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Liked it pretty well. She is very funny and snarky. She's got some LOL bits. I love the Ikea one and some of her others. I love the one where she says she should've lived in NY when she was younger. I feel that way too. I think I would've liked her more if I had read her before Cynthia Heimel, but as that didn't happen, it's okay. It's cool that the futon set have a voice and she's trying to do what CH did for NY.
.

[Wendy Yu · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's jarring to read somebody from an older generation making WHAT YOU THOUGHT WERE HIP REFERENCES FROM YOUR GENERATION (e.g. Ikea, Trader Joe's). In fact, I somehow thought her whole style of funny pop culture referencing memoir writing was younger than this tattered used book from a closing-down used bookstore. I'm not even young anymore, but I feel an enormous amount of youthful folly/shame for thinking we invented everything. For shame, me!

Book dish: Trader Joe's two buck chuck.

[Ruthiella · Rating 3 out of 5]

Melissa gave me this book in 2000. Thanks Melissa and sorry it took me 12 years to read it! Depth Takes a Holiday is a selection of essays which explore the trends and foibles of the mid-ninety's Los Angeles demographic. While the quality of the essays is uneven, on the whole, the collection was a funny, insightful and self-depractory observation Tsing Loh's life as an artist and an Angeleno.

[Mia]

Really funny, especially for those who live in/love Los Angeles. Very dated at times (think CD-ROMs and IBM computers) but still rings true to the experiences of lost, broke, entitled (but also redeemingly self-aware?) aspiring artists in their 20s. At times reads like a funnier Sex and the City or an edgier Bridget Jones's Diary. Devoured this in one day and plan to read "Aliens in America" next.

[Nita · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book made me laff but definitely had dated references (e.g., people using wooden bowls they'd purchased from Trader Joe's to serve salad in an attempt to seem ethnic) that made me appreciate the importance of not clinging to cultural shortcuts if trying to craft something with a longer literary shelf life.

[Bri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great bathroom reading! I've had this book for at least six years, and it's still funny every time I open it. Highly recommended is her essay on Ikea and "downwardly mobile professionals" (dumpies). So very So Cal, and so wonderful.

[Daisy · Rating 4 out of 5]

good girls are back!! eat your heart out!

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

A bit dated now, perhaps, but for those of us who spent the mid- to late-90s mired in Los Angeles, a very appreciable and hilarious read.

[Deborah · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little outdated, but she's quite the raconteur nonetheless. I'm looking forward to reading her more recent work.

[AP · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sandra's best book, full of spark and humor.

[Selina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Truly funny - especially if you actually live in LA!

[Ilona · Rating 5 out of 5]

Was given this book in anticipation of a move from Indiana to California. LOVED it!

[Jenny · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sometimes funny, but fairly dated and many of the essays are so short they seem insignificant, like she put in all the detail to set the scene and then left the meaningful part out.

[Kezia · Rating 2 out of 5]

This elicited only two or three chuckles from me, which is weird because I live in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley, I am a contemporary of hers at only a few years younger, and I worked in the cultural arts scene in the early 90s. I am so much the target demographic that I might as well have crosshairs painted on my forehead. So to my surprise I did not find this the trenchant, witty, god-I-can-relate collection it's billed to be. If this is her best work, I can skip the rest.

I think my main problem (ironically) is that there is not enough of anything. Yes, it's supposed to be shallow, cursory glances at the ways we live and fuck up our lives. But there's not enough insight, enough self- or outward reflection. Why is her immigrant father behaving this way? Why are she and so many of her highly educated peers underemployed? Why is she as a bicultural and biracial person not able to take advantage of the trend towards "multiculturalism?" Why do people seek insta-fame? Why do lesbians worship Dinah Shore?

Also I will defend the city I love, 'til death do us part, so ragging on us doesn't land well for me. (If you have to explain your title, it's probably not a good title.)

[Sapna Kumar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though the references of LA in the nineties are dated, they are hardly stale. Tsing-Loh is to LA as Sedaris is to New York. She kept me laughing throughout the latest Valley heat wave. No drought of laughter had here!