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Temper CA
Fiction. LGBTQIA Studies. California Interest. Joy Temper grew up wandering the woods of Temper, CA, a Gold Rush town her family helped establish in the 1840s. When she returns to Temper for her grandfather's funeral, she discovers that the stories she's long traded on about her hippie upbringing have little to do with reality. Her struggles to face who she once was, and what she now desires, force her to confront family secrets and long-suppressed memories in a novella both familial and romantic, contemporary and historical.
260 pages, Paperback
Published January 8, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
February 16, 2019
“Temper CA” was a wonderful read. Somehow, with graceful, economical language, it’s rich with imagery and feeling. And without gimmicks or tropes, it has a story that pulled me along. Having spent part of my childhood in the Sierra foothills, I also could see a piece of myself reflected in Joy Temper’s experience of being tied to that beautiful country in spite of not fully being part of it.
February 15, 2019
So much meaning in the details - the heroine's journey is especially compelling for anyone who's wondered about their own past, and wonders what they might find if they dug a little deeper. Beautifully written - my desire to rush to the end to find out what happens was balanced by the need to enjoy each sentence!
January 17, 2019
Couldn't put it down. Perfect for keeping in a handbag for standing in line. But also for meals and other stolen moments. A rich and deep (but somehow quick-moving and tightly structured) story of family dynamics, personal reckoning and California history.
March 8, 2019
Heartbreaking & Healing: a tale of love & loss in a small California town
Joy rolls into Temper CA, back to the town she both loves and hates and doesn’t understand, for her grandfather Isaac’s funeral. This universal tale of angst and confusion revolves around the relationship Joy had with her mother and father, hippies of the 70s who lived in one house with their friends and did the usual of the period—slept together, drank, built their shared house, took acid, and brought their child up to live free and discover life with little guidance.
The complications that arise are microscopic and macroscopic, from dealing with the secrets and truths of her upbringing as a child and why she went back and forth to live with her grandparents, to the larger issues of economic disparity and race.
Award-winning author Paul Skenazy draws us into Joy’s story with language that alternately soothes and upsets. The short chapters create suspense and tension as Joy pieces her life together, finding truths that keep her from being at peace with herself and her girlfriend Angie. As many of us who came from small towns can relate, Temper, CA introduced Joy to a family she thought she knew, but didn’t. My heart hurt for her when she realized she’d created her own past, and she wished things had been different not only for herself but for those she loved, and even those she thought she hated.
A brilliant novel, deserving of all accolades and our reading pleasure.
Joy rolls into Temper CA, back to the town she both loves and hates and doesn’t understand, for her grandfather Isaac’s funeral. This universal tale of angst and confusion revolves around the relationship Joy had with her mother and father, hippies of the 70s who lived in one house with their friends and did the usual of the period—slept together, drank, built their shared house, took acid, and brought their child up to live free and discover life with little guidance.
The complications that arise are microscopic and macroscopic, from dealing with the secrets and truths of her upbringing as a child and why she went back and forth to live with her grandparents, to the larger issues of economic disparity and race.
Award-winning author Paul Skenazy draws us into Joy’s story with language that alternately soothes and upsets. The short chapters create suspense and tension as Joy pieces her life together, finding truths that keep her from being at peace with herself and her girlfriend Angie. As many of us who came from small towns can relate, Temper, CA introduced Joy to a family she thought she knew, but didn’t. My heart hurt for her when she realized she’d created her own past, and she wished things had been different not only for herself but for those she loved, and even those she thought she hated.
A brilliant novel, deserving of all accolades and our reading pleasure.
August 25, 2019
This is a tight and well-structured novel with a compelling and complicated main character in Joy Temper. When Joy's grandfather dies she returns to the small Sierra-foothills town where she grew up, setting off a series of events that knock her already messy personal life topsy-turvy and challenge the very foundation of her sense of self. If you've ever returned "home" to find your memories of the place--both good and bad--aren't as reliable as you once thought, this is the book for you. The writing is sharp and precise, and the pacing brisk. The short punchy scenes perfectly evoke the "fictional" town of Temper and the people who live in it. A very entertaining read.
January 29, 2020
3.5 stars
This book was a great train read. It was interesting and I felt that the short chapters really kept the pace going well. I could come up for air as often as I liked, but I always wanted to dive right back into the story. I do wish that some of the issues brought up in the book could have been delved into further, but that’s hard for a book of this length.
This book was a great train read. It was interesting and I felt that the short chapters really kept the pace going well. I could come up for air as often as I liked, but I always wanted to dive right back into the story. I do wish that some of the issues brought up in the book could have been delved into further, but that’s hard for a book of this length.
April 29, 2019
I took off one star because the writing style could use some improvement. However, the story itself is fantastic and definitely worth reading even if the wording is awkward in some places.
July 7, 2019
What a wonderful story. I got so swept away in Joy’s visit to Temper that next thing I knew, I’d finished the book in one sitting.
May 19, 2020
I loved this novel, written by a former professor at UCSC. The protagonist is flawed but so lovable and the setting, a small town in California's mother lode, is fresh and loaded with the character's difficult childhood memories.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews