What do you think?
Rate this book
Southland
"I'm an LA native with a lot of love for LA crime fiction, but instead of preaching to the noir choir about The Long Goodbye , I'd like to gush about Southland by Nina Revoyr. It's a brilliant, ambitious, moving literary crime novel about two families in South Los Angeles and their tangled history between the 1930s and the 1990s. The central mystery is the death of four black boys in a Japanese-American man's store during the Watts Rebellion of 1965. It's a powerful book, one that I think about often, as well as a huge influence on my work. Right up there with Chandler."
-- Stephanie Cha (of the LARB ) in GQ on "The Greatest Crime Novelists on Their Favorite Crime Novels Ever" "A story about injustice dressed up as a detective novel, Southland reminds us that activism is both an ongoing project and a deeply personal choice."
-- Vallaire Wallace in Electric Lit on "The Novel That Shows Us How to Face our Past to Change Our Future" "Jackie Ishida's grandfather had a store in Watts where four boys were killed during the riots in 1965, a mystery she attempts to solve."
-- New York Times Book Review , Ross MacDonald on "Where Noir Lives in the City of Angels" "It is the kind of saga that often epitomizes and shocks LA--friction and violence between races and cultures."
-- Los Angeles Times , named one of the 20 Essential LA Crime Books "When I started working on Your House Will Pay , I hoped to write something that was half as smart and affecting as Southland . Revoyr's novel takes place in the Crenshaw district of Los Angeles, following two families--one black, one Japanese--over several decades. It's a character-driven saga with the engine of a crime novel, unravelling a horrific multiple murder that took place in the chaotic days of the Watts Rebellion in 1965."
-- The Guardian (UK), one of Steph Cha's Top 10 Books About Trouble in Los Angeles "[A]n absolutely compelling story of family and racial tragedy. Revoyr's novel is honest in detailing southern California's brutal history, and honorable in showing how families survived with love and tenacity and dignity."
-- Susan Straight, author of Highwire Moon Southland brings us a fascinating story of race, love, murder and history, against the backdrop of an ever-changing Los Angeles. A young Japanese-American woman, Jackie Ishida, is in her last semester of law school when her grandfather, Frank Sakai, dies unexpectedly. While trying to fulfill a request from his will, Jackie discovers that four African-American boys were killed in the store Frank owned during the Watts Riots of 1965. Along with James Lanier, a cousin of one of the victims, Jackie tries to piece together the story of the boys' deaths. In the process, she unearths the long-held secrets of her family's history. Southland depicts a young woman in the process of learning that her own history has bestowed upon her a deep obligation to be engaged in the larger world. And in Frank Sakai and his African-American friends, it presents characters who find significant common ground in their struggles, but who also engage each other across grounds--historical and cultural--that are still very much in dispute. Moving in and out of the past--from the internment camps of World War II, to the barley fields of the Crenshaw District in the 1930s, to the streets of Watts in the 1960s, to the night spots and garment factories of the 1990s-- Southland weaves a tale of Los Angeles in all of its faces and forms.
-- Stephanie Cha (of the LARB ) in GQ on "The Greatest Crime Novelists on Their Favorite Crime Novels Ever" "A story about injustice dressed up as a detective novel, Southland reminds us that activism is both an ongoing project and a deeply personal choice."
-- Vallaire Wallace in Electric Lit on "The Novel That Shows Us How to Face our Past to Change Our Future" "Jackie Ishida's grandfather had a store in Watts where four boys were killed during the riots in 1965, a mystery she attempts to solve."
-- New York Times Book Review , Ross MacDonald on "Where Noir Lives in the City of Angels" "It is the kind of saga that often epitomizes and shocks LA--friction and violence between races and cultures."
-- Los Angeles Times , named one of the 20 Essential LA Crime Books "When I started working on Your House Will Pay , I hoped to write something that was half as smart and affecting as Southland . Revoyr's novel takes place in the Crenshaw district of Los Angeles, following two families--one black, one Japanese--over several decades. It's a character-driven saga with the engine of a crime novel, unravelling a horrific multiple murder that took place in the chaotic days of the Watts Rebellion in 1965."
-- The Guardian (UK), one of Steph Cha's Top 10 Books About Trouble in Los Angeles "[A]n absolutely compelling story of family and racial tragedy. Revoyr's novel is honest in detailing southern California's brutal history, and honorable in showing how families survived with love and tenacity and dignity."
-- Susan Straight, author of Highwire Moon Southland brings us a fascinating story of race, love, murder and history, against the backdrop of an ever-changing Los Angeles. A young Japanese-American woman, Jackie Ishida, is in her last semester of law school when her grandfather, Frank Sakai, dies unexpectedly. While trying to fulfill a request from his will, Jackie discovers that four African-American boys were killed in the store Frank owned during the Watts Riots of 1965. Along with James Lanier, a cousin of one of the victims, Jackie tries to piece together the story of the boys' deaths. In the process, she unearths the long-held secrets of her family's history. Southland depicts a young woman in the process of learning that her own history has bestowed upon her a deep obligation to be engaged in the larger world. And in Frank Sakai and his African-American friends, it presents characters who find significant common ground in their struggles, but who also engage each other across grounds--historical and cultural--that are still very much in dispute. Moving in and out of the past--from the internment camps of World War II, to the barley fields of the Crenshaw District in the 1930s, to the streets of Watts in the 1960s, to the night spots and garment factories of the 1990s-- Southland weaves a tale of Los Angeles in all of its faces and forms.
350 pages, Paperback
Published April 1, 2003
153 people are currently reading
2573 people want to read
About the author
Nina Revoyr
13 books165 followersNina Revoyr was born in Japan to a Japanese mother and a white American father, and grew up in Tokyo, Wisconsin, and Los Angeles. She is the author of four novels. Her first book,
The Necessary Hunger
, was described by Time magazine as "the kind of irresistible read you start on the subway at 6 p.m. on the way home from work and keep plowing through until you've turned the last page at 3 a.m. in bed."
Her second novel, Southland, was a Los Angeles Times bestseller and "Best Book of 2003," a Book Sense 76 pick, an Edgar Award finalist, and the winner of the Ferro Grumley Award and the Lambda Literary Award. Publishers Weekly called it "Compelling... never lacking in vivid detail and authentic atmosphere, the novel cements Revoyr's reputation as one of the freshest young chroniclers of life in L.A."
Nina’s third book, The Age of Dreaming, was a finalist for the 2008 Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Publishers Weekly called it "enormously satisfying;" Library Journal described it as "Fast-moving, riveting, unpredictable and profound," and Los Angeles Magazine wrote that "Nina Revoyr ... is fast becoming one of the city’s finest chroniclers and myth-makers."
Nina's fourth novel, Wingshooters, was published in March, 2011. It is one of O: Oprah Magazine's "Books to Watch For," an IndieBound Indie Next Selection, and a Midwest Connections Pick. Publishers Weekly described it as "remarkable...an accomplished story of family and the dangers of complacency in the face of questionable justice; and Booklist called it "a shattering northern variation on To Kill a Mockingbird.
Nina is the executive vice president of a large child and family service agency in Los Angeles. She has also been an Associate Faculty member at Antioch University, and a Visiting Professor at Cornell University, Occidental College, and Pitzer College. Nina lives in Northeast Los Angeles with her partner, two rowdy dogs, and a pair of bossy cats.
Her second novel, Southland, was a Los Angeles Times bestseller and "Best Book of 2003," a Book Sense 76 pick, an Edgar Award finalist, and the winner of the Ferro Grumley Award and the Lambda Literary Award. Publishers Weekly called it "Compelling... never lacking in vivid detail and authentic atmosphere, the novel cements Revoyr's reputation as one of the freshest young chroniclers of life in L.A."
Nina’s third book, The Age of Dreaming, was a finalist for the 2008 Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Publishers Weekly called it "enormously satisfying;" Library Journal described it as "Fast-moving, riveting, unpredictable and profound," and Los Angeles Magazine wrote that "Nina Revoyr ... is fast becoming one of the city’s finest chroniclers and myth-makers."
Nina's fourth novel, Wingshooters, was published in March, 2011. It is one of O: Oprah Magazine's "Books to Watch For," an IndieBound Indie Next Selection, and a Midwest Connections Pick. Publishers Weekly described it as "remarkable...an accomplished story of family and the dangers of complacency in the face of questionable justice; and Booklist called it "a shattering northern variation on To Kill a Mockingbird.
Nina is the executive vice president of a large child and family service agency in Los Angeles. She has also been an Associate Faculty member at Antioch University, and a Visiting Professor at Cornell University, Occidental College, and Pitzer College. Nina lives in Northeast Los Angeles with her partner, two rowdy dogs, and a pair of bossy cats.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 244 reviews
November 21, 2022
My introduction to the fiction of Nina Revoyr is Southland, published in 2003. I'm not sure if this was conscious on Revoyr's part, but the rich tapestry of her book mirrors the John Sayles film Lone Star (1996), in which the skeleton of a vile sheriff reported missing in the '50s is discovered. Who killed him? The question by the new sheriff invites uneasy answers from the town's Anglo, Mex and Black inhabitants, all struggling with how much of their past they should carry and how much they should let go. Revoyr follows that paradigm, but with an L.A. story.
In 1994, Jackie Ishida is a third year law student at UCLA. She's summoned by her Aunt Lois to review personal items belonging to Jackie's recently deceased grandfather Frank Sakai. A veteran of the Japanese internment camps of the early ‘40s as well as World War II, Frank owned a convenience store in Watts. He sold it shortly after the Watts Rebellion of 1965 and Lois has discovered proceeds from the sale--$38,000 cash. According to an early will, Frank intended this to go to a Curtis Martindale, who apparently worked at the store. Lois asks Jackie to locate him.
Jackie's search ends with James Lanier, a community activist. He reports that Curtis was his cousin and was killed in the Uprising. He was found dead, along with three other Black boys, in the freezer of her grandfather's store. Jackie is hearing this story for the first time. The community believed the murderer to be an LAPD officer named Lawson, a menace seen taking the boys into the store the night they died. To help Lanier bring a case against Lawson, she agrees to speak to her family about these events and work with Lanier as he runs down some of his people. The more questions they ask, the more answers they wish they didn't know are exposed.
His father's generation. That was the way he thought of men that age--fifty-five or sixty. They belonged to his father's generation. The phrase both less powerful than it should have been, and more powerful too, because Lanier didn't know his own father. Hadn't laid eyes on him, in fact, since he was four. So he took his knowledge and ideas of the older men around him and tried to reconstruct an image of his father. Most of the men he knew of that age were either bitter or resigned. They were already grown by the time the Movement came along, many of them crushed, dry and fine, like powder. The bitter ones hated all their dealings with the white world, and abused themselves or their loved ones to forget it. The resigned ones shuffled in the shadows of their lives, looking up only to see the step directly in front of them, or to find the mouth of the bottle. A few stayed optimistic, like Carrier, the finance man at Marcus Garvey, by dint of will or God or just plain foolishness. And the even rarer men even succeeded; who made their way in the world without anger or alcohol, Lanier could only wonder at.
One of the things I loved about Southland is how Revoyr, born in Tokyo to a Japanese mother and Polish-American father, explores the relationship between a gay Asian law student in her twenties and a straight Black community activist in his thirties. I find most people create like bubbles and rarely step out of them to associate with those who look or think differently than they do. In fiction, characters of different strokes can mix and Revoyr not only tackles this superbly, but rejects turning the relationship into a romance.
Revoyr deviates from Jackie or Lanier's storyline to jump back in time. Every other chapter, which is too often. Introducing multiple points of view works for me in some novels, but this wasn't one of them. Reading about Frank's past, his wife Mary's past, Curtis's past, etc., stalled the momentum and made it a real push for me to finish the last 100 pages. Revoyr illuminated historical injustices in a tactful and powerful way, exploring how families were sometimes torn apart, and she does so without melodrama.
Susan Straight provides the cover blurb, " ... a remarkable feat ... Revoyr's novel is honest in detailing Southern California's brutal history, and honorable in showing how families survived with love and tenacity and dignity."
In 1994, Jackie Ishida is a third year law student at UCLA. She's summoned by her Aunt Lois to review personal items belonging to Jackie's recently deceased grandfather Frank Sakai. A veteran of the Japanese internment camps of the early ‘40s as well as World War II, Frank owned a convenience store in Watts. He sold it shortly after the Watts Rebellion of 1965 and Lois has discovered proceeds from the sale--$38,000 cash. According to an early will, Frank intended this to go to a Curtis Martindale, who apparently worked at the store. Lois asks Jackie to locate him.
Jackie's search ends with James Lanier, a community activist. He reports that Curtis was his cousin and was killed in the Uprising. He was found dead, along with three other Black boys, in the freezer of her grandfather's store. Jackie is hearing this story for the first time. The community believed the murderer to be an LAPD officer named Lawson, a menace seen taking the boys into the store the night they died. To help Lanier bring a case against Lawson, she agrees to speak to her family about these events and work with Lanier as he runs down some of his people. The more questions they ask, the more answers they wish they didn't know are exposed.
His father's generation. That was the way he thought of men that age--fifty-five or sixty. They belonged to his father's generation. The phrase both less powerful than it should have been, and more powerful too, because Lanier didn't know his own father. Hadn't laid eyes on him, in fact, since he was four. So he took his knowledge and ideas of the older men around him and tried to reconstruct an image of his father. Most of the men he knew of that age were either bitter or resigned. They were already grown by the time the Movement came along, many of them crushed, dry and fine, like powder. The bitter ones hated all their dealings with the white world, and abused themselves or their loved ones to forget it. The resigned ones shuffled in the shadows of their lives, looking up only to see the step directly in front of them, or to find the mouth of the bottle. A few stayed optimistic, like Carrier, the finance man at Marcus Garvey, by dint of will or God or just plain foolishness. And the even rarer men even succeeded; who made their way in the world without anger or alcohol, Lanier could only wonder at.
One of the things I loved about Southland is how Revoyr, born in Tokyo to a Japanese mother and Polish-American father, explores the relationship between a gay Asian law student in her twenties and a straight Black community activist in his thirties. I find most people create like bubbles and rarely step out of them to associate with those who look or think differently than they do. In fiction, characters of different strokes can mix and Revoyr not only tackles this superbly, but rejects turning the relationship into a romance.
Revoyr deviates from Jackie or Lanier's storyline to jump back in time. Every other chapter, which is too often. Introducing multiple points of view works for me in some novels, but this wasn't one of them. Reading about Frank's past, his wife Mary's past, Curtis's past, etc., stalled the momentum and made it a real push for me to finish the last 100 pages. Revoyr illuminated historical injustices in a tactful and powerful way, exploring how families were sometimes torn apart, and she does so without melodrama.
Susan Straight provides the cover blurb, " ... a remarkable feat ... Revoyr's novel is honest in detailing Southern California's brutal history, and honorable in showing how families survived with love and tenacity and dignity."
November 14, 2017
Nina Revoyr is a writer I really enjoy reading, and I wish her works were better known. It can be tough to find books that feature queer characters that go beyond coming out stories. Coming out stories certainly have their place, but it’s also important to me to read books about queer people living their lives and getting into interesting situations and, you know, being the people they are. In Southland, Revoyr has created a mystery/historical hybrid novel which explores complicated race relations in LA through the years, from World War II to the 2000s.
Jackie Ishida decides to dig into her grandfather’s past when a mysterious will discovered after his death bequeaths the corner store he used to own to a man Jackie has never heard of before. The store was sold after the Watts riots in the 1960s, but Jackie still wants to find out why Frank would have left it to a virtual stranger. Through connections she makes at the funeral, she meets James Lanier, the cousin of the man named in the will. Lanier has some unanswered questions of his own about what happened during the riots and what his cousin’s connection was to Jackie’s grandfather, and he agrees to help her find out the truth.
One thing I love about this book is how it’s really about the relationships—there’s a lot of them, and they’re all rich and complex and realistic. The mystery is solid and kept me turning pages, but what I cared about most was the people. The most powerful reveals had to do with the connections between them, as opposed to the nitty-gritty details of the crime Jackie and Lanier uncover. Recommended for fans of historical fiction and mysteries with substance—these characters and what they went through will stick with you.
More book recommendations by me at www.readingwithhippos.com
Jackie Ishida decides to dig into her grandfather’s past when a mysterious will discovered after his death bequeaths the corner store he used to own to a man Jackie has never heard of before. The store was sold after the Watts riots in the 1960s, but Jackie still wants to find out why Frank would have left it to a virtual stranger. Through connections she makes at the funeral, she meets James Lanier, the cousin of the man named in the will. Lanier has some unanswered questions of his own about what happened during the riots and what his cousin’s connection was to Jackie’s grandfather, and he agrees to help her find out the truth.
One thing I love about this book is how it’s really about the relationships—there’s a lot of them, and they’re all rich and complex and realistic. The mystery is solid and kept me turning pages, but what I cared about most was the people. The most powerful reveals had to do with the connections between them, as opposed to the nitty-gritty details of the crime Jackie and Lanier uncover. Recommended for fans of historical fiction and mysteries with substance—these characters and what they went through will stick with you.
More book recommendations by me at www.readingwithhippos.com
June 22, 2019
3.5 stars.
This is actually my third Nina Revoyr novel though it's her best known. It's an ambitious and impressive book taking on the kind of subject you'd think there were piles of novels written about when actually there are very few. I'd highly recommend reading this in conjunction with a few other novels that take on the racial shifts of Los Angeles, THE SELLOUT by Paul Beatty and YOUR HOUSE WILL PAY by Steph Cha. All very different, but all considering similar themes.
In 1994, Jackie finds herself going down a rabbit hole after her grandfather dies. She discovers a horrible crime from his past that changed him forever. As Jackie learns more about what actually happened and who her grandfather was, we flash back through time to see more of these stories. Jackie is about to finish law school and start a prestigious job. Jackie's grandfather was the child of Japanese immigrants, who spent his teenage years in an internment camp followed by service in WWII, then ran a neighborhood store until the Watts riots. Jackie feels removed from her grandfather, from her Asian-American identity, and from her girlfriend Laura. But in her search to uncover the truth about who committed a terrible crime, she finds connection to her family, her community, and herself.
It's a well-written novel with complicated themes to explore. I have knocked off half a star for completely subjective reasons, I wanted more movement, quicker pacing, and sometimes felt like it was dragging. But this probably more of a me-problem than a this-book problem. I recommend coming into it knowing it will be take its time so you can relax and go along with it.
You don't find many novels about queer women of color who have fully realized lives, it's very refreshing to have Jackie around and with such a rich story.
This is actually my third Nina Revoyr novel though it's her best known. It's an ambitious and impressive book taking on the kind of subject you'd think there were piles of novels written about when actually there are very few. I'd highly recommend reading this in conjunction with a few other novels that take on the racial shifts of Los Angeles, THE SELLOUT by Paul Beatty and YOUR HOUSE WILL PAY by Steph Cha. All very different, but all considering similar themes.
In 1994, Jackie finds herself going down a rabbit hole after her grandfather dies. She discovers a horrible crime from his past that changed him forever. As Jackie learns more about what actually happened and who her grandfather was, we flash back through time to see more of these stories. Jackie is about to finish law school and start a prestigious job. Jackie's grandfather was the child of Japanese immigrants, who spent his teenage years in an internment camp followed by service in WWII, then ran a neighborhood store until the Watts riots. Jackie feels removed from her grandfather, from her Asian-American identity, and from her girlfriend Laura. But in her search to uncover the truth about who committed a terrible crime, she finds connection to her family, her community, and herself.
It's a well-written novel with complicated themes to explore. I have knocked off half a star for completely subjective reasons, I wanted more movement, quicker pacing, and sometimes felt like it was dragging. But this probably more of a me-problem than a this-book problem. I recommend coming into it knowing it will be take its time so you can relax and go along with it.
You don't find many novels about queer women of color who have fully realized lives, it's very refreshing to have Jackie around and with such a rich story.
December 1, 2018
3.75/5stars
This was pretty good - a bit draggy and pretty long for such a basic mystery aspect. But i really enjoyed all the different types of people were met, getting a lesbian japanese woman as a MC and the characters were quite interesting!
This was pretty good - a bit draggy and pretty long for such a basic mystery aspect. But i really enjoyed all the different types of people were met, getting a lesbian japanese woman as a MC and the characters were quite interesting!
February 14, 2024
Really good book! Read it for my asian american studies class & it was actually fire. So much to think about and contemplate, it unpacks so much about being a POC in the past and present in LA. Really good, intricate plot, and not a single flat character. About to beast this close reading assignment (really manifesting this for myself, I will not let Prof Ninh down 🤞)
September 7, 2009
Revoyr's writing is a little clunky and awkward, but she makes up for that with the story. She takes a murder in L.A. and uses it to make a novel crime novel. I hadn't been aware of the pre-WWII connection between Japanese-American and African-American communities. Remnants of that bond still exist today, Revoyr writes. She also shows the effect the war, and racial prejudice in general, had on Japanese-Americans. The internment camps were awful but Revoyr points out that that it's the cumulative effect of racism, the disrespect and dehumanization, that is really wearing on all those who are treated as 'other.' And she does all this with a unique main character who is discovering all this herself--an upwardly mobile Japanese-American lesbian law student who digs into family secrets after the death of her grandfather. This one definitely deserves a place in the Los Angeles crime cannon, along with Chandler and more modern works by the likes of Ellroy, Connelly and Parker.
May 8, 2024
Heartbreaking, hopeful.
Reconciles past loss through
now (found) family.
Reconciles past loss through
now (found) family.
July 31, 2021
4 stars / 4.25 stars
This, my book club’s June selection, is an #ownvoices mystery but also so much more. The story takes place in what was then Angeles Mesa and is now Crenshaw, a neighborhood in LA. It’s set partly in 1994 and partly further in the past, from the 1930s to the 1980s.
One of the three main characters, Jackie Ishida, a Japanese-American law student, gets reluctantly drawn into investigating the murder of four black teenagers in the 1960s soon after her grandfather’s death, a murder that took place in her late grandfather’s old market store. She joins forces with James Lanier, a Black community center counselor who was then a small child, to try to bring the killer to justice. In the process, Jackie gets to know her grandfather, whom she neglected while he was alive.
The writing is strong and the story centers at least as much on Frank Sakai, Jackie’s grandfather, as on Jackie herself.
Despite her background, Jackie is oblivious to racism (including racism directed at Japanese-Americans) when the book opens, so I had some difficulty liking her and relating to her at first, but by the end of the book, she’s a lot more sensitive and aware. I appreciated that evolution.
Lanier is a warm, caring man haunted by the murder of his cousin when he (Lanier) was a young child. He too undergoes an arc but I don’t want to spoil it.
Frank is a stoic, reserved, and tender man who has suffered losses. I won’t say much about him since so much of what we learn reveals itself slowly, but we follow him from his teens to his funeral and his story broke my heart.
The mystery has a twist or two but the main attraction here is the character-building; there’s nuance to these people and the ways they stumble toward completion–whether in solving the mystery or reaching out to others–are both affecting and believable.
Los Angeles is almost another main character. The book has a strong sense of place and milieu and encompasses a panoramic view of Japanese-American and Black history in Southern California during the 20th century, ranging from Angeles Mesa’s days as grasslands and marshes (hard to believe now) to the internment camps (with a side trip to the battles in Italy when Frank joins the 442nd Infantry Regiment, the most decorated military unit in American history), to the Watts riots and to the wake of the Northridge Earthquake of 1994.
A few things bugged me and the most major of these was the novel’s treatment of depression. The other two were minor contrivances that also fall into the category of spoilers. There are one or two aspects of the book that I wish had come together with more strength at the end as well.
This is a very good book with excellent historical and setting detail. Recommended to the mystery lovers here with the caveat that while I wouldn’t call it bleak, there’s a lot of tragedy in the backstory.
This, my book club’s June selection, is an #ownvoices mystery but also so much more. The story takes place in what was then Angeles Mesa and is now Crenshaw, a neighborhood in LA. It’s set partly in 1994 and partly further in the past, from the 1930s to the 1980s.
One of the three main characters, Jackie Ishida, a Japanese-American law student, gets reluctantly drawn into investigating the murder of four black teenagers in the 1960s soon after her grandfather’s death, a murder that took place in her late grandfather’s old market store. She joins forces with James Lanier, a Black community center counselor who was then a small child, to try to bring the killer to justice. In the process, Jackie gets to know her grandfather, whom she neglected while he was alive.
The writing is strong and the story centers at least as much on Frank Sakai, Jackie’s grandfather, as on Jackie herself.
Despite her background, Jackie is oblivious to racism (including racism directed at Japanese-Americans) when the book opens, so I had some difficulty liking her and relating to her at first, but by the end of the book, she’s a lot more sensitive and aware. I appreciated that evolution.
Lanier is a warm, caring man haunted by the murder of his cousin when he (Lanier) was a young child. He too undergoes an arc but I don’t want to spoil it.
Frank is a stoic, reserved, and tender man who has suffered losses. I won’t say much about him since so much of what we learn reveals itself slowly, but we follow him from his teens to his funeral and his story broke my heart.
The mystery has a twist or two but the main attraction here is the character-building; there’s nuance to these people and the ways they stumble toward completion–whether in solving the mystery or reaching out to others–are both affecting and believable.
Los Angeles is almost another main character. The book has a strong sense of place and milieu and encompasses a panoramic view of Japanese-American and Black history in Southern California during the 20th century, ranging from Angeles Mesa’s days as grasslands and marshes (hard to believe now) to the internment camps (with a side trip to the battles in Italy when Frank joins the 442nd Infantry Regiment, the most decorated military unit in American history), to the Watts riots and to the wake of the Northridge Earthquake of 1994.
A few things bugged me and the most major of these was the novel’s treatment of depression. The other two were minor contrivances that also fall into the category of spoilers. There are one or two aspects of the book that I wish had come together with more strength at the end as well.
This is a very good book with excellent historical and setting detail. Recommended to the mystery lovers here with the caveat that while I wouldn’t call it bleak, there’s a lot of tragedy in the backstory.
June 4, 2018
3.5 stars.
Nina Revoyr's Southland (2008) is an ambitious novel concerning a twenty something, sheltered Japanese American law student who discovers that her recently deceased grandfather left a large amount of money in his will behind to a man she and her family have never heard about. From there, you tag along with Jackie as she reconnects with her grandfather's old friends in a neighborhood in Los Angeles, where her amiable, kindly grandfather owned a store for many years that served an area mainly populated by African Americans and Japanese Americans. In her research, Jackie discovers a terrible unsolved crime that occurred on the day of the Watts Rebellion in 1965 and deeply affected her grandfather (changing his life, really). In trying to do right by her grandfather and his friends, she has her eyes opened to the state of the wider world and her family's unexplored roots in a part of Los Angeles that was only a mile or so from where she grew up, yet might as well have been another planet from a cultural standpoint.
The story is tremendous and Revoyr convincingly brings this chapter of Los Angeles history to life. It leaps around in time, gives us a number of different voices who contribute to its telling, and has the good sense not to allow the story to be overtaken by a needless romance between the two main characters: Jackie and James Lanier, a cousin of the man (or boy, really) her grandfather left the money to in his will.
This is my second book by Revoyr (third if you count her most recent read Lost Canyon, which I ended up putting aside after a third of the way through). It had so much going on and featured so many voices and people to get to know that it was difficult to keep straight everyone the author mentions. I think the crowdedness of the novel also meant that it didn't have the emotional impact on me that Wingshooters (2011), her other novel, had on me. Wingshooters told a dinger of a story, but didn't pull you in so many directions. It was sad and tender and never let you out of its grip until the final page was turned.
Nina Revoyr's Southland (2008) is an ambitious novel concerning a twenty something, sheltered Japanese American law student who discovers that her recently deceased grandfather left a large amount of money in his will behind to a man she and her family have never heard about. From there, you tag along with Jackie as she reconnects with her grandfather's old friends in a neighborhood in Los Angeles, where her amiable, kindly grandfather owned a store for many years that served an area mainly populated by African Americans and Japanese Americans. In her research, Jackie discovers a terrible unsolved crime that occurred on the day of the Watts Rebellion in 1965 and deeply affected her grandfather (changing his life, really). In trying to do right by her grandfather and his friends, she has her eyes opened to the state of the wider world and her family's unexplored roots in a part of Los Angeles that was only a mile or so from where she grew up, yet might as well have been another planet from a cultural standpoint.
The story is tremendous and Revoyr convincingly brings this chapter of Los Angeles history to life. It leaps around in time, gives us a number of different voices who contribute to its telling, and has the good sense not to allow the story to be overtaken by a needless romance between the two main characters: Jackie and James Lanier, a cousin of the man (or boy, really) her grandfather left the money to in his will.
This is my second book by Revoyr (third if you count her most recent read Lost Canyon, which I ended up putting aside after a third of the way through). It had so much going on and featured so many voices and people to get to know that it was difficult to keep straight everyone the author mentions. I think the crowdedness of the novel also meant that it didn't have the emotional impact on me that Wingshooters (2011), her other novel, had on me. Wingshooters told a dinger of a story, but didn't pull you in so many directions. It was sad and tender and never let you out of its grip until the final page was turned.
December 30, 2022
"The past never stayed in the past."
I really liked all the different layers to this novel and the diverse characters, the story dragged a little bit at times but overall I enjoyed it.
I really liked all the different layers to this novel and the diverse characters, the story dragged a little bit at times but overall I enjoyed it.
October 1, 2021
This story was tragic from so many perspectives, and unputdownable, as family secrets and ugly truths and behaviours are revealed after two people begin investigating a murder of four teens that occurred during the Watts riots in 1962 in a black and Japanese American neighbourhood in L.A.
Author Nina Revoyr weaves in terrific historical details with the effects of war on soldiers, difficult family dynamics, racial tensions and police brutality to make a gripping story.
Author Nina Revoyr weaves in terrific historical details with the effects of war on soldiers, difficult family dynamics, racial tensions and police brutality to make a gripping story.
July 13, 2024
4.5/5
I'm not good for keeping up with TV shows. Sometimes the roles of women characters will be completely subsumed by the het romance spiel, and I'll be like, eh. Sometimes producers will think the only way to promote character development of women will be to throw in noncanonical rape scenes, (here's a hint: I'll be rereading the GoT books before the next one's out, not watching the TV show) and I'll be like, nah. Sometimes shows will do something really predictable and thus really boring, like killing off their only woman of color character, and I'll be like, fuck you. Sometimes they do it even if the character's heading the show, which I got to say, I rant about the evils of capitalism often enough, but if you hate women of color so much as to shoot your production in the socioeconomic foot, your issues are for once not of the green variety. In short, that narrows me down to a handful of shows that are further whittled down by being canceled or being a one shot or whatever else can happen to ruin my picky-as-fuck-yet-still-slightly-kitsch/trashy tastes in the AV range of media. How to Get Away with Murder's still going strong, but one, it's not currently airing, and two, don't have all your eggs in one basket.
All that previous stuff sums up to, why not make a TV series out of this? It's not the first time I've pitched an idea for such in a review, but chances are good the works I went for earlier were all artsy fartsy and/or much better suited to paper than the moving sort of media. Plus, public money and all, although the fact that things like the white people Ghost in the Shell keeps getting millions thrown at it when everyone knows it's going to turn out like AtlA and Exodus and white people Dragon Ball Z tells me it has less to do with the public and more to do with white fragility. With this one, you've got LA bouncing around through the decades, which means lots of excuses for a great scenic compilation of all kinds of timelines featuring lesbians and bisexuals (and they fucking said it too so take your biphobia and suck it. I'm not limiting that remark to the straights amongst you all, mind you) and Japanese people and black people and Japanese black people. No Japanese black lesbians, but that's what putting your own spin on the material is for. Also, it's a mystery! People like mysteries, right? I've never been able to get a hang of them, but like big casts and lots of narrative viewpoints and a focus on characters talking rather than characters thinking, they're things I can deal with if the story's worth going places.
Part of why I don't do the whole mainstream view is cause I think that a work that can be ruined by a spoiler wasn't worth engaging with to begin with, but out of respect who rely on this sort of thing, . Plus bits and pieces of not that great prose, but the fantastic thing about looking at facts that are usually whitewashed over is how little of the factors in you continuing to read. There were also the UCLA mentions, but that was as much of a thrill as downer, what with all these lawyer types getting a beginning salary of 71k+. Ah well. That's what libraries are for, especially the one that owns the copy of this work that I read. I don't know when I'll next have access to the place as a grad student, but I've got time.
I'm not good for keeping up with TV shows. Sometimes the roles of women characters will be completely subsumed by the het romance spiel, and I'll be like, eh. Sometimes producers will think the only way to promote character development of women will be to throw in noncanonical rape scenes, (here's a hint: I'll be rereading the GoT books before the next one's out, not watching the TV show) and I'll be like, nah. Sometimes shows will do something really predictable and thus really boring, like killing off their only woman of color character, and I'll be like, fuck you. Sometimes they do it even if the character's heading the show, which I got to say, I rant about the evils of capitalism often enough, but if you hate women of color so much as to shoot your production in the socioeconomic foot, your issues are for once not of the green variety. In short, that narrows me down to a handful of shows that are further whittled down by being canceled or being a one shot or whatever else can happen to ruin my picky-as-fuck-yet-still-slightly-kitsch/trashy tastes in the AV range of media. How to Get Away with Murder's still going strong, but one, it's not currently airing, and two, don't have all your eggs in one basket.
All that previous stuff sums up to, why not make a TV series out of this? It's not the first time I've pitched an idea for such in a review, but chances are good the works I went for earlier were all artsy fartsy and/or much better suited to paper than the moving sort of media. Plus, public money and all, although the fact that things like the white people Ghost in the Shell keeps getting millions thrown at it when everyone knows it's going to turn out like AtlA and Exodus and white people Dragon Ball Z tells me it has less to do with the public and more to do with white fragility. With this one, you've got LA bouncing around through the decades, which means lots of excuses for a great scenic compilation of all kinds of timelines featuring lesbians and bisexuals (and they fucking said it too so take your biphobia and suck it. I'm not limiting that remark to the straights amongst you all, mind you) and Japanese people and black people and Japanese black people. No Japanese black lesbians, but that's what putting your own spin on the material is for. Also, it's a mystery! People like mysteries, right? I've never been able to get a hang of them, but like big casts and lots of narrative viewpoints and a focus on characters talking rather than characters thinking, they're things I can deal with if the story's worth going places.
Part of why I don't do the whole mainstream view is cause I think that a work that can be ruined by a spoiler wasn't worth engaging with to begin with, but out of respect who rely on this sort of thing, . Plus bits and pieces of not that great prose, but the fantastic thing about looking at facts that are usually whitewashed over is how little of the factors in you continuing to read. There were also the UCLA mentions, but that was as much of a thrill as downer, what with all these lawyer types getting a beginning salary of 71k+. Ah well. That's what libraries are for, especially the one that owns the copy of this work that I read. I don't know when I'll next have access to the place as a grad student, but I've got time.
October 29, 2017
When Jackie Ishida's grandfather dies, her aunt finds in his closet a box of cash from the sale of his old store, along with an old will leaving the money to someone they've never heard of. Jackie agrees to help find this guy, only to find out he died. Was murdered, in fact, along with three other boys, in her grandfather's store during the Watts riots in 1965. As she and James Lanier, a cousin of the boy, look into the murders, Jackie learns more than she expected to about her grandfather.[return][return]I really loved this book a lot. It's set in LA, but not the Hollywood LA that you usually see in books and movies (it's so rare to see a portrayal of the LA I know and love). The main character is a lesbian, but it's not The Plot, just a fact about her (what? You mean there can be stories about gay people that aren't about being gay???). She's also Japanese-American, but this isn't a story about internment camps (they are mentioned, during some flashbacks in her grandfather's POV, but it's not the point of the story, and boy is that rare). [return][return]It's also a really neat story. My one complaint is that it's really tell-y. Like, it could have been cut down by at least a third if the author had just trusted the readers instead of having so much internal exposition about what people were thinking and feeling every step of the way.
September 26, 2024
Beautiful, complex, thoughtful, and real. Made me cry at multiple points.
July 23, 2014
Several months back the World's Smallest Reading Group gained a third member who renamed it the Tiny Book Club. Because all three of us have come to California fairly recently, ie since the 1990s, we decided to read some fiction set in our adopted state. Southland was the perfect novel to begin our new project.
The story ranges from mid WWII, when Frank Sakai was sent with his family to the Japanese internment camp of Manzanar at the age of 15, up to 1994, the year Frank died. We learn Frank's story through the eyes of his granddaughter Jackie Ishida, a third year law school student, who is helping her aunt carry out Frank's will. In the course of learning about this man who was beloved to her, Jackie finds herself and grows from an emotionally frozen young woman into someone capable of opening up to others and to love.
This is not a mushy love story though. It is well done historical fiction and I learned about the origins of the Crenshaw district of Los Angeles where Frank grew up and lived for all of his life. The area is now pretty much a ghetto. Originally a rural area where inhabitants grew wheat and barley and hunted rabbits and squirrels, it was called Angeles Mesa. Those inhabitants were Blacks from the southern states and Japanese immigrants, living side by side in relative harmony. News to me!
Then came World War II, the camps for the Japanese, the postwar industrial and economic growth of Los Angeles, the Watts riots in the 1960s, and the destruction, fires, and racial tensions that were called the Rodney King riots in the early 1990s. Those second riots occurred within a year of my relocation to LA.
Through all these changes, Frank lived in the Crenshaw district, worked, owned a corner store, and had hardly an enemy. He also loved, made the mistakes of a young man, and paid dearly for them. As Jackie penetrates some of the mysteries of Frank's life and of her own heritage, she gets drawn into solving a murder that took place in Frank's store during the Watts riots.
It is a great read and though the author juggles several story lines and time periods, not to mention the racial and cultural tensions of those times, it never felt like she had overloaded the story. In fact, the story of Los Angeles is a loaded one, far more complex than its Tinsel Town image, and therefore far more interesting.
The story ranges from mid WWII, when Frank Sakai was sent with his family to the Japanese internment camp of Manzanar at the age of 15, up to 1994, the year Frank died. We learn Frank's story through the eyes of his granddaughter Jackie Ishida, a third year law school student, who is helping her aunt carry out Frank's will. In the course of learning about this man who was beloved to her, Jackie finds herself and grows from an emotionally frozen young woman into someone capable of opening up to others and to love.
This is not a mushy love story though. It is well done historical fiction and I learned about the origins of the Crenshaw district of Los Angeles where Frank grew up and lived for all of his life. The area is now pretty much a ghetto. Originally a rural area where inhabitants grew wheat and barley and hunted rabbits and squirrels, it was called Angeles Mesa. Those inhabitants were Blacks from the southern states and Japanese immigrants, living side by side in relative harmony. News to me!
Then came World War II, the camps for the Japanese, the postwar industrial and economic growth of Los Angeles, the Watts riots in the 1960s, and the destruction, fires, and racial tensions that were called the Rodney King riots in the early 1990s. Those second riots occurred within a year of my relocation to LA.
Through all these changes, Frank lived in the Crenshaw district, worked, owned a corner store, and had hardly an enemy. He also loved, made the mistakes of a young man, and paid dearly for them. As Jackie penetrates some of the mysteries of Frank's life and of her own heritage, she gets drawn into solving a murder that took place in Frank's store during the Watts riots.
It is a great read and though the author juggles several story lines and time periods, not to mention the racial and cultural tensions of those times, it never felt like she had overloaded the story. In fact, the story of Los Angeles is a loaded one, far more complex than its Tinsel Town image, and therefore far more interesting.
July 16, 2012
This book was very enjoyable, kind of uneven, and very, very sad. The way LA was written rang true to me, as did the disjointed way that Jackie tries to square her family's roots in the Crenshaw district, from which she has been immunized, with her privileged experience of the city. For me, Jackie's present-day point of view felt the weakest, in an MFA workshop kind of way. As in, it was hard to get lost in the prose and forget that I was reading someone's writing. Thinking about it more, the self-conscious stiffness of the writing also reflects Jackie's self-conscious stiffness and lack of understanding of her own life/identity, so in that sense it worked and didn't actually hinder the enjoyment of the book.
I loved the characters. I loved the city. Though not a new thought, I loved the scene where Jackie's grandfather Frank is a teenager and joyrides to the segregated beach with his friends and is momentarily confused by the "White" and "Colored" signs dividing the beach. I remember being so confused learning about the two races -- black and white -- in elementary school. What does an Asian-American do in a culture that often doesn't even acknowledge your existence? Then I loved the way Frank chose his side and went all in.
I loved the characters. I loved the city. Though not a new thought, I loved the scene where Jackie's grandfather Frank is a teenager and joyrides to the segregated beach with his friends and is momentarily confused by the "White" and "Colored" signs dividing the beach. I remember being so confused learning about the two races -- black and white -- in elementary school. What does an Asian-American do in a culture that often doesn't even acknowledge your existence? Then I loved the way Frank chose his side and went all in.
July 6, 2015
An huge measure of LA history is stuffed into this wonderful tale. The melting pot that was Los Angeles before World War II and during the Civil Rights era is rediscovered by the contemporary descendents of the early Black and Japanese inhabitants, and the reader is taken along for the ride. I especially enjoyed the book, having grown up in the Southland and my parents being the same age as the older characters at the center of the mystery. In addition to mystery, I loved the descriptions of the city and her people.
June 13, 2023
Here is a book that does justice to the racial congeries that is Los Angeles. Nina Revoyr's Southland tells of a brutal murder that took place during the Watts Riots of 1965 in which four young black boys were locked in the freezer of a grocery store and froze to death. The owner of the store, Frank Sakai, was not in the store at the time, but is deeply moved by the event. It is his granddaughter Jackie who is puzzled by Sakai's will when he dies in 1994. He has left the store to one of the boys who died. Since the store had been sold after the riots, the $38,000 he received for it is in a metal box.
Jackie joins with James Lanier, a young black man who was related to one of the murder victims in finding witnesses to the 30-year-old crime, which they suspect was committed by a racist LAPD officer.
The story moves back and forth between 1939 and 1994, during which time it visits the Japanese internment camp at Manzanar, the Italian battlefield of the 442nd army regiment consisting of Japanese-Americans, the Watts Riots, the Northridge Earthquake, and the Rodney King riots of 1992. In the process, Southland gives a brutally honest picture of race relations during that period -- and ven today, by implication.
I think the book will be thought of as a classic, if it is not already one.
Jackie joins with James Lanier, a young black man who was related to one of the murder victims in finding witnesses to the 30-year-old crime, which they suspect was committed by a racist LAPD officer.
The story moves back and forth between 1939 and 1994, during which time it visits the Japanese internment camp at Manzanar, the Italian battlefield of the 442nd army regiment consisting of Japanese-Americans, the Watts Riots, the Northridge Earthquake, and the Rodney King riots of 1992. In the process, Southland gives a brutally honest picture of race relations during that period -- and ven today, by implication.
I think the book will be thought of as a classic, if it is not already one.
April 4, 2020
This book was a slow burn that told the stories behind the stories, and the stories behind those stories. It’s a true Los Angeles novel, my home town, heartbreaking and real, every character given the depth of real people.
March 9, 2021
A classic of LA crime fiction with a wonderful sense of place and great historical context about the lives of Black and Japanese-American characters in the 1940s, 1960s and mid 1990s, particularly the racism of the earlier eras. Not a perfect novel, but the book deserves its reputation.
August 22, 2019
Southland depicts a side of Los Angeles that most people don’t know about. The book jumps in time and point of view to give the reader a true sense of place and atmosphere. Jackie, a third year Japanese American law student, looks into her dead grandfather’s past as a shop owner in the Crenshaw area of LA and why he closed the store after the watts riots. We see his point of view before and after the Japanese internment, his bravery in the 442nd and working in a store that serves the community. Lastly, Jimmy’s search into his cousins murder at that store has haunted him as he and Jackie dig into the past. Truly atmospheric makes this such a satisfying read.
ETA: September 2019 staff pick
ETA: September 2019 staff pick
November 3, 2015
*sigh*
I had pretty much forgotten about this book until walking through the public library today and spotting it out of the corner of my eye. I had to read it for some gen ed or something in college. I remember it being awfully convoluted and depressing, but as I flipped through it today and re-read a scene near the end, it came back to me. THIS IS THE BOOK WHERE PEOPLE DIE IN A RESTAURANT FREEZER. Being someone who works in a restaurant and occasionally has to pop into a freezer for one reason or another, this book had a special effect on me. Every time--and I do not exaggerate when I say EVERY TIME--I step into a walk-in freezer, I prop open the door and in the back of my mind, I devise a survival plan should the door swing shut behind me. Of course, all of our freezers have a button you can push to open it from the inside, but in the unlikely event that something should go terribly wrong, I always have a plan. And these infrequent bouts of neurosis were brought on specifically by this book.
That being said, I think it's an interesting look at a particular location in California during the social upheaval of the 1960s.
I had pretty much forgotten about this book until walking through the public library today and spotting it out of the corner of my eye. I had to read it for some gen ed or something in college. I remember it being awfully convoluted and depressing, but as I flipped through it today and re-read a scene near the end, it came back to me. THIS IS THE BOOK WHERE PEOPLE DIE IN A RESTAURANT FREEZER. Being someone who works in a restaurant and occasionally has to pop into a freezer for one reason or another, this book had a special effect on me. Every time--and I do not exaggerate when I say EVERY TIME--I step into a walk-in freezer, I prop open the door and in the back of my mind, I devise a survival plan should the door swing shut behind me. Of course, all of our freezers have a button you can push to open it from the inside, but in the unlikely event that something should go terribly wrong, I always have a plan. And these infrequent bouts of neurosis were brought on specifically by this book.
That being said, I think it's an interesting look at a particular location in California during the social upheaval of the 1960s.
May 28, 2012
I appreciate what the author is trying to do with this book--which is to bring to our attention the long and storied history between Japanese Americans and African Americans in early 20th century LA. It's a history that is relevant and should be told. That said, I found her writing sometimes difficult to digest. Character development felt a little too simplified, and I had trouble believing some of the thought processes of these characters. This book is more of a 3.5, but I didn't feel it warranted 4 stars. Worth reading if you are interested in delving into L.A. early/mid-twentieth century history, race, and queer relations.
December 8, 2007
A very engrossing mystery about a Japanese American woman trying to unearth the death of an African American boy. She learns family secrets in the process. Themes include race, class, sexuality. Some emotionally challenging moments - I cried while reading the passage about her family's experience in the internment camps.
A really interesting way to learn about the history of South Los Angeles! After reading this book, I realized that I do enjoy mysteries, but need good recommendations for more books like this.
A really interesting way to learn about the history of South Los Angeles! After reading this book, I realized that I do enjoy mysteries, but need good recommendations for more books like this.
February 17, 2020
Great book. One of those multi-generational, multiracial, told-from-the-viewpoint-of-different-people-in-the-story books. I can't believe I had not heard of this book before. Published in 2003, set mainly in black and Japanese Los Angeles from before the war until the 1990s. A very sophisticated whodunnit. I'm going to check out some other books by Nina Revoyr. Awesome writer.
June 20, 2020
I thought it was interesting, especially at this time, with all of the unrest surrounding the treatment of blacks by law enforcement.
For Angelenos, it's interesting to read about the migration of the Asian population, as well. As for the mystery of who killed the boys- I never would have guessed, which is a good thing!
For Angelenos, it's interesting to read about the migration of the Asian population, as well. As for the mystery of who killed the boys- I never would have guessed, which is a good thing!
June 29, 2019
SPEECHLESS. this book had its flaws but it moved me way too profoundly for me to give it anything less than 5 stars. the world nina revoyr built for this novel is complex and rich and real and gorgeous and painful and I’m DEAD
March 11, 2021
Couldn't put it down at the end.
March 12, 2021
Great book. A Los Angeles story spanning several generations covering events like the Japanese internment and the Watts riots. A remarkable novel.
August 5, 2021
This book is amazingly crafted. The story structure is complex and intriguing and it's just like level 10 intense. A real slow burner with terrible surprises around every corner.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 244 reviews