You'll Like it Here

by Ashton Politanoff

You'll Like it Here is a haunting bricolage, divided into three parts, that excavates the forgotten history of Redondo Beach in the early 1900's through old news clippings, advertisements, recipes and other ephemera that speak to the ills of male stoicism, industrialization and capitalism, and environmental displacement. Ashton used digital archives from the Redondo Reflex and other city adjacent newspapers as the basis for his surrealist account, masterfully tracing this larger shift away from coastal maritime repose in the wake of the Spanish Flu, the Great Depression, and World War II through momentary fragments that feel as real and palpable as they do transient, mythological, and strangely reminiscent of our current times.

Formally, You'll Like it Here works in conversation with Michael Ondaatje's The Collected Works of Billy the Kid, Maggie Nelson's Bluets, Amina Cain's Indelicacy, and Kathryn Scanlan's Aug 9 Fog. The novel also embraces a multi-register, journalistic storytelling that questions the tenuous line between objectivity and subjectivity in documenting the unreliability of history--both personal and collective--brilliantly balancing voids of loss, absence, and disappearance with moments of natural transcendence and miraculous phenomena.

Genres: Fiction

219 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 30, 2022

About the author

Ashton Politanoff is a frequent contributor to NOON, edited by Diane Williams. His writing has also appeared or is forthcoming in McSweeney’s, Southwest Review, Conjunctions, New York Tyrant, Egress, and elsewhere. He is a former division I tennis player and his childhood coach was Robert Lansdorp, who is credited with coaching Pete Sampras, Tracy Austin, and Maria Sharapova. His novel Dad Had a Bad Day is forthcoming Spring/Summer 2026 from Astra House (US) and Daunt Books (UK). Politanoff’s first novel, You’ll Like It Here, was published by Dalkey Archive in 2022. He is an English Professor at Cypress College.

Reviews

[Alix · Rating 5 out of 5]

You’ll Like It Here consists of reworked news clippings/stories set in Redondo Beach from 1900-1919. I found the collection to be charming and funny, with several of the stories making me laugh out loud. But there is also an undercurrent of darkness. It was interesting reading about the Spanish Influenza in light of the pandemic we are living through now. Despite the feelings of nostalgia I had, it was clear this was not an easy time period to live in. Overall, I really enjoyed this charming collection of stories that painted this picture of a beach community in the 1900s. I think I would like it there.

[🐴 🍖]

for being a single afternoon's read comprised of recycled newspaper clippings, there's a lot to chaw on here! formatting all of the "stories" the same way regardless of source/topic has an eerie flattening effect that renders everything from an argument over cigarettes to amputation by streetcar to sea monsters equally plausible, equally consequential... gets you thinking about how today's media, esp the internet, might similarly distort & the repercussions thereof. bracing & healthful like black pepper on a dog bite

[Seth Austin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I spent a week in Redondo awhile back. Ninth grade, bus tour, a track-and-field team I felt ambivalent toward but hey, who doesn't a road trip? Let's calibrate this reference frame a little further. I don't remember much... a lot of comparisons really. Skies: hazier. Sand: finer. Ocean smell: drier, somehow? But that was my narrow scope of exposure... loose impressions stamped into some hippocampal corner of my mind collecting dust. Haven't been back since.

Take this is an oblique way of suggesting it's a damn good thing I'm not the one writing this novel, isn't it? It's not exactly radical to suggest that time is a critical constituent in capturing a true picture of what a place is. So who better to thumb the shutter of this historical Rolodex than someone who's lived there his entire life?

Now, writers of personal, place-based narratives have to navigate a minefield of cliches. Narrow aperture, rosy hues, heavy editing in post (these photography metaphors doin' anything for you?). Politanoff circumvents all the bellwethers of the "I've-been-here-before" historical retrospective by sidelining the memoir element of it, and instead taking a more "novel" approach (adjective and noun both apply here).

The form is scaffolded upon the digitised archives of the Redondo Reflex, dating back to the first two decades of the 20th Century. Combing through thousands of newsprint clippings, Politanoff carefully curates a 200-page selection of clippings that vividly illustrate the ebbs and flows of socioeconomic progress. I use the word novel in its noun form here, because he takes creativity liberties in not only in the rearranging of the chronology to build a narrative across the city, but also in supporting a particularly set of ideas and themes. Vicious recollections of historical inflections, retouched with a novelist's penchant for narrative cohesion. The end result: the American Terminus preserved beneath an overturned glass, with all the pathos, humanism, and mythology retained.

This piece is a singular, unique experience, packaged up with an assurance that I suspect is mitred together with an equal measure of caution as it is sincerity:

You'll like it here.

I don't normally attribute star ratings to my logged reads but I want to bolster this novelist's profile in whatever way I can.

[Joseph Schreiber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Billed as a novel, I'm not sure if that is the best way to describe this fragmentary portrait of Redondo Beach during the early 20th century through fictionalized news briefs and assorted anecdotes. However as the end approaches, clocking in with the end of the First World war and the Spanish Flu a strong tie to the present carries across the century that has passed. It is an extraordinarily original way to explore the author's home town's history through archival reports and images with an honesty often lost in more conventional histories.

Longer review can be found here: https://roughghosts.com/2022/10/30/to...

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the concept of newspaper story snippets from 100+ years ago being compiled into one book, but was disappointed after finishing the book and finding out the stories were edited. Something about that names were changed - fine, understandable - but some of the stories were edited slightly to basically be made more interesting or fictitious. Why bother publishing those snippets under the guise of non-fiction at all if they’re really not? Anyway, overall a decent but repetitive concept.

[Jesse · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ashton Politanoff’s You’ll Like It Here (2022) makes for perfect light reading. Comprised of newspaper excerpts, recipes, and advertisements from the early twentieth century, each of its brief 224 pages contains a self-contained “story,” for lack of a better word, about life in Redondo Beach, California, from which its borrowings originate. As Politanoff—a lifelong native of Redondo Beach—states in his introduction, the majority of the stories in You’ll Like It Here are derived from the archives of the local newspapers El Segundo Herald, San Pedro Pilot, and Torrance Herald (5). In a somewhat-hidden disclaimer in his acknowledgments, though, he admits that “names have been changed, dramatic structure has been favored over historical accuracy, and facts have been expanded, all with the aim toward fiction and [his] own poetic and aesthetic concerns” (222). However, Politanoff’s influence over the stories isn’t particularly apparent. If he had claimed that none of the stories were edited or revised, I’d be inclined to believe him; truth is stranger than fiction, after all.

Mostly one or two paragraphs long, with many being as short as a single sentence, You’ll Like It Here’s stories are snappy, witty, a little whimsical at times, and always entertaining. Occasionally, a sepulchral piece also squeezes its way into the arrangement to remind us that although we’re having a blast reliving the quirky lives of these strangers who, although long gone, strongly resemble ourselves, the residents of Redondo Beach were real people. While their lives could be delightful and full of serendipity, they also suffered. Take, for instance, the juxtaposition of “Paul Said Damn” (verso) and “Lost” (recto) early in the book. One is a clever, ironic story of a man caught cooking stolen seafood; the other is an alert for a “weak and feeble-minded” 80-year-old man who has recently gone missing (40–41). While they could both be quoted in full without much of a digression—as I said, these stories are very brief—I’ll save their spark for when you read them for yourself, reader. If read back-to-back, they could quite literally make you laugh and cry within the span of 30 seconds.

Interspersed throughout the text are a handful of photographs from the period, each almost worthy of mentioning in its own right. (I imagine it took Politanoff many hours of searching the local archives to find such apt and moving photos.) Consider the first photograph of Section I, for example — a somber, straight-spined boy stands center-frame on the beach as a group of four men and women are caught in motion behind him. Although they’re in the ocean, the men and women are fully clothed. Hats, vests, full-length dresses, and all. The boy, however, wears capris and a tank-top. He is certainly here to enjoy the beach, but his guardians (if that’s who they are) appear to have broken into a spontaneous chase through the water. Compared to the boy’s expression, the adults’ glee makes for a heavily ironic and whimsical photo, and fits perfectly into this book. This is life.

In summation, You’ll Like It Here is well worth the hour or so it will take you to read it (plus any subsequent hours in which you return to it over the years). Politanoff’s talent for curation and revision is exceptional. Redondo Beach is lucky to have received such an impassioned love letter.

Many thanks to Dalkey Archive Press for my advanced review copy of the book.

[Benjamin Niespodziany · Rating 5 out of 5]

You’ll Like it Here is one of the most original and absurd and entertaining books I've ever read. Pulling from newspaper clippings of Redondo Beach in the early 1900s, author Ashton Politanoff (a Redondo Beach resident himself) has assembled a fever dream compendium from 100 years ago. War, murder, thievery, and even the Spanish flu: it all resonates with today while still feeling like a trip back in time. Like stumbling into an antique shop and finding a stack of postcards addressed to you.

Made up of snapshot vignettes toeing the line between microfiction, prose poetry, and hallucinatory news articles, this book is a masterclass in precision and concision.

You can read our interview about the book here: https://www.neonpajamas.com/blog/asht...

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

You’ll Like It Here is difficult to classify in terms of genre but I found it hugely compelling. Politanoff combed through archives of South Bay newspapers and first-person accounts of life in and around Redondo Beach approximately 100 years ago and culled the most arresting news items. He then repurposed these texts to create a series of short, epigrammatic stories that read like prose poems. Life in the South Bay circa 1900-1920 was very different obviously, but the many references to the influenza outbreak create an eerie echo to our own times. I was struck by the number of shark attacks, accidents with firearms, and suicides. Back then the red car went all the way to the beach cities and it was possible for a distraught Angeleno to take a car to the end of the line—literally.

[Dr. Bower · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really don’t get why it’s called a novel, but I loved it.

Although it is written with much creative license, it reminds me that news used to be written for the people of a particular area. Local news, as Neil Postman states in Amusing Ourselves to Death, is dying, only to be replaced with a bombardment of big-picture, national or world news. When the news is replete with large, unsolvable issues, people tend to throw up their hands, or worse, form staunch opinions based on surface-level knowledge with no willingness or ability for action. Local news provides a tangible reality that can spur people to local action.

It’s also a charming look at turn-of-the-century life through the ideas and events that were deemed noteworthy.

But mostly makes me think of poison news.

[John Riselvato · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was a "novel" and at first didn't like the concept of snippets but it grew on me. It felt like I was transported to a different time period and I stuck with it. I know the time period was between 1900 and 1919 but it felt more modern, I guess we can all relate to these moments. I like the writing style; which I guess was from Ashton and the actual snippets are inspired from news postings. Strange book. I don't know where to place it other than it's a nice experiment and experience.

[Tom Long · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unusual and interesting, if spare. It reminded me a little bit of "Wisconsin Death Trip," although of course much more compact and with different objectives and techniques. I'm giving it four stars for the inventiveness and because it was never dull. Maybe a little generous, but it's Christmastime.

[Linda Stack-Nelson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Charming and unusual. I was delighted.

[Olivia Nazari · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Maggie Keenan · Rating 4 out of 5]

charming and introspective

[Marcella · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a strange and lovely little book; news is not written like this any more.

[Ben Ringel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Old newspaper clippings from redondo beach 1911-1918😁 funny and interesting

[Lou · Rating 3 out of 5]

An entertaining, evocative portrait of Redondo Beach circa 1900-1918 or abouts. The reworked local news articles of the time were frequently hilarious but also rather morbidly inclined. The contemporary parallels with the Spanish Influenza and our own times can't be avoided, but overall You'll Like It Here was fun in a time capsule kind of way.

[Daniel Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

"You'll Like It Here" is a fascinating portrait of Redondo Beach from about 100 years ago told through edited clippings drawn from local newspapers. Each page is a self-contained story, but after enough of them, you will begin to discern the concerns and habits of Redondo Beachians, as well as what used to count as newsworthy. Overall, a lovely read.